When I first started out with my crappy Retrospec "fixie" and I was 7 years younger I was running a stupid 53/16 (87.1 GI) ratio with mini aerobars. At the time it made sense, I was commuting on that gear on flat roads and I felt safer keeping up with traffic. I watched tons of UCI track videos, emulated how to do track starts, getting into the aerobars, and loving the feeling of going as fast as possible. According to my cateye I was averaging 23 mph and hitting 32 mph top speed give or take a few depending on the day. On a ride with some roadies I hit 36 on a sprint before I had to slow for a traffic light.

In recent years I've dialed it down to 48/16 (78.7 GI) which i feel comfortable at. I did all my vacation rides on that gear (anywhere between 45-80 miles) and my natural selected cadence put me around 18 mph on flat straights, which if I'm honest it was to keep warm on one trip because it was raining and 45 F, the effort kept my core warm.