Originally Posted by
carleton
Measure your seat height from your bottom bracket to your seat rails, not from the ground to your seat rails. Track bikes generally have a higher bottom bracket (positioned higher off the ground). If the BB is 2cm higher off the ground than your other bike, then it stands to reason that your saddle should also be 2cm higher. But, if you measured from the BB to the saddle rails of both bikes, they would likely be the same.
Also, 49/16 is not close to being equal to 52/18. Every 3 tooth change in the front ring is approximately equal to 1 tooth change in the rear.
52/18, 49/17, and 46/16 are all approximately the same. The 49/16 that you mention would be a bigger gear ratio by approximately 6 gear inches which would feel significantly different.
I beg your pardon, you're right, I meant 49/17. Would that be the same as regards ease or difficulty of back pedalling?
I always measure my seat height by sitting on the bike with my heels on the pedals and setting them so that my legs are very slightly off-straight with the pedals at their lowest point. With my fixed gear, and toe clips, I find I want to sit slightly further from the pedals.