What's your favourite gear ratio?

Ratio of leg ends...

which is probably what would happen to mine with that ratio.

Knee issues possibly, never leg ends.

36/16.

53x18

52x18, same as 49x17. Lovely stuff.

I am switching to 43/16 and 43/14 fixed fixed as I found a really nice 43t chainring in 130bcd

68" on the summer SS

61" on the winte rSS

I'm 46/16, but really not sure about it... gonna try to get hold of a 17t cog to try on the other side.

46/16. Seems to work for me.

I'm a pretty new rider (only about 8 months) and had a crappy SS that ran 48-18, which was OK as my commute is generally fairly flat apart from Stamford Hill on the way home.
My new bike is set up 42-16, which is so, so much better on the flats obviously, but I've yet to tank it up the hill; what can I reasonably expect?

^48/18 & 42/16 is the same ratio.

slightly easier on 42/16

^48/18 & 42/16 is the same ratio.

It seems much better on the flats though, perhaps that's just the overall better quality of the bike.

things like tyre size can change the gearing noticeably so it's not inconcievable for a lighter bike with skinnier tyres to feel easier to ride than a heavy bike with fat tyres.

my bike feels like night and day riding on 25c compared to 35c.

Just changed back to a 48t so I can run 15/17/19 depending on the ride this winter

Logical reason to gear down in winter, plenty of chat about it but I still havn't seen the logic?

I'm not gearing down as such, 48/17 is almost the same as my current 53/19, just means I can put 17/19 on one wheel for casual/hilly rides and 15/17 on my faster wheel for chaingangs. In the spring I'll put the 53t back , keeping the same sprockets. I change my gearing a lot :)

I haven't got any evidence for it, but I've always been lead to believe that the cold is bad for the knees, hence running a lower gear.

I was going to say it seems windier in the winter, but then I went looking for facts. And lo and behold the DECC facts support that. In fact average wind speeds in January are 10.5 knots vs a low of 7.7 knots in August. So January is 36% windier than August, based on 10-year mean wind speeds. June July August are the calmest months and it climbs from there.
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/energy_stats/source/temperatures/temperatures.aspx

I just switched to 49/17 for a week and can't say I'm a fan... I'll try it again on some long rides, it'll probably be nice, but it seemed pointless around central London (with no brakes), I'd rather just spin if I need some more speed.

Running 44x16 fixed on the daily commuter. 25mm Gatorskins. Bowls along nicely.

u9ge
I think that the logic behind gearing down in winter goes back to the 40s and 50s.
Nearly all racing was time trialling and nearly everyone rode fixed.
At the end of the season, after the hill climbs, most people had a lay off of about a month and then started training seriously in about January.
By this time you were out of condition and so it made sense to start off in a low gear and gradually increase as you got fitter. In fact quite a lot of the early time trials were restricted gear, 72 inches if I remember rightly.
Neil

69" in hilly Bristol.

I'm running 39/15, I've been to London and its much flatter than West Wales (and Bristol of course, I used to live there) - it works out at 68.3 inches according to Sheldon Browns calculator (and who else would you trust!) Be nice to have something a bit higher but it would make my regular rural commute a bit too challenging for a mere mortal of 54

I'm a complete novice when it comes to gear ratio's.

I'm running a 48/16 fixed at the moment but due to a knee injury I'm thinking of gearing down for a while.

If I switched to 48/17 would I notice much difference? Any advice would be useful really.