Originally Posted by
westBrooklyn
Thank you.
couple more questions:
- What is the average or standard or recommended gear ratio for a single speed?
- On the wikipedia page for bicycle gearing (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_gearing) it gives some examples. For shorter rides (up to 5 miles) use a gear around 60. How does that gear number relate to the gear ratio?
- Regarding the issue of a lower gear ratio complicating going down hills, is that really an issue with a single speed? Or is that more of a fixed gear problem?
thanks again for the help.
"Average" ratio is around 2.5-2.8 or so.
So 44/16 is a kind of common. Again, it depends on how much hill you have to climb and how strong you are.
Too low of a ratio is not that much of an issue for singlespeed since you can coast down hill.
Gear inches = diameter of the tire (in inches) times the number of tooth on your chain ring divided by your number of tooth of your cog.
For example, a person with a 700x23c wheel running a gear ratio of 44/16 will have a gear inches of 72.3
You can do it with a common calculator if you know the diameter of your tire.
700x23c tires are 26.275
700x25c tires are 26.375
700x28c tires are 26.75
then you pick whichever tire size
26.275x44 = 1156.1
then divided it by 16
1156.1/16= 72.25625...round it off to the nearest tenth.
72.3 gear inches.
I also posted a calculator on your other post, here it is again
http://software.bareknucklebrigade.c...it.applet.html