Am I crazy?

[RexFuzzle]

So I got fed up with not having a magic gear so I made my bike have one... Took a file into the drop-outs and filed away about 2/3mm and now I have a magic gear. It is awesome and touch wood, no problems yet. Anybody else done this?

[TYGA]

Check on the www, others have done it as well.

 

I was going to do same some time ago on an old steel Giant ATX, I went as far as buying the file but ended up getting rid of the bike before I could get stuck into it.

 

As long as it allows you to tension the chain somewhat as it wears out, you haven't compromised the strength of the dropouts by filing them too aggressively and the QR binds strongly enough to avoid the wheel moving I doubt there would be an issue. Post a pic of the bike to get me through this long day which, in retrospect, I really should have taken off....

[J0KER]

Sounds genius ! Good job ! Show us a picture if u don't mind

[RexFuzzle]

Sorry, no picture yet... I am riding it, but still not a 'complete' bike, need to get a new fork or have the currently one sandblasted and powder coated then it'll be ready. The picture would literally just show a little bit of the dropout filed away. I used a round file and only did the part that the Q sits in so it sort of clips in.

[divernick]

Beware of chain stretch - as long as you have taken that into account you should be fine.

Bear in mind that you should replace your chain before it stretches 1%. If you're using 100 links in the chain, that's a whole link-length worth of stretch to account for!