Silly questions about crankset/ bracket

[Puddlejockey]

Hey all! Pardon my ignorance but I haven’t worked on a pedal bike in over 40 years.

I just picked up a Goat Powerbikes motorgoat ( which I love) primarily for trail and private fire road riding…
But I’d like to add pedals and a crankset- mostly for legal reasons z

Powergoat sells a conversion/ add on kit ( it’s an option I didn’t choose). But it’s a 7 speed setup - and I don’t want the complication and noise of a derailer .

How can I find I out what I need in order to setup a single speed crank set and driveline? are the brackets and threading essentially universal?
I’m also wondering if this is something within the realm of a normal bike shop repair- or if I should just try it myself? I’m fairly mechanical … but in this case I don’t even know what I don’t know.

I’ve asked the MFg for the specs on the kit they sell- but again I don’t know what info specifically to ask for? Domensions, teeth, bearing etc..

thanks in advance!

 

[m@Robertson]

To go single-speed, you have to do some things a little differently. It looks like the Motor Goat kit provides a cassette and not a freewheel. If so, just install the rear cassette as normal.

Then, do NOT install the rear derailleur or the shifter and shifter cabling. Instead, go buy a 'chain tensioner'. It looks like a little one-wheel derailleur with no shifting mechanism. This will tug the chain taught, which ordinarily the derailleur cage does. You do NOT want to use axle-based tighteners for reasons I won't get into.

Google 'Surly Singleator' to see perhaps the best one on the market. Once you know what to look for, you can find cheaper ones but I would give serious consideration to getting the good one as if its not just right your life will suck.

When you attach your chain, you will attach it to permanently sit on the cog in the back that gives you the pedal cadence you want and straightest chain line. Set the tensioner to line up with the chain just right and thats that.

Don't install the front derailleur, either since you say you don't want one. This leaves you with the double-front chainring setup that Goat gives you... which in turn likely consigns you to lousy chainline which is not great. Ideally instead you buy a front crankset that is 1x and fits closer to the frame.

There's a lot more to this than taking a couple of measurements. Your life will be a lot simpler if you just install what they give you and don't shift. The alternative is you get to learn a lot more than you know now to get this right. Its not difficult but if you are new to this job you are going to find more than a few pitfalls along the way. You'll need bottom bracket tools for instance.

 

[major masingil]

I wouldn't worry too much about derailleur noise. It's usually drowned out by the wheel noise. Keeping the straightest chainline also makes for a quieter ride.

 

[Puddlejockey]

Thank you both ! Great info…