What's your favourite gear ratio?

18 if you can use either foot.

ftfy.

No

The ratios is closer to the 48/19 with 46/18.

This isn't HHS.

1.23:1

I've switched to 46/16 from 42/16.

Feels more challenging on the hills.

Been rocking 46x16 for a year now but it feels a chore with the cold weather and doing laps of Richmond Park (200+ miles per week commuting). Can hack it up the Surrey Hills but thinking of going down a fraction.

Anyone run 40x14? 0.5 GI less and should be a nice short chain, right? edit: finding a 1/8 130BCD chainring might be a PITA..

http://www.mountainbikecomponents.co.uk/items.asp?CategoryID=32&Name=Goldtec+1%2F8th+Track+and+Single+Speed+Chainrings

You could go 44/17

.5 is nothing, you'll get roughly a 1 GI difference going from 25c to 28c tyres, just get a17t rear and enjoy all the extra skid patches.

.5" is nothing

It can make all the difference in some circumstances :-)

Your point stands, though; unless you're riding track at a pretty high level, there's really no point getting your hands dirty for a gear change of less than 4"

46/17 is a perfectly sensible gear, at 72" it may even be a little high for just tooling around in the winter.

Must have quite sensitive legs or could be the 40 miles a day. Can't do skidz so ignore # of patches.

Going from 75.7 > 77.3 was a real jump. Going down to 74 could be ideal. Might just throw on a 45t and make it 73.9

It's probably just because you know you changed it.

I don't fancy doing blind fold tests, so let's go with that ;)

If one were building a round town weight weenie would there be any disadvantage, beyond it looking odd, to rocking 32x12 to get 70'?

Less weight in the cranks, less weight in the chain, less weight in the sprocket. Must be worth 150g off a normal set up.

Rings and cogs with fewer teeth wear out quicker.

I'm running 28x10 on the scissor right now and it's hard to keep the chain tight enough and any slack feels 10x worse.

Also you'll probably throw chains more often.

That's just a BMX gear, they don't drop chains all that often if you sort then out properly.

Yup but the scissor has LONG stays so there's a lot more chain and a less steep slope.

But most importantly it looks weird.

My polo bike is 28/17 on a 26" wheel, it's not that hard.

I'll try putting my BMX wheel in to see if it makes a difference.

i've started riding a slightly larger gear in the rain than in the dry...

its only like .5 but it feels better being over geared when its wet rather than spinning out

my travels from the start have gone from
on road gearing
42/16
46/17
47/18
47/17

now finally settling with 52/19

pretty incremental

^ must be costing a fortune in chainrings. I've tried to retain the same chainring and knock teeth off the back, well replace the cog for ones with less teeth. So far I've gone incrementally too, going from 44/18 to 44/17 and now 44/16 which I'm pretty happy with.

53/15

Rings and cogs with fewer teeth wear out quicker.

Really?

With the same gearing one crank turn gets you the same distance in either gear, that means for a mile you have the same amount of chain sliding on and off each tooth, why would it wear faster?

(The shorter chain will wear faster... By about a millionth of a percent, but as long as you change the chain when it shows signs of wear it shouldn't cause a problem with the chainring or cogs for about the same number of iterations of chain)...

I think that's right isn't it?

I run 32x12 as a road gear on my polo bike, except for the fact that 12t cogs are a bit thin so prone to snapping I've not had problems with the 32 wearing any faster than I'd expect.

Any amount of force spread over fewer teeth should wear them down quicker than it would if you had more of them, shouldn't it?