Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Gearing recommendation for first fixie

I am just about to order my rear wheel and cog (from IRO) and am looking for some suggestions on gearing. I have a 40 tooth front chainring and am thinking about a 16 tooth cog (170 MM cranks) for a total of about 66 inches I think. This will be a spin around when I don't have time for a long ride kind of bike on rolling hill type of terrain.

Does this sound like a good match for a first fixie?

Thanks

Depends on how steep those hills are. A great way to figure out if it would work for you would be to use another bike and put it in a similar gear and try to climb the hills....you don't do much coasting going uphill anyways.

42x16 (on 700c wheels) is a pretty standard recommendation as a starting point.
I went with 44x16 because that's what was on the spare chainset I had and it's working out OK.

i'm running 42x16 and find it a good starting point. 40x16 might be a bit small for the flats.

If your daily commute involves long stretches of straight, flat road with no traffic lights, stop signs, or anything else then maybe you'd want a fairly high gearing soyou can get from a-to-b all speedy like. If, like many of us, your daily commute involves stop-go, bob-weave, sprint-climb type riding in cities with cars, pedestrians, etc, etc you might want to consider something in the mid 60s to low 70s. You want to keep your average cadence up around 90rpm and have control over the bike when you have to go slowly. I think there's the misconception that bigger gear = stronger legs, but unless you're pounding up hills constantly it's often a lot easier to push a higher gear than a lower one. In my not so scientific experience, I've found that lower gear = pedalling more = better workout.

For the record, I dropped from 42x15 down to 42x18 for the winter months and I like it. I feel like I have way more control over the bike in traffic, I'm using my brake way less (so much so that I took it off...), and when I'm forced to go slowly I feel like I'm a lot less likely to teeter over in the ever graceful 0mph slow-mo fall. Add the increased overall workout on the gams and the added ease of being able to get up big big hills, and it seems all good to me.

m.