Originally Posted by
no1mad
Actually, you do- just pick a gear combo on your current bike and then don't touch the shifters

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Indeed. And to make it even more accurate: choose the "heaviest" gear combo you can comfortably accelerate from a standing start in. Then see if you can go fast enough in that gear. The fact that there are no hills on your commute means you can probably use a quite heavy gear, though if you have to stop a lot for intersections and such, you don't want to ruin your knees every time