Originally Posted by babysaph
How is 28 divided by 32 equal .74?
Now multiply it by the wheel diameter. In your case use 26.5 (pretty close). That gives a "gear inch" of 23" (28/32= 0.875 by the way). Gear inches comes from the days of the Ordinary (big wheel bike). If you were to attach a crank directly to the axle of the wheel (like a tricycle), you'd be pedalling the equivalent of that diameter of wheel. The smaller the gear inch the smaller the equivalent wheel.
23 gear inches is low but you could go lower. For example a 22/34 gives 17 gear inches. A 20/34 gives 16 gear inches. Those are the lowest you can go with your bike (if you had 24" wheels or 20" wheels you could go lower but...). If you are climbing a huge hill with a load, a 17"gear can make the difference between riding to the top and walking. I hate to walk so I have gears in that range on nearly all my bikes. I don't use them all the time (and you won't either) but it's nice to have them...especially on an absolutely hideous hill like the Alpowa Summit in Eastern Washington
