Herne Hill Saturday Training

you'll be fine

"Gearing should be between 82 and 88 gear inches for novice riders. (48 x 15 (86″) is ideal for adult riders"

49x15 is around 85.8

According to Rabbit, 49x15 is 88 with 165mm cranks and 49x16 is 82.7 - so both extremes.

I'll take both and a spanner and see how it goes.

The convention for track riding is to calculate gears based on the old 27" wheel standard, not 700C (which is about 26.3"). Go by what the HH website says.

If you want to mash a big gear, you can always try time-trialling. Track is about souplesse.