Lithuania

Charm City is going to be my first race and I will be doing it on a single speed. What gearing should I run? All I have right now is a 42x17 and I think thats probably too tall.

flargle

2:1

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/singlecross.html

dirtyphotons

pm vpower, he did the race last year.

from this video the course looks pretty flat. i see a deep mud section, a sand pit on a tight corner, and no run ups. doesn't mean there arent any, there's probably a bunch of the course that video didnt show.

42/17 does seem a little high. vpower will tell you that everyone who beat him last year was running a smaller gear than he was.

edit: i'd like to do the course beforehand, but scheduling will be tight. maybe next saturday morning.

Lithuania

heh i watched that video last night too. I wish I could pre ride the course too but i work on saturdays

vpower

I felt good on that one last year. I went 39:17. The sand pit is not worth trying to ride. There are a couple tight turns, There is only one steep hill and a few gradual ones.

I don't know if they are keeping the same course as last year though. It's a very painless race.

I'll be on a 2:1 this year, but I am thinking about 36:17 or 34:16. But really it doesn't matter because in the past 2 weeks all I have done is eat garbage in large quantities.

Lithuania

so am i going to suffer if i try to do this on a 42x18?

flargle

You are going to suffer regardless. You can't ride what you don't have.

Lithuania

i guess what im wondering are course like charm city technical enough to really warrant 2:1? I am a lot more a masher than spinner so the thought of 2:1 on flats makes me cry.

dirtyphotons

yeah, choice of gearing is pretty personal. if it's your first race it's mostly an exploratory thing anyway no? i certainly know i'm still going to be working out the kinks.

if the gearing sucks and you finish crappy, then change it and hopefully do better next time right?

Lithuania

yeah i guess that makes most sense. ugh i just wish next sunday would get here