Originally Posted by
79pmooney
I simply don't resist on the downhills. Not healthy for my knees. Regular (excellent) caliper brakes are on all my fix gears and I have no qualms whatsoever about using them.
I am not sure what Road Fan means but I use 3 chainrings on my Mooney. Each aligns with its own cog. this means I can make very large ratio changes with out being limited by the not very long late '70s Campy dropout. I ran 46-42-36 for Cycle Oregon and typically 13 and a 17-21 double cog in back. (Like the Surley with its trademarked double cog but using 1/8" cogs.) This gave me gears of 46-13 (96 gear inches), 42-17 (67") and 36-21 (46"). (any gear works - as long as the chainring and cog add up to roughly the same number. Here, 46+13 = 59, 42+17 =59 and 36-21 = 57. I can unscrew the double and use a 24. 36+24 = 60. All of these keep the hub nicely on that dropout.
I meant a chainring / sprocket pair which you intend to ride together. Chainring, cog, sprocket, pinion? We should look up their definitions, it might be surprising.
Regarding my thoughts about decelerating. If it’s wrong to assume some kind of reverse foot force is used to slow down, I can only say it’s a learning experience, and thanks to 79pmooney!