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?
I was riding a cruiser for two years, and then this spring I got a road bike and just fell in love with the feeling of speed. So I was definitely biking, but it was more A to B; whereas now I'm biking just because I like it.
I ride with a front brake but try not to use it unless I need to (getting surprised by a door, pedestrian, etc.). I'm starting to get the hang of 'flow', not pushing too hard to get to a red light. I'm not into skidding yet as I just put cages on my pedals today. I guess that's something I'm going to be working on eventually.
Oh, that reminds me of another thing I wanted to ask- Do most of you do your own repairs/mods to your bikes? I've never been into that before but I've so far put a new seat on and installed new pedals. Where do you all go for parts/tools/advice?