Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - What a difference 3 teeth make.

I just set up my winter fixie with a new wheel, changing from a 44/16 to a 44/13. I must say I am really surprised at how much of a difference those three teeth made, my legs were quite sore when I got home.


Anyone else have this happen to them, or am I just getting weak in my old age.

I went up three teeth on the chainring. Obviously not as big a change as swapping out the cog, but I still felt it the next day.

Since you're in Minny, you'll be on that Winter fixie until about the middle of May, right?

Yeah pretty much, I think when I add up the miles my winter fixie gets the most year round, really the only bike I ride from mid-Oct till Aprilish. It is nice today though, almost 40!!

44:16 74.3 gear inches
44:13 91.3 gear inches

each tooth in back is like two in the front.

Better your knees than mine.

Better your knees than mine.
I still have the 16 tooth on the otherside of the hub, so I might switch it up every once in a while. Luckily for me, Minneapolis is pretty flat, so I don't have to strain up too many hills, otherwise I wouldn't have chosen such a ratio. I remember when I built my first fixed gear bike, a 70's gitane I had a 52-15 ratio, which lasted just a few weeks.

How do you figure out "gear inches" anyway?

I use a chart in the back of my complete guide to bicycle maintenance and repair book, but there's a formula that i have no idea how it works or ever bother to look at closely.

Add something, divide something, that's where i usually fall asleep.

To give u an idea i have a 52:21 which is 66.9 inches on my bike, which is even lower than your original.

But it's all about you, it's your world, your bike.

I just set up my winter fixie with a new wheel, changing from a 44/16 to a 44/13. I must say I am really surprised at how much of a difference those three teeth made, my legs were quite sore when I got home.


Anyone else have this happen to them, or am I just getting weak in my old age.

It's not just the number of teeth, it's how big a percentage also. When you go from 16 to 13 it's a much bigger jump than, say, 26 to 23.

Here's my favorite link for figuring gear inches. I let them do the work!

http://www.bikeschool.com/

It's "Gear Calc" at the bottom with the other links.

Divide the chainring (44) by the cog (16) and multiply by 27 (wheel size roughly). Basically the ratio of crank to cog times the wheel. Or if you just want to know if a particular combo is larger or smaller you can just compare the ratios.

Three teeth make a big difference......I don't think I would have married my wife if her 3 front teeth were missing.

I don't think I would have married my wife if her 3 front teeth were missing.
Now that's funny!

:o

Ouch...... watch your knees.....

Well, since I had a slightly bent chainring anyway, I switched to a 40/13 with 40/15 on the other side of the hub. To top it off, I realized I was actually running a 45 tooth on the front instead of the 44 I thought... Much easier now...

i just switched from 48x16 to 46x16.. only because i needed a new chainring and they didnt have any 48's in stock.

this isn't much of a change is it?