What's your favourite gear ratio?

a low 42:17

pj 48:17 is where it's at.

i found it a little heavy, 48 :18 seems that little bit kinder on the knees

Bring Me My fix - as a relatively inexperienced cyclist, compared to someone such as your good self, would you say that 48 :18 would be ok on my knees, or should i go lower? i really don't want knee trouble. and i ride up my share of hills..

BringMeMyFix You lot running high 70s/low 80s all year round in London traffic are mental. Rubbish acceleration at low speeds, and I'd hate to see the state of your knee cartilages a few years down the road.

Whatever floats your boat I suppose :-/

but all of this depends so much on the cyclist, thats why its so hard for one person to give a person they have never met advice on gears, its kind of like at what angle do you want you saddel, or where exactly is comfortable for you to put your brake or NoBrake lever.

i wouldn't want to ride around on a high 70's gear, 73 is fine for me, i don't get beaten from the lights and can spin along at 25-30 mph. but a higher gear would be a right pain in a headwind.
not being a pie eater and riding ss off-road before i took to fixed possibly meant my joints had an easier time of it.

Low 70's is where it's at, lower still if you have fast legs.. I like 69... gear inches.

chris crash [quote]BringMeMyFix You lot running high 70s/low 80s all year round in London traffic are mental. Rubbish acceleration at low speeds, and I'd hate to see the state of your knee cartilages a few years down the road.

Whatever floats your boat I suppose :-/

but all of this depends so much on the cyclist, thats why its so hard for one person to give a person they have never met advice on gears, its kind of like at what angle do you want you saddel, or where exactly is comfortable for you to put your brake or NoBrake lever.[/quote]

I'm not trying to be prescriptive. They're just observations based on i) seeing big gear types labouring away from lights, and getting caught in some tricky spots in traffic ii) anecdotal evidence from 100s of cyclists either in person or in print - it's worth being aware of widespread phenomena, init.

But as far as riding position goes, I'm with you all the way.

nimhbus Bring Me My fix - as a relatively inexperienced cyclist, compared to someone such as your good self, would you say that 48 :18 would be ok on my knees, or should i go lower? i really don't want knee trouble. and i ride up my share of hills..

I'm not that experienced. I think it's quality of experience rather than quantity that counts. Just listen keenly to what your body's telling you, and don't ignore it.

70.5" sounds pretty sensible. Just try to avoid 'explosive' starts (especially whilst seated), as those kind of forces are what stress your knees the most (and very aggressive skidding). Of course, going a bit outside your comfort zone is part of what riding fixed is about, and GRADUALLY increasing force/speed/duration is great for keep bones and joints in good nick as you get older.

Or whatever.

I always ride between 68"-71". Keep the skid patches high ;-)
'tis all here:
http://software.bareknucklebrigade.com/rabbit.applet.html

recently changed from high 70s to about 73" gear inches and feels so much better.

Soweto888 [quote]aidan 41:16 :)

Me too! Does this mean that - setting aside obvious differences in location and age - basically, I'm just like you, Aidan? :-P[/quote]
indeed it does...we're great!

repeatclicks flat as shit London

Get yer sen up Muswell hill mate. Go from Finsbury park -Crouch end- muswell hill. Lots of lovely hills.

Im 50-19

i've tried 48x16/17/18 and 46x17, 48x17 is my current set up and favourite so far. 48x18 was nice but burned through tyres too quickly. I think i might try and find a 45t chainring.

46x17 gives you 17 (i think) skid patches and 72/73 inches depending on what online converter you use. it's the choice of winners and heroes

yup 17 according to my widigt

leave your widget out of this

my widget has a mind of its own.

it also calculates spoke length

I ride 46x17.

'nuff said.

If your shit is flat...there's something wrong...

i'm different. my Flat is shit.

I find 48 x 16 too spinny :( anything below 48 x 14 on 700c (90") seems spinny.

My acceleration off the line (lights and so on) is not the fastest (but not bad) and I need to be steaming along to get up steep hills :( but boy can you get up some dreadful speed on 48 x 14 and a decent pair of legs on London's flat streets ! :)

All this talk of what is and is not right for various terrain doesn't really take all the factors in, like leg length, strength, short twitch to long twitch muscle ratio (we all differ by a fair amount - certainly more than a cog or two) even crank length (leverage). Building and riding a very light machine will also impact on acceleration, stopping and so on.

Below 90" seems "spinny"? You have an interesting definition of spinny. You should be taking Wiggans spot on the GB track team.. :)

Actually all this talk does take all those factors in.. you will notice that most people specify a gear around 70".. irrespective of their other factors.. what does that tell you? We all got it wrong? Don't think so.

Sure, there will be outliers who prefer higher gearing/lower cadence but most people can (and should) be trained to spin at least 90rpm. There's not that many places in London where you can reach full speed on 70".

hippy Below 90" seems "spinny"? You have an interesting definition of spinny. You should be taking Wiggans spot on the GB track team.. :)

I will give them a call ! ;P

hippy
Actually all this talk does take all those factors in.. you will notice that most people specify a gear around 70".. irrespective of their other factors.. what does that tell you? We all got it wrong? Don't think so.

Don't worry, you got nothing wrong. :)

". . .does take all those factors in" + "irrespective of their other factors" = ?

My point is that there are people who are (physiologically) more suited to higher than average and lower than average gearing, perhaps I made my point badly in my post.

80 G.I might be fine for a 6ft 4in Olympian with 59%/41% type 1/type 1 musculature and proportionally long legs - where as a lower G.I might be more apt for someone more like myself (take everything good in the above description and keep it in the pub for 20 years).

Just a simple point about context that is all.

:)

i never realised how much crank length makes a difference - i had more trouble skidding 46x17 with 165 mm cranks than 48x17 with 170. It also felt a lot less comfy (the 165 i mean)

You wanna get yourself some 140s: