Gearing Down
 

I've been riding two Bikes geared at 44x16 73.4 gear inches 110RPM@24MPH
and 47x17 72.2 gear inches 110RPM@23.6MPH

My rides have been averaging 65RPM usually with a high of 105-115RPM depending upon the hills I take and the traffic.

There is very little truly flat road where I ride.
I feel a little slow when starting and on the worst hills I am just about doing a Track Stand by the time I hit the peaks.

There have only been a couple of downhills where I got that "yikes" feeling when I started to spin up too high.

I would also like a bit more braking power and get my average RPMs up.

I'm planning to try going to 44x18 65.2 gear inches 110RPM@21.4MPH and 46x19 64.6 gear inches 110RPM@21.1MPH
Does that seem like small enough change to not be too drastic but enough to make a difference?

You will have a fun time on descents at 65". Perhaps try one tooth larger and practice your spin before gearing down another step.

I did ride 44x17 for a few days and didn't spin out.

I will now have 16, 17, 18 and 19 to try.
They just won't all match finishes (egads!) as my 16/18 are chrome and the 17/19 are black.

The first time I got over 120rpm I was a little nervous.
I don't have the desire to go faster than 25mph which would be about 130rpm at my lower gearing.

Thing is, generally I am more often over-geared than under-geared.
Climbing sucks more than descents.

As I get stronger I might move back up, but my legs are pretty sore right now :)

If you get the "yikes" feeling from spinning too fast going down hills than gearing down will make that feeling worse. But at 44x17 you could skid pretty easily to control your speed.

Personally one of the things I love about fixed gear is if you wanna go faster, get to the top of the hill, or whatever, you just need to just pedal harder. Otherwise just get a bike with gears.

My hills get shallower after I do a 30-50mile ride with full-weight capacity loaded bags. Ride more?

That particular "yikes" was the first time I broke 130....wasn't sure about the road quality at the bottom.

It's not unusual for me to be on a 30# bike with a 20# bag on my back.

Went for a casual ride today with an RPM sensor.
i averaged 55RPM with a high of 103.
Im often kind of mashing up slow long inclines at 55rpm.

Would prefer to be up 5-12RPM

Then you should ride more and do some hill repeats. This sounds like a fitness issue.

I'm riding every day just 5-7 miies in short runs but any truly flat road is rare here.

doing a 5-12 mile ride once or twice a week.
My legs are pretty burnt right now.

When the lower gear gees too easy I can hear back up :)

I would ignore average cadences completely, particularly in an urban area. You need long periods of steady riding to get an average over 80 because everytime you stop or slow down, that average is being reduced. A better test is to work out what speed equates to what speed and watch that.

A max of 103 is ridiculously low. You really do need to work on your technique and ability to spin. That's about where I sit when riding easily on a flat road though I am geared down a little for climbing. You'll have a natural speed that you settle to and you want to gear your bike to give 90 at that speed. This isn't your top speed or what you'd brag to your mates about, it's the realistic speed that you settle on in normal riding.

I just limit myself to a certain amount of effort when I am riding.
What I have found is that when I am not trying to get a hard workout, I end up cruising around at about 60RPM.
Riding to the grocery store I'll max speed at 13mph unless I am working extra hard.

When I am trying, I am more in the 75-85RPM range which is 16-18mph.
On moderate or short big downhills, 100rpm-110 which is 21-24mph.

Just to clarify why I am even talking about this...
I see people saying they are riding high 70's-low 80 Gear Inches.
After doing the math and paying attention to my speed/gearing/RPM's I wonder how fast they are riding.

I also wonder what their 'target RPM's are.

Sure, I can get stronger and up my RPM with my current gearing....but in my neighborhood, it isn't safe to push 20+mph everywhere I go.
I don't ride in the park often, but the speed limit is 15 there.

Not that we want to be safe :)

I never ride fixed over 75gi on the street, and can easily descend at 35+ mph for extended periods. My urban fg bikes are are geared well below 70gi, and spinning out is never a problem, while I can get up any steep hills I encounter. You seem to be limited by your low cadence, and should work on increasing it. As far as all the big gear mashers are concerned, I'd take their advice with a grain of salt.

On flat ground, I feel uncomfortable/weak at less than 90 RPM. I guess my legs are weak, because I can't mash and generate power for any significant length of time. I feel like the only way I can maintain momentum/MPH is to rev really high.

Thanks.
Thats what I needed to know.
My 19T cog is arriving today and I've already got the old one off (Rotafix!) and ready for the new one.
So that Bike will be 46x19 64.6GI

BIG IMPROVEMENT

The first hard start I did I could feel the front wheel lifting off the road.
Nice.

Just did a little 1.5mi run that I do in the mornings....do a hard lap, stop and recover and do a few more reps.
Has up hills and downhills. One nastier uphill.
I beat my average time by :30
And I wasn't stalling at the crests of the hills like I normally do.

Still didn't go above 110RPM (22mph or so) but I was backpedaling due to traffic.
Cant wait to change my other bike over.

Nice. I used to ride 48x19 and it really supported my high cadence tendencies. I too do not feel strong going much lower than 90-80 rpm.

...what's that I just heard? the sound of your knees whispering "thank you"...?

Changed my boat anchor Schwinn to 44x18 today.
will be fun to ride this week if the rain lets up (freezing)

As your cadence adjusts to a higher spin. The spin will eventually bring a higher speed.

When I used to run 87 GI on my FG/SS (I used front and rear brakes and a shorty aerobar), I would cruise at 20-22 around the 80-85 rpm range. I didn't really have a 'target RPM', but since I was commuting to work on a relatively straight and flat path my only goal was to get to work in a reasonable amount of time and not by totally wiped out. 80 RPM's was relatively comfortable and after figuring out good starting acceleration technique getting to that range was pretty easy.

Before I sold that bike (I blame Bieber) I was able to get to 35 MPH at 135 RPM, flat no draft with the 53x16 gearing it had before spinning out.

87gi!
That would be interesting.

Here, I often am on uphill stoplights with angry cars behind me :)

Stopped on a hill with traffic behind you, doesn't sound like a good place to be.

Practice starts, I always try to make sure I ahead of traffic at lights (although I do yield until there's a safe time to go if necessary.) Usually, and I know some people disagree with this, but I believe in following the flow of traffic over lights and will keep it moving if I can, even through lights to stay ahead of or keep up with traffic. Some places have a box for bikes and motorcycles, but in most situations a bike at a light in front of cars can be asking for problems. You either end up splitting lanes, in the middle of a crosswalk, on the edge of the box next to crossing traffic, or right in front of a car, and when the light turns green you're gunna get honked at (you said angry cars.)
Gear ratio aside don't put yourself in positions that may cause injury, laws aside. I'd rather get home safe that get hit, even with the law on my side. I also don't believe in taking the lane and being one of those self righteous cyclists who thinks it's their right to back up traffic. I feel like I'm derailing this thread.

But anyway, he said 53x16 on straight and flat paths, and with front and rear brakes. So it obviously differs from the situation you explained, which has hills and whatnot. At 64 GI you should be tearin it up, I don't even wanna hear about any more complaints on hills. Also RPM's? Is it just me or am i the only one who doesn't keep track of this for normal riding. (Please excuse me if you're training for something.)

RPMs are pretty informative.
If you find yourself mashing a lot and your RPMs average low, you are over geared for your ride.
If you find yourself spinning out all the time you are under geared.

RE: Traffic
If you ride on the street here, it is unavoidable to block cars as we don't always have bike lanes and many of the streets are 4 (or 5) way stoplights or busy 4 way stop signs.
We also have a lot of streetside parking so you have to watch for "DOOR PRIZES" and J-Walkers while you are getting passed by cars.
Luckily those situations usually only last a couple of blocks.

If I can get from 0-18mph really fast I don't feel bad

My useless anecdote on gearing: My last fixed gear was geared 48/22 and I could smoke a decent percentage of the local ding-dongs. I say gear down. Run a front brake if you're spinning too fast on the descents.

If you're trying to not get dropped on a group ride, however, you basically have to gear for top speed. Cadence will be uncomfortably slow until the hard sections.