Originally Posted by
cartesian
Curious about your gear ratio. I recently moved to Santa Cruz, and some of these hills are crazy.
I rode a fixed gear in Santa Cruz for 2 years. I used a 42x16 ratio. It was fine for the most part. I was spinning pretty hard going down hills though. Biking up to campus kind of sucked, but then I got used to it after like 6 months of hating it (but I would always still be sweaty) - It was always just so slow. During my last year though, I ditched the fixed gear and switched to a freewheel single speed and was more comfortable. Anyway, it's definitely do-able if you wanna make it work. try 42x16 as a starting place?
Also, I wanna add that a lot the local scene at santa cruz don't like fixed gears. They're all into road bikes or mountain bikes. Fixed gears get associated with like "San Francisco liberal hippy rich kids" basically. I like the beaches and stuff at santa cruz, but I don't miss living there.