# Blackspire Stinger as a chain tensioner for single-speed?



## Psycle151 (Dec 20, 2005)

I've got a Mob with vertical drops and a Blackspire Stinger. I was wondering if anyone has used one of those to tension the chain for singe-speed use? If that's a bad idea, know of any "magic gear" ratios for that bike?


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## cheda (Jul 7, 2008)

I think it should be fine for a single speed. They mount on to the ISCG tabs if you have them, if not then they will be sandwiched between the BB and crank. 

If anything I would think its more suited for a singlespeed
My friend is a mechanic at a LBS and he has one on his Surly Instigator, even though he runs a derailer in the front(sticks with one gear, never uses the smaller ring), he recommended me the stinger.


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## A Grove (Nov 12, 2006)

I ran a modified E.Thirteen SRS with a machined pulley on the bottom bumerang as my tensioner for quite a while, actually. It took a LOT of playing around because the movement in the tensioner was very little, but once it was set-up, it worked great! The only problem I had was that you must use it having it "Pull" the chain rather than "push" it. It's much easier to set up having it push rather than pull, but under hard cranking, it actually would loosen up the OBB from the frame.

In "push" mode...


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## neabailey (Apr 4, 2008)

I considered using the stinger also, but I like doing sprocket stalls, and as you can imagine from looking at the pic above, that wouldn't work.


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## A Grove (Nov 12, 2006)

neabailey said:


> I considered using the stinger also, but I like doing sprocket stalls, and as you can imagine from looking at the pic above, that wouldn't work.


As I stated, that is using it in a bad direction, you want the tensioner to "pull" up.


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## neabailey (Apr 4, 2008)

A Grove said:


> As I stated, that is using it in a bad direction, you want the tensioner to "pull" up.


It doesn't matter, push or pull, when you stall you would hit the stinger. Somthing would give. Bending, breaking, or even just causing it to come out of adjustment. And of course this is not a problem if you don't stall this way.


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## DJskeet (Oct 19, 2007)

not even just stalling, that thing is hanging so low it looks like you could clip it on a lot of stuff. then whats the point of the bash gaurd if you already have that hanging down there


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## Dictatorsaurus (Sep 11, 2009)

Anyone has had success running the Blackspire Stinger as a SS tensioner?


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## wheeltalk (Jan 17, 2012)

Found this thread doing research and thought I would give some insight to my experience. I could not get a paul melvin to work so I tried a stinger I had laying around. The BB mount stinger has worked flawlessly on my sscx with a 42x18 ratio for racing.


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## chain_slap (Aug 28, 2008)

I use a Tiagra short cage road derailleur as a tensioner, it is great for street since your chain is tensioned, not pulled tight, in case you slip a sprocket stall or bust bunny hopping something.


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