This is something I used on my rocky mountain, Draco, and zanotti. It worked pretty well as a singlespeed setup but offers two gears. It might be a good idea for those wanting to try ss, or those who don't know what gearing to use. So, this is what i did:
I threw a makeshift cassette together out of cogs and spacers from the junk pile at Mike's. I believe I put a 14t next to a 15t (and later moved to 15/17) for dual-gear ss goodness. I had no front derailleur; on the rm I had 22/32/bash, draco had 36/bash, zano had 32/bash. For my tensioner I had a semi-old road derailleur, short cage. Shimano 105 methinks. I used it with a tiny bit of derailleur (maybe brake) cable just going through the barrel adjuster. I set it up so that when the barrel adjuster was unscrewed almost all the way, the chain would be on the bigger cog, but when it was screwed in the chain was on the smaller cog. I set up the cogs so that the chainline was pretty darn good, and the derailleur was set tight enough so there was minimal chainslap. You can see the setup pretty well in this picture:
http://www.msdhw.com/forum/attachmen...4&d=1084781763
And you can see the near-perfect chainline in this one:
http://www.msdhw.com/forum/attachmen...5&d=1084781770
The cool thing about this set-up is that you can have many of the pro's of singlespeeding, but still be able to change between two gears. Off the bike, you go to your rear derailleur and use the barrel adjuster (usually used to fine-tune the rear der. to the cassette) and either have it in the unscrewed position (bigger cog) or the screwed position (smaller cog). If you have the cogs in the right spots on the hub, you can maintain a near-perfect chainline in both gears and also ensure that your derailleur is properly aligned every time u change gears. Personally, I almost never switched gears with this setup (i think the 17t was my fave on the draco), but it was pretty nifty to have the option of a second gear for tricky jumps and drops. It also provided me with a healthy mix of singlespeedy feeling and climbing ability on the RM because of the 22t front ring, so I had a 4-speed "singlespeed" (I also used the RM for basic trials, and the 22t was very useful for that) This could also be useful for prospective ss'ers not wanting to blow a ton of cash on ss-specific equipment and those who don't know exactly what gearing to use (cuz u can easily switch back and forth between gears on the same ride to choose your fave). Most of the needed parts (spacers, old cogs, an old derailleur) can be had for cheap or free at the local bike shop or shop junk pile.
I used this on 3 different bikes and it served me well every time. Maybe it'll serve one of you guys well, too.
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