“Single speed gear ratios, what do you find works best”

Blazerwolf · Dec 24, 2009

jacques_anquetil said:
get yourself 3x consecutive chainrings and 3 - 4 x consecutive cogs and you will be all set.

ie: 32, 33, 34 and 18, 19, 20, 21. that'll give you the perfect spread to play with depending on your terrain. you probably don't even need that much really. see the chart:

Wow goes to show how great minds work alike! Thanks Jacques!

serious · Dec 24, 2009

55" a magic number on the road? That seems awfully short. I ride 78-82" on the road and there are lots of hills here (usually I climb 2500 feet in every 60km of riding).

Off road I ride and race with 51".

Blazerwolf · Dec 24, 2009

serious said:
55" a magic number on the road? That seems awfully short. I ride 78-82" on the road and there are lots of hills here (usually I climb 2500 feet in every 60km of riding).

Off road I ride and race with 51".

Hey Serious, Those are not my numbers! If you read the thread that was someone else's numbers based on a Penny Farthing I think he said. Whatever that is? Anyway where in hell are you riding that the rise at 2500 feet in 60km? Is that a continuous uphill ride? You must have leg muscles like and elephant! Anyway I admire you for your skills. Like I said at first I am just a novice starting off after 40 years of not riding! Someday I might ride 60 km before I die!

cruiserman · Dec 25, 2009

I started off with 32/18 and after a while went to 32/20. You don't need to use gear inches unless you are comparing different sized wheels.

serious · Dec 25, 2009

Blazwewolf,

I ride in Toronto (in a suburb called Richmond Hill) and although there are no sustained climbs here (longest climbs are less than 2 km), there is not much flat riding either.

I race on a singlespeed mtb a lot, so I am in better shape than the average rider.

ATBScott · Dec 25, 2009

Blazerwolf, only you can tell what the right gear will be - depending on how hilly/flat the terrain is in your neck of the woods will help you choose the gear. You never mentioned how the gear that was on the bike to begin with worked for you... Do you spin out too quickly, or is it too hard to get up a hill? Or have you ridden it for a few weeks and it seems to be OK? That would be my first recommedation - get out and ride it. Give yourself a month (unless it is really obvious that it is too easy or too hard). Remember that with a single speed, there will always be conditions where your gears are not optimum, or may even be way to slow, or you push up a steep hill.

That 55-inch gear is not necessarily "magic" for you. If you find that you can get up all the hills where you live with your current gear, and you find you are spinning out too much, take the advice about going a tooth smaller on the rear... If you are having trouble on the hills, go a tooth (or more) larger... On my 29'er I ride a lot of hilly terrain and have a roughly 50-inch gear that works well for me. I can get up the steeper climbs and comfortably spin along about 12 - 14 mph. If I spin for all I am worth, I can get up to about 25 mph. For trail riding, that 12 - 14 works just fine for me. Again, this is what is fine for me. Decide what you want to accomplish on your rides, how fast (or slow) you like to go, and what the terrain is. The whole thing about "gear inches" is simply a calculation to determine what your wheel size would be if you had an old-time high-wheeler... A 55" gear is the same as having a 55" diameter wheel that rotated once each time with a crank (the cranks were fixed tot he axle - no gears) Guys living in CO or UT in the mountains run 32 x 22 and guys living in KS run 34 x 16. Longer / shorter cranks can give your more or less leverage (make a gear feel easier or harder) but changing cranks can cause other ergonomic problems with knees/hips etc... Longer cranks are harder to spin in a circle fast, shorter cranks give you less leverage when it gets steep and you are standing at low RPM. - So - get out there and ride your gear. Figure out what you want to accomplish first, and then the advice will come that will help you achieve that. Merry Xmas all.

Blazerwolf · Dec 25, 2009

ATBScott said:
Blazerwolf, only you can tell what the right gear will be - depending on how hilly/flat the terrain is in your neck of the woods will help you choose the gear. You never mentioned how the gear that was on the bike to begin with worked for you... Do you spin out too quickly, or is it too hard to get up a hill? Or have you ridden it for a few weeks and it seems to be OK? That would be my first recommedation - get out and ride it. Give yourself a month (unless it is really obvious that it is too easy or too hard). Remember that with a single speed, there will always be conditions where your gears are not optimum, or may even be way to slow, or you push up a steep hill.

That 55-inch gear is not necessarily "magic" for you. If you find that you can get up all the hills where you live with your current gear, and you find you are spinning out too much, take the advice about going a tooth smaller on the rear... If you are having trouble on the hills, go a tooth (or more) larger... On my 29'er I ride a lot of hilly terrain and have a roughly 50-inch gear that works well for me. I can get up the steeper climbs and comfortably spin along about 12 - 14 mph. If I spin for all I am worth, I can get up to about 25 mph. For trail riding, that 12 - 14 works just fine for me. Again, this is what is fine for me. Decide what you want to accomplish on your rides, how fast (or slow) you like to go, and what the terrain is. The whole thing about "gear inches" is simply a calculation to determine what your wheel size would be if you had an old-time high-wheeler... A 55" gear is the same as having a 55" diameter wheel that rotated once each time with a crank (the cranks were fixed tot he axle - no gears) Guys living in CO or UT in the mountains run 32 x 22 and guys living in KS run 34 x 16. Longer / shorter cranks can give your more or less leverage (make a gear feel easier or harder) but changing cranks can cause other ergonomic problems with knees/hips etc... Longer cranks are harder to spin in a circle fast, shorter cranks give you less leverage when it gets steep and you are standing at low RPM. - So - get out there and ride your gear. Figure out what you want to accomplish first, and then the advice will come that will help you achieve that. Merry Xmas all.

Thanks Scott, That is a damn good anaylis and sorta suits my estimates very well! I ride every other day 10 miles on level streets. The bike came with 32/20 gearing and someone on this forum suggested changing my 20t to a 16t after I took off the Knobbys! I replaced them with Schwalbe Big Apple 29ers. That bike rides like a dream. Been off the pavement just once for about a quater of a mile at the park! All grass hill! With the knobbys no less. That was a thrill so I can imagine the thrill coming down a mountian trail. I believe at my age that probably won't be to smart!

I guess as I get stronger most of my small concerns will disappear. I ride on average between 10-12 MPH, highest speed attained was 18.88 MPH that was with the wind at my back! I only started riding in May since 1963. I started at 280 and am now at 220, that bike has changed my life.

Dion · Dec 25, 2009

ATBScott said:
Blazerwolf, only you can tell what the right gear will be - depending on how hilly/flat the terrain is in your neck of the woods will help you choose the gear. You never mentioned how the gear that was on the bike to begin with worked for you... Do you spin out too quickly, or is it too hard to get up a hill? Or have you ridden it for a few weeks and it seems to be OK? That would be my first recommedation - get out and ride it. Give yourself a month (unless it is really obvious that it is too easy or too hard). Remember that with a single speed, there will always be conditions where your gears are not optimum, or may even be way to slow, or you push up a steep hill.

That 55-inch gear is not necessarily "magic" for you. If you find that you can get up all the hills where you live with your current gear, and you find you are spinning out too much, take the advice about going a tooth smaller on the rear... If you are having trouble on the hills, go a tooth (or more) larger... On my 29'er I ride a lot of hilly terrain and have a roughly 50-inch gear that works well for me. I can get up the steeper climbs and comfortably spin along about 12 - 14 mph. If I spin for all I am worth, I can get up to about 25 mph. For trail riding, that 12 - 14 works just fine for me. Again, this is what is fine for me. Decide what you want to accomplish on your rides, how fast (or slow) you like to go, and what the terrain is. The whole thing about "gear inches" is simply a calculation to determine what your wheel size would be if you had an old-time high-wheeler... A 55" gear is the same as having a 55" diameter wheel that rotated once each time with a crank (the cranks were fixed tot he axle - no gears) Guys living in CO or UT in the mountains run 32 x 22 and guys living in KS run 34 x 16. Longer / shorter cranks can give your more or less leverage (make a gear feel easier or harder) but changing cranks can cause other ergonomic problems with knees/hips etc... Longer cranks are harder to spin in a circle fast, shorter cranks give you less leverage when it gets steep and you are standing at low RPM. - So - get out there and ride your gear. Figure out what you want to accomplish first, and then the advice will come that will help you achieve that. Merry Xmas all.

Thank you for that. There are SO many threads asking about this and they always get the same answer - it depends. What really is annoying is when somebody posts what they run (say 32X22) and somebody comes along and says, "Wow, that's really easy... blah blah blah. I run 40X16 and I can climb everything!"

joejeweler · Jun 28, 2013

Dion said:
Thank you for that. There are SO many threads asking about this and they always get the same answer - it depends. What really is annoying is when somebody posts what they run (say 32X22) and somebody comes along and says, "Wow, that's really easy... blah blah blah. I run 40X16 and I can climb everything!"

.....older thread revived.

I run 40 x 16 too (63 GI's),....on the FIXIE side of my flipflop eno eccentric hub, and can get up all the hills in my area pretty well. The freewheel side i run a White Industries Trials version 18T freewheel. The "Angry Bees" sound it makes i use to alert folks i'm coming up on them! (back pedaling REALLY sounds great!

The 40 x 18T freewheel is a bit easier on the hills, of course. But i don't seem to lose any speed on the flats over the 40 x 16 fixed side. (63 GI's).

The reason is i can spin out fast for a clip,.....and then coast! Spin out some more and C O A S T!!! The rest in between "spins" helps me to recover, and i end up just as fast (or a bit faster maybe) than running the steady pedaling higher geared fixed.

This all on one of my Dean Colonial titanium frames converted to a rigid road runner "69er". (in my area it's mostly sidewalk running as i'm not running along with 45 mph traffic and no shoulder).

I like a more upright (see the traffic and some "cute" pedestrians) position. I suspension corrected the frame with a Surly Steamroller 700 wheel size fork, 700x32c wheel/tire, and used the 5mm higher Chris King baseplate/crown race. This all works nicely to get the geometry where it should be.

I used my XL size Dean frame to make use of the long headtube, which pretty much ate up all of the 300mm uncut steerer tube. The frame would be too large as a dedicated MTB perhaps, but as a road conversion is optimum for my needs.

“Single speed gear ratios, what do you find works best”

Blazerwolf

serious

Blazerwolf

cruiserman

serious

ATBScott

Blazerwolf

Dion

joejeweler

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