So I'm happily running 53/19 on my Panic (no pics yet) that is my daily commuter and fun ride bike. I don't think twice about putting in 40-50mile rides on, have a 20mile RT for work and screw around in general on this bike. I'm also a bg fella and I'm pushing 265 at 6'2". I spin out at anywhere from 60 uphill to 95-100 on the flats. I was told by my LBS that given my size and what I'm putting down daily thru the pedals, that loosing the inner ring would be a bad idea since its lending a hand to keep my 53 from folding. Other than that I think its a nice looking commuter conversion. Running an ENO hub laced to Sun 27" Touring box section eyleted rims with DT 14g spokes. I had a tendency to break spokes on this and my MTB before the hand laced wheels...

Anyway, the question is would stepping down to a 44/15 (or whatever gives me 75 inches) increase my spin? I really like the combo I'm running now but I'm worried that a 1/8" 53 would still have a tendency to fold on me. For a guess-timate of 'power output' I can do 10 miles in about 27 minutes with some hills.

Long post but want to do this the right way and not strand myself with a folded ring 5 miles from work at 430 am...

Thanks ahead of time...