I have a stack of worn-out 22t cogs. It’s my size these days. It’s been my size for a while now. With a 27″ rear wheel I combine them with 30 or 32t oval chainrings. With a 29″ rear wheel I combine them with 28 or 30t oval chainrings. Then I ride, ride, ride. I file the teeth when their bases blossom. I replace them when they won’t smoothly release a chain when they spin, spin, spin. And then, I put them in my pile. Some of them are missing teeth. Some of them “don’t look that bad.” All of them are awaiting a secondary purpose.
This year. I swear I’ll actually do it this year. This year I’m going to clean them up and make ornaments. The worn-out and missing teeth are not evident when there’s a chain wrapped 360° over them. It’s actually what I did with the long-dead Niner Ti cog I couldn’t seem to part with and I think it looks rad.
I always (usually) have a spare cog, or two, and a spare chainring, and a spare chain lying about. I’ve long found with single-speed drivetrains that every part – ring, cog, chain – is good for a shockingly long time and then it simply is not. When the stuff is dead, it’s dead. And it suddenly dawned on me today (well, this week… okay last week… fine it was a week or two before that) that I’m down to my last cog and I need to put an order in for replacements.
It’s a funny thing, I’ve never heard of a shop anywhere that keeps inventory in single-speed cogs. Certainly not locally. Well, aside from the odd deposit-less special order sitting in a bin in the back after someone didn’t show up after definitely committing to trying single-speed riding.
I suppose in other places where one-speeding is more common some stores might? It’s also getting increasingly rare to see anyone with high-end 11-spd MTB chains on their shelves. But these, along with brake pads and tires, are the most commonly replaced wear items on my #1FG rig and I ride that bike the most. Hence, stocking up at home is a must.
My self-made cog reminders finally pile up enough that I get around to ordering a couple of gears instead of adding to the stack. Then I sit and enjoy the same little daydream I always do when ordering the little single-speed specific throwing stars – imagine if enough folks were into it that a local shop could viably stock them?!
(HAHAHAHAHA. Yeah right.)
All my cogs are dead; More cogs are incoming.