DH crank:single or double chainring?

[phathucker]

I put together my free ride bike and didnt know if i needed a single chain ring up front or a double. So i bought 2 howitzer cranks, the online place I bought it from said if i wanted to run a single chain ring that required a different crank entirely.......is this true? From looking at the crank it looks like I could just take the granny ring off and run a bigger middle gear. But im not sure....

The double chain ring crank works great but when I bring it to the bike park the gear ratio needs to be higher. I need a bigger front second gear. The single chain ring crank has a one huge gear; should I replace the crank when I go to the bike park or just change the 2nd ring?

I also bought a completely separate chain tensioner, so if i didnt have to use this other setup it would save me like 120 bucks

thanks for your input

 

[Steve Vai]

I've not ever seen a DH crank that couldn't be setup with a single ring. From my experience you just take off the inner ring and buy a DH ring to take the place of the stock middle ring. On older-skool RaceFace cranks I've had to file the inner ring holes to clear the inner chainguide plate, but not on any newer cranks.

-Jim.