Ratios and chain tensioners

Hi there,
A while back I converted an old shit bike to single speed. It had vertical drop outs so i've been using one of those god-awful chain tensioner things. Now, the time has come to get a proper set up and i'm looking at what gear to run. When I converted my old bike I just used my existing large outer ring and bought a new sprocket for the back, these are 52 and 16 respectively. This is the thing, when I have told people that this is what i'm running they seem pretty shocked and say that this is extremely high, it feels fine to me riding it. Does the fact that i'm using the tensioner thing actually change the effective ratio? This may be a dumb question but I'm a little confused.
Cheers!

No, the tensioner makes fsck all difference.

Most people (before their spinning education) think the gear they're riding is fine.. until they're 40 and they can't move their knees any more.

52x16 is around 85 gear inches, you want low 70's for street.

i ride 52 18 with a chain tensioner. freewheel.

can someone give me a hand here, i'm old (ish) (33). i'm fairly fit. (really). i find 52 18 really easy to ride on. it's slow from a standing start and there have been hills where i've thought "i'm fucked if i'm getting up that" (forest hills road for one). but other wise i'm doing alright.
i think.

what should i be watching out for here? should i be going lower than 75"?
does my bum look big in this? etc. and so on.

I am 40! Only kiddin'. Cheers for the advice, maybe i'll rein it in a bit on that front cog.

do what you want. if it feels comfortable then go with it. but as hippy says, you are putting more stress on your knees running big gears and may hve problems later in life.

using early 70s means that you spin more (i.e. less pressue) and will be able to get up the hills (very important). why not try dif ratios and see how you get on.

Try counting your cadence and if you find you are cruising much below 75 RPM you should probably drop a few inches. Most discussions on cadence point at 90 RPM being most efficient/comfortable which on my 48:19 is about 18mph.

Sheldon Brown's gear calculator lets you mix and match diff combinations and have the output as MPH at given cadences.

stopping and starting with greater than 80 gear inches just wastes you away, especially here in London where you have to stop and start all the time. its the starting again thats so energy sapping.

i find, as Hippy already said low 70's gear inches is spot on [i use 72.5 gear inches] and i can ride all day with that.

if your pro, 90+ gear inches is the order of the day as Jan Ullrich used. its a beast of a gear. i think my legs would fall off after the second traffic lights. :O