Chainring Spacer Question.

[Ray Young]

I've converted to a 1x10 drivetrain with a 30 tooth chainring mounted in the middle position of a 3x crank but the chain line was quite extreme in the lowest gear so I used 3 washers as spacers to move the chainring in to give the best chain line in both high and low gears. The problem is the 3 washers combined are 5 mm wide and I'm worried about shear forces breaking the chainring bolts. Is this likely and should I remove one of the washers in order to avoid this. It would of course give a slightly less good chain line but I could live with that.

[fatbikephil]

Should be OK Ray - I take it your using steel chainring bolts?! Just make sure there is plenty of thread into the crank spider.
Some old triples used 5mm spacers for the granny rings and there will be a lot more torque on them.

[Ray Young]

Should be OK Ray - I take it your using steel chainring bolts?! Just make sure there is plenty of thread into the crank spider.
Some old triples used 5mm spacers for the granny rings and there will be a lot more torque on them.

Steel bolts yes. What do you mean by thread into the crank spider? The bolt is threading 2/3 of the way into the nut but the nut is only engaging into the spider by about 1-2 mm.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I'm with Phil in that it should be fine. I do have this odd feeling that longer bolts are available but which might be worthwhile if you've only got 2/3 of the bolt thread presently doing something.

[Ray Young]

Think I'm sorted now. Just ordered some extra long chainring nuts and bolts with 5mm spacer, . I'll run it as it is untill they turn up. Thanks guys, knew I could rely on you.

[fatbikephil]

Should be OK Ray - I take it your using steel chainring bolts?! Just make sure there is plenty of thread into the crank spider.
Some old triples used 5mm spacers for the granny rings and there will be a lot more torque on them.

Steel bolts yes. What do you mean by thread into the crank spider? The bolt is threading 2/3 of the way into the nut but the nut is only engaging into the spider by about 1-2 mm.

oops, I'm thinking its screwing into the alloy spider. Yep will be fine. Tighten it until it starts to strip then back it off quarter of a turn

[Ray Young]

Tighten it until it starts to strip then back it off quarter of a turn

[rudedog]

Did you move the spacers on the bottom bracket? This will also shift the position of the chain ring (I forgot when first moved to 1 x )

[Ray Young]

Did you move the spacers on the bottom bracket? This will also shift the position of the chain ring (I forgot when first moved to 1 x )

I did think of it but didn't do it as there is only one spacer on the drive side. I'll check to see how close it moves the crank to the chain stay. Thanks.

[Ray Young]

Well the extra long chainring nuts and bolts with 5 mm spacer arrived today and they were definitely extra long. I had to cut them down to fit but I'm happy with the result. The 5mm spacer looks so much better than the stacked washers I had in there.

[In Reverse]

I sheared some alloy bolts recently, also shearing the end off a spider arm in the process...

[Ray Young]

I sheared some alloy bolts recently, also shearing the end off a spider arm in the process...

Oops. My replacements are steel.