I spent the weekend researching what I need to buy to convert from a single chain-ring to a double. It was an easy decision over the front derailleur and shifter as I wanted to stay with Shimano and all their 2 speed shifters are compatible with each other so it was a case of buying what was available and at the best price I could find. That just happened to be on e-bay. So they’re ordered and hopefully on the way.

The decision for the chainrings was a little more complicated. I want to stick with the oval chainring I have currently fitted but because my cranks are 64BCD it wasn’t easy to find a compatible larger chain-ring to give me the ratio I wanted. I had hoped that all I would need to do was to buy and fit a larger ring and bolts to the existing set-up but just couldn’t find anything that would work. I did find a set on the Absolute Black web-site which was just what I wanted. The brand is one which I already have on my bike and I am happy with the quality of their products. The set I looked at is intended for road and gravel bikes so they only do it for 110/4 BCD crank spider. I’ve got this size on my MTB but the Alice has 96BCD spider. This was always something I was uneasy about as there was no option to interchange components between the bikes if needed. Both bikes currently have MTB cranks fitted, it’s just that the ones on the One-one are an older design although they are in perfect condition and will last for as long as I need them. Shimano seem to have decided that MTB and gravel bikes should have 64BCD chain-rings and road/gravel 110BCD. Probably because most MTB and gravel riders prefer single chain-rings.

Maybe it was time to buy new cranks for the Alice and go down the road/gravel route. I eventually found a set of Shimano 105 cranks in my preferred length (175mm). So I’ve ordered those from e-bay and the chainrings from Absolute Black. There’s one final component I’ll need to replace and that’s the groupset. The 11-42 tooth one I run now will be too large for the bigger front chainring so I will need to swap that out for a 11-34 one. That’s probably about the limit for a x2 setup. The whole conversion will be a bit more expensive than I had initially hoped but I should be able to offset this by selling on the cranks and rings I’m going to take off.

I won’t start the conversion straight away but will wait until the weather gets more into winter. When I do I’ll report how it goes on here.