Originally Posted by
MattRennick
i don't think 44/15 is unreasonable for a new rider but if you're experiencing knee pain - aside from bike fit as you mentioned - too high a gear ratio for you might have something to do with it. try dropping it and see what happens. 44/16 doesn't give you a lot of skid patches, though, so if that's a concern drop to 17. do you have / are you using a brake?
one other thing to consider;were you heavy into biking before you started riding fixed or has it sort of "re-introduced you to cycling" so to speak?
It may be a riding style as well, particularly if you're riding brakeless. Roaring off then braking with your legs eccentrically loads your legs and if you do it a lot and you're not used to it, pain will result. If you're running brakeless try to work more on your flow as opposed to stop and go. Similar riding with a brake.