Gearing

Hello all - first post.
Aplogies if this has been asked before.

Just wanted to ask what is a good gear ratio to start out on? I'm looking at my first fixed bike at the moment and was wondering where to start. Im pretty fit and currently commute around 20 miles each way from Epping into Canary Wharf.

I would aim for around 70 gear inches. It's what I should've done when I started instead of working out what gear at what cadence would give me the speed I wanted.

Use this gear inch calculator to work out what chain-ring and sprocket to use:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/

Sheldon states somewhere that even numbered teeth on the chain-rings and sprockets gears are better for even wear of the chain. I'm not sure on this as I couldn't make sense of his explanation.

Hi allyb, i used to do a 20 mile each way journey to work on my single speed, it was set up 50t 17t, not too bad a gear, now i'm not doing so far but on my fixed running 48t 17t, seems a bit easier but i think i slightly prefer that being fixed and no back brake. hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice. Not sure what gear the bike i'm looking at is running, but I'll try it and see i think, my commute is not helped by the fact that it is slightly downhill in the morning the uphill on the way home, but I'll try the bike and see if I can do a deal on a new chain ring.

Look forward to hopefully attending some pub meetup or event soon.

also have a look at the gear you most stay in on your journey, the one you are most comfortable in!!

I've just spotted a light blue Condor in Canary Wharf which looked pretty tasty. That yours?

sadly not mine. I currently don't own a fixed, i usually ride a Kinisis Crosslight, but it gets safely stored in the office carpark.

44x16 can get a bit frantic at high speed

On my way back from a gig late last night I decided to take on the hill between Denmark Hill and East Dulwich on my 52x19, got to the top no problems, going back down the other side... wow, i didn't realise my legs could go so fast!

I totally do not understand expressing your gear in the "number x number" format....it's means nothing to me when I hear it or see it.....I have to get out the calculator and work it out in inches.....by then the conversation has usually moved on to something far more interesting.....is it just me? am I thick? are you lot mathematical genii? besides which the actual size of the ring/sprockets is irrelevant it's the ratio that's important.

expressing your gear in inches may not be 100% accurate (but then neither is the other way) but it does provide you with a clear incremental scale, 74 inches is lower than 81.....easy!

can we revert back to imperial for the purposes of me understanding this thread please......

what do the metricated continentals do (Jos?) would my 75" gear be 1940mm or something?

i guess one just gets used to calling it 44x16 i don't know my gear inches

Yeah let do gear mm from now on. Bigger number makes you seem harder!

Yeah I'm riding 1930.4 right now.

Well, in that case... I'm pushing 2,014.22mm, but I'd recommend something around 1,778mm.

chainring divided by sprocket multiplied by 27 (that's the inch bit as in diameter of wheel) 47 / 14 x 27 = 90.6"

alternatively wheel your bike in a straight line for one entire pedal revolution, measure the distance covered and divide by pi! couldn't be simpler.....

ooooh, i'm running 1936.37

dicki i guess one just gets used to calling it 44x16 i don't know my gear inches

74.3

or thereabouts

its gotta be gear inches !
most continental teams still refer to gearing as gear inches..

its interesting to hear ratios, but i'm with winston on this and its far easier to understand the length of travel..

eg. dicki riding 44x16 = 74.3

i ride a 47x17 = again about 74

The multiply by 27 bit comes from 27" rims though. On 700c 23mm, I think it's more like chainring / sprocket x 26.4

Then you can take that number, divide by 336, multiply by cadence, and you've got your speed.

So you can chuck away your bike computer, ride along looking at your watch whilst counting pedal revolutions every 10 seconds, multiply that by 6, and times that by the figure for your gear inches divided by 336 (which you've had etched into your stem, or airbrushed onto your titanium top-tube).

Like riding brakeless, if you just go with this set-up and resign yourself to transcendental forces of synchronicitous felicity, you'll avoid all collisions, improve your spin, and garner the admiring looks of the global boredoisie. Sorted.

46x17 700x25c 170mm = 71.4 gear inches, according to the sheldon brown calculator

On line gear table here
fixedwheel gear tables

or download free software for calculating gearing and cadence
machinehead software

or another more extensive gear table here
gear table

I wanna lower my gearing a bit. On 48/16 now and wanna try summin a bit lower for tricks n skids n mucking about on. But is there a difference between changing your chainring or your sproket?? Cant think there would be but seem to hear people talking about changing the sproket a lot more than your chainring.

Cheers

Because changing a cog is generally cheaper. But not always - depends on what sort of chainring you go for.
Get a 17T or a 19T cog for a much nicer gear IMNSHO.

also the increments you can change by will be bigger on the cog.
ie.
the chain ring change of one tooth say, will be a lot less of a difference
than the cog change of one tooth...

Ok cool, Theres some 42t Campagnolo chainrings on Ebay dirt cheap at the moment so gonna get one of them i think, think itd be easier than changing the sproket too

Make sure they fit your crank arms. ie. BCD is the same and the slightly more obvious bolt count.. :)