Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Let's talk inches

Seeing as I'm about to upgrade my drivetrain, I have the option to change my gearing ratio (currently 48:16, which I belive is 78.8 inches, if sheldon's gear inch calculator is to be believed). What I'm wondering is, how big a difference does an inch or two change in gear inches make? I'm thinking of dropping down to 44:15 which is 77.1 (a difference of 1.7 inches for the math-impaired) gear inches. My legs are plenty big from riding this tall gearing, so I figured I'd drop it down a bit to work on my cadance. Is 1.7 inches going to make a difference, or will a more significant drop be needed? Thanks for any help, guys.

Do it, you will end up going faster without getting tired...

Phil

I'm definitely going to drop down, but "how much?" is the question. Those Sugino chainrings and EAI cogs can get expensive, so i'd prefer not to have to figure this out by trial and error

http://www.fixedgearfever.com/downloads/GearChart.txt

FixedGearFever.com Gear Chart

I changed the stock gearing on my Bianchi (48/16) to 44/16, which was much better overall. My new bike I just finished building is 44/17, which I like even better. Of course, the new bike has a phil BB and phil wheels, which makes the whole operation run a lot more smoothly than the clunky Bianchi drivetrain...

Three teeth on a chainring equals approx 1 tooth on a cog so dropping your chainring down by 4 teeth will feel "almost" like riding somewhere between a 17 and 18 cog in the back....so let's call your new ratio a virtual 48/17.5 if that makes any sense. I went from a 48/16 to a 48/18 to, finally, a 45/18 and like that last ratio. I spin out on downhills and have even managed to do 167 rpm, though not at all smoothly...but was cool to see that figure on my computer and spin is what I wanted to work on. Also, my knees like me now.

Apparently I'm an idiot as I didn't notice that you were going from 16 to 15 cog along with the smaller chainring...so I don't think you'd notice any real difference...the smaller cog pretty much cancels out the smaller chain ring...as you noted in the 1.7 inch diff. If you want to feel something noticeable then you'd need to either get a bigger cog, a smaller chainring, or both.

Three teeth on a chainring equals approx 1 tooth on a cog so dropping your chainring down by 4 teeth will feel "almost" like riding somewhere between a 17 and 18 cog in the back....so let's call your new ratio a virtual 48/17.5 if that makes any sense. I went from a 48/16 to a 48/18 to, finally, a 45/18 and like that last ratio. I spin out on downhills and have even managed to do 167 rpm, though not at all smoothly...but was cool to see that figure on my computer and spin is what I wanted to work on. Also, my knees like me now.

This is the kind of information I'm looking for. I can calculate gear inches just fine, thanks. I want to know the practical aspect of what an extra inch or two or five feels like. So thanks.

borrow a geared bike from a friend/shop. experiement with a few gears to gain an understanding of how a given delta affects you personally.

borrow a geared bike from a friend/shop. experiement with a few gears to gain an understanding of how a given delta affects you personally.

A geared bike! Heresy! :)