# "Ghost Rings' - do they work?



## Raghavan (Aug 14, 2005)

I've seen people stick a cog called a 'ghost ring' to make their chain tensioned and i'd like to do that too. I refuse to use a tensioner because they look dumb IMO.
Will it work though? Can i just stick my chainring in or one of the bigger cogs from the cassette?


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## pacman (Jan 16, 2004)

*yes but*



Raghavan said:


> I've seen people stick a cog called a 'ghost ring' to make their chain tensioned and i'd like to do that too. I refuse to use a tensioner because they look dumb IMO.
> Will it work though? Can i just stick my chainring in or one of the bigger cogs from the cassette?


It works until it shakes out when you go over rough terrain.


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## Raghavan (Aug 14, 2005)

Damn, so i can't do bunnyhops with it?
Maybe i'll just go buy a few more cogs.
Having vertical dropouts on an SS bike is a pain in the ass.


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## Sevadari (Feb 16, 2006)

Raghavan said:


> Damn, so i can't do bunnyhops with it?
> Maybe i'll just go buy a few more cogs.
> Having vertical dropouts on an SS bike is a pain in the ass.


Agreed!!!

But, I have to say...you think a chain tensioner looks like crap...IMHO sticking an extra cog in there looks way worse!

Good luck with whatever you do!


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## Blowout (Dec 31, 2003)

*C'mon, how can you say this looks bad...*









I think the main reason so few people use ghost rings is that for proper tension on a short wheelbase mountain bike it is almost impossible to get a ring in the right place. You usually wind up wanting to put a ring right where the chainstay is. In my chopper above, I had plenty of room since the chain did not go around the chainstay, and I needed the ghost ring since I could not take up any more tension in the dropouts (the frame is uneven, on the other side, the axel is at the back of the drop out). That and it is really hard to tension a chain when it consists of two full length PC-1 chains.


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## MDEnvEngr (Mar 11, 2004)

Ghost ring works great as long as you have the chainstay clearance to pull it off. Doesn't rattle out in my experience. Looks interesting. Get the ring as close to the cog as possible...less bouncing around.

B


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## minor swing (Nov 15, 2005)

*OOooh I likey that Bikey*



MDEnvEngr said:


> Ghost ring works great as long as you have the chainstay clearance to pull it off. Doesn't rattle out in my experience. Looks interesting. Get the ring as close to the cog as possible...less bouncing around.


While it may work just fine I still don't see what the big deal with tensioners is... If you don't like them fine but they work great. Are you that concerned with how you look?

sorry a little frustrated at work today


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## Raghavan (Aug 14, 2005)

yes, i don't like the way they look, and my nashbar tensioner was designed to use 3/32" chains, but i got a 1/8" SS specific chain, and so there are some clearance issues as well. Also, when i'm mashing up a hill, it tends to freeze and then the whole drivetrain stops and it throws me forward. I hate that.

Anywho, thanks for the replies. I took apart my cassette and got the 2nd biggest cog out and put it on my bike as close to the cog as it'd go. Looks awesome, and it won't fall off. It occasionally rubs against the chainstay, but i'll put some duct tape there and i'll be good to go.


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## Sevadari (Feb 16, 2006)

Raghavan said:


> yes, i don't like the way they look, and my nashbar tensioner was designed to use 3/32" chains, but i got a 1/8" SS specific chain, and so there are some clearance issues as well. Also, when i'm mashing up a hill, it tends to freeze and then the whole drivetrain stops and it throws me forward. I hate that.
> 
> Anywho, thanks for the replies. I took apart my cassette and got the 2nd biggest cog out and put it on my bike as close to the cog as it'd go. Looks awesome, and it won't fall off. It occasionally rubs against the chainstay, but i'll put some duct tape there and i'll be good to go.


Pics por favor?

_We'd_ like to be the judges of whether it looks awesome  ! Glad it worked out for ya. :thumbsup:


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## Stuart B (Mar 21, 2005)

I think the ghost ring looks loads better than a tensioner if it can be made to work.

I am guessing that if a SS specicific ring is used with the full size teeth it will work better to, the longer teeth should make it harder to pop out.

Stu


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## datako (Aug 27, 2004)

Just another bit causing friction and detracting from the simplicity of a real SS drivetrain. Can't you find a magic ratio with a half-link?

Looks interesting though


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## Raghavan (Aug 14, 2005)

datako said:


> Just another bit causing friction and detracting from the simplicity of a real SS drivetrain. Can't you find a magic ratio with a half-link?
> 
> Looks interesting though


It's not really any worse than using a real tensioner.
I had the magic ratio with the halflink (32:15), but thats when the chain was new. Now that it has stretched a bit, it is loose and can fall off. However, it's still too small to use my 16 tooth cog on, so unless the chain stretches even more, i'm going to have to use this cog.

I don't think it looks as nice as a bike with no tensioners or anything, but it looks much nicer than the tensioner IMO.


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## Raghavan (Aug 14, 2005)

Sevadari said:


> Pics por favor?
> 
> _We'd_ like to be the judges of whether it looks awesome  ! Glad it worked out for ya. :thumbsup:


I'm at school right now, but i'll post a pic after i get home.:thumbsup:


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## Raghavan (Aug 14, 2005)

Sevadari said:


> Pics por favor?
> 
> _We'd_ like to be the judges of whether it looks awesome  ! Glad it worked out for ya. :thumbsup:


Here ya go:

































As you can see, chainstay clearance is nil, which is why there's duct tape on it.
I wish i could get a wider cog though. This seems a bit shakey. I went biking around Stanford today, did some stair gaps, and the ghost ring was fine, but while just crusing down the street, it fell off 3 times. Of course, this was about a 15 mile ride, so it isn't too bad.
I just hope it doesn't get lost on the trails or something.


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## 32seventeen (Jan 15, 2004)

I see two problems with your set up. Your front chainring and your ghost ring is designed to shift. If you replace both with non-ramped rings you should have better results.


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## Bicyclelist (Sep 5, 2006)

they work for a while


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## Pudgerboy (Nov 17, 2006)

In the short time I've had my SS setup i tried two types of tensioner and tend to think that they are not much better than having the derailer hanging down. But it's a necessary addition to my vertical drop and my decidedly unmagic-gear. They still make too much noise and are a step away from the ethic of simplicity that drew me to SS. 

That said, im not too convinced about the ghost ring, despite seeming a valid solution in some ways, im not sure i'd like something that i couldn't bolt down. Losing something 3 three times on a ride would be three times too many for me. Not to mention it looks a bit odd. But if i've learned anything over these last six months, it's that there's about a hundred different ways of doing anything depending on what bike you ride, and where!


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## mrbray101 (Sep 6, 2006)

Blowout said:


> I think the main reason so few people use ghost rings is that for proper tension on a short wheelbase mountain bike it is almost impossible to get a ring in the right place. You usually wind up wanting to put a ring right where the chainstay is. In my chopper above, I had plenty of room since the chain did not go around the chainstay, and I needed the ghost ring since I could not take up any more tension in the dropouts (the frame is uneven, on the other side, the axel is at the back of the drop out). That and it is really hard to tension a chain when it consists of two full length PC-1 chains.


Blowout...do you have a pic of the whole bike, looks interesting.


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## Black_Dog_Bikes (Oct 25, 2006)

I agree, You'll have better luck with a singlespeed cog. I have played with these on my bike and usesd a cog from a cassette once and it came out after only about a 1/4mile of riding. The singlespeed cog with taller teeth stayed in though as long as I kept ample tension on the chain.


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## adamantane (Jan 27, 2005)

MDEnvEngr said:


> Ghost ring works great as long as you have the chainstay clearance to pull it off. Doesn't rattle out in my experience. Looks interesting. Get the ring as close to the cog as possible...less bouncing around.
> 
> B


wow, i've never seen ghost rings before...that is really clever and looks wicked cool, are you kidding me (to dude above)


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## BostonStreetRider (Sep 21, 2007)

Thanks to you guys' info, I'm going to try a ghost ring on my newly converted SS bike until my LBS gets my backordered chain tensioner. I think there's something really cool and sort of... mysterious about it. A floating ring. Weird. But cool.


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## Schmucker (Aug 23, 2007)

Yeah, maybe use a chainring... and bolt a bash guard to one or both sides...  That should hold it onto the chain!


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## BostonStreetRider (Sep 21, 2007)

Threw on the GHOST RING, it worked a treat. There was quite a bit of friction introduced into the drivetrain though, so I'm not going to stick with it after the chain tensioner comes (which I know will also make friction, but hopefully less).


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## smonroe100 (Mar 23, 2007)

*Curious*

This setup intrigues me, I think I may try it to see if it will work on my SS. It just seems like there are alot of things that could go wrong when things are not bolted on. But all I know is that I will most likely try it.


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## PepperJester (Jan 2, 2003)

I ran that set up for about 3 years on my old ss. works flawless. did not rattle, would not drop. I did a fair big of jumping with the bike also. It never let me down. Only thing to watch out with is your normal ss stuff like keeping the chain line stright.

ohh and watch out for sticks getting stuck in the rear wheel. That was the only time (other then a broken chain) that it ever dropped on me.


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## LFASS (Sep 23, 2007)

Eno hub.


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## nuck_chorris (Jun 6, 2008)

i am going to revive this thread because this is a very neat way to keep your chain tensioned. 

I have use 2 tension devices and i am still not satisfied by the way they work(mainly that the sette tensioner sucks something fierce) . 

i just "installed" a 30 tooth ring , lets hope it doesn't fail. btw i love how the mentioning of the Eno hub killed this thread


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## Stevob (Feb 27, 2009)

eno hub ftw...I just wish I had one with disc mounts


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## nuck_chorris (Jun 6, 2008)

Stevob said:


> eno hub ftw...I just wish I had one with disc mounts


i would prefer the flipflop to run diff gear ratios but i don't got any monies


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## PepperJester (Jan 2, 2003)

I ran my old bike with this set up for years. It was flawless. Be sure your chain line is good or you will be tossing the ghost ring.


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## ISuckAtRiding (Jul 7, 2006)

the OP must be canadian if he thinks duct tape looks good on a bike.

Also, this makes your bike have less chain wrap around the cog, which is not good, expecially for smaller gears.


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## Stevob (Feb 27, 2009)

nuck_chorris said:


> i would prefer the flipflop to run diff gear ratios but i don't got any monies


I've already got the flip flop one, but it's not compatible with my GT Avalanche because the frame doesn't have V-brake bosses.


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## Blind Dog (Oct 25, 2005)

I ran with a ghost ring for one summer until I hit the perfect bump/rock/log/tree to knock it out and it went spinning down a incline and into some brush. I couldn't find it and had to walk out of the woods. I went to a magic gear at that point which worked much better imo.


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## Roasted (Feb 8, 2009)

I honestly have yet to see why tensioners look bad at all. I just... don't get it. In fact, I almost prefer having a bike with vertical dropouts. Much more frame choices. That's at least the one solid "pro" for vert drop bikes, IMO. Plus the functionality of being able to gear it up if I ever decide (though I doubt I ever will). 

But anyway... Maybe it's because I have the mindset of "Well most everybody else has a big bulky derailleur, so even with a tensioner I'm still carrying less than they are." But, still. Is it really that big of a deal??


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## Roasted (Feb 8, 2009)

Raghavan said:


> It's not really any worse than using a real tensioner.
> I had the magic ratio with the halflink (32:15), but thats when the chain was new. Now that it has stretched a bit, it is loose and can fall off. However, it's still too small to use my 16 tooth cog on, so unless the chain stretches even more, i'm going to have to use this cog.
> 
> I don't think it looks as nice as a bike with no tensioners or anything, but it looks much nicer than the tensioner IMO.


So you're on a trail. You see two riders. One with a Rollenlager, one with a ghost ring. And you're seriously going to side with the ghost ring? To each his own, I guess....


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## nuck_chorris (Jun 6, 2008)

my motive was to try it out till i get my chain with a half link . i have clearance problems with the chain ring so i might fiddle with that or just put the new chain on. i have a lot the work on this summer


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## ae111black (Dec 27, 2008)

I tryed the "ghost ring"today it works but I don't really need it (horizontal drop outs) but I think in a pinch it is a good idea


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## Blind Dog (Oct 25, 2005)

I've been riding a ghost ring for the last month on all sorts of rides- never dropped once. I can't pull the darn thing out. A little commuting, XC, small drops, really bad attempts at trials. Chainline is spot on though. My chain tensioner broke and I threw the ring in there until I made it to the shop for another one. Probably will not go and buy a tensioner now. One other thing... use the biggest ring (within reason - I'm using a 30t) that you can. The more teeth that are engaged with the chain the better as it will help keep it from dropping. I used a 18t years ago and the thing fell out many, many, many times.


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## nuck_chorris (Jun 6, 2008)

i did get my chain with a half link but the chain just stretched , im going back to the ghost ring soon


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## nOOby (Jul 20, 2007)

just go with the tensioner, you already have the hanger. duct tape is not better than bike parts. honestly, you'll never see when you're riding.


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## nuck_chorris (Jun 6, 2008)

nOOby said:


> just go with the tensioner, you already have the hanger. duct tape is not better than bike parts. honestly, you'll never see when you're riding.


right now I am using a tensioner , its actually held in place by a zip tie, so I guess zip ties are the new duct tape


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## octavius (Sep 26, 2008)

Wow! Ghost rings. Not for me but another interesting singlespeed thing i didnt know about.


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## rusheleven (Jan 19, 2012)

Picture of my Ghost Ring Setup.


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