Hey skip tooth fans...

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Feb 20, 2023
Messages
16
Reaction score
22
Location
Bloomington ca
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Is it possible to make a new sprocket a skip tooth while making the rear hup a 5 or 7 speed.. I want the look stil just not the actual thing.. some vintage parts are just ridiculous price wise.. and i want first gear up hill I'm lazy..lol
 
I can think of two ways this may be possible.

Method 1 - Faux skiptooth (easiest) - Use a modern chainring, chain, and rear hub cog. File away every other tooth from both the chainring and the rear sprocket to mimic skiptooth sprockets and cogs. Search around for images to mimic the shaping between teeth. It's not just a flat spot. The spacing won't be exactly like true skiptooth, but you should be able approximate the vibe of a skiptooth.

Method 2 - Skiptooth hub conversion - Use an actual skiptooth chainring and chain. Purchase a special skiptooth rear cog that is made to mate with a 3 notch modern rear hub. I don't know who makes these anymore, but I seem to remember @ichibike may have sold them in the past. Search around on RRB and the CABE to see if these cogs are still out there.
 
I take it you will use a regular chain and just have the chainwheel look like a skip tooth?

I did the cog and the chain wheel on the Wright Special. They were standard before I ground off every other tooth. I used the regular chain. It still works fine on the modified chain wheel. But it's a one speed and the chain doesn't move from the alignment of the cog. If you have multiple cogs, like a 6 or 7 speed, then the chain might not line up with the faux skip tooth chain wheel.
But with a single rear cog, no problem.

Here's what I started with:
17 Nov grind.jpg


I really didn't need to do the cog as it's hardly noticeable.

08 Jan 23 D.jpg
 
I have seen this done many times where people file the teeth off of a sprocket.

The funny thing is, that Skip-tooth chain was used on the cheaper bicycles. The most expensive bicycles had modern roller chain. So essentially you’re making your bicycle look more antique but also less expensive.

Regular modern roller chain was considered the expensive and smoother stuff since even 1915. The regular Sears bicycle then came with skip-tooth chain and the most expensive one had modern roller chain.

Skip tooth chain was supposed to be stronger and clog up less with debris. I’m not sure how this could be true, And it may just be an old wives tale.
 
I looked into.all original.amd I wouldn't ride a bike that difficult.. I don't care how old and nostalgic it looks.. if someone wants to take it and save it from my hands I'm open I ĺknew right away im.not the guy for this job. I feelnbad hacking it likenthis but at the warnedime is modernizing a piheartof history really that bad. I warned the precious owner amd even he tried to steer me away from it.. im going to follow my heart

Not time period correct.
 
I looked into.all original.amd I wouldn't ride a bike that difficult.. I don't care how old and nostalgic it looks.. if someone wants to take it and save it from my hands I'm open I ĺknew right away im.not the guy for this job. I feelnbad hacking it likenthis but at the warnedime is modernizing a piheartof history really that bad. I warned the precious owner amd even he tried to steer me away from it.. im going to follow my heart

Not time period correct.

Your bike, your rules. Build what YOU like.

#nopurists
 
Stay away from skip tooth if you can way easier and cheaper to use regular chains and sprockets .
Especially if you are going to ride it and put some miles on it.
Regular chain you can find anywhere for almost nothing good skiptooth roller chain is going to run you $50.00 and up for anything decent .
 
Is it possible to make a new sprocket a skip tooth while making the rear hup a 5 or 7 speed.. I want the look stil just not the actual thing.. some vintage parts are just ridiculous price wise.. and i want first gear up hill I'm lazy..lol
You have to use an even number of teeth. Example for chainrings, 44, 46, 48 teeth, etc and grind off every other one. Here is my bike with a genuine skip tooth cog, skip tooth chain and a chainring with every other tooth ground off.
36504F24-373D-4F9A-B173-68060260486A.jpeg

Here is a 20 tooth cog with every other tooth ground off. Again I used a skip tooth chain. Modern cogs and chainrings have narrower teeth so it will wear out a skip tooth chain faster than if you use real wider cogs and chainrings. Always mark the teeth you want to grind off before you start. Cogs have to also have an even number off teeth to do this.
26F4E3EB-48D9-42B9-8E0D-111140EFF74D.jpeg
0256C421-9E8F-43B2-83F8-CA728B1DAA7F.jpeg

If you just want the look, just grind off every other tooth on an even tooth chainring and use a standard 1/2 inch pitch single speed chain. This conversion is usually a little noisy, but real skip tooth chains are noisy. You can leave the cog alone if you want and this will allow for more gear variety than if you grind every other tooth off a cog. You can use even and uneven tooth count cogs this way. So yes do this. If it doesn’t work as smoothly as you like, go and buy a new chainring. When you do this conversion a straight chain line is required or you could end out dropping chains. It works but any conversion or mis matching of parts on these old bikes is a learning experience.
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top