Yes another post by me...I have so many questions...

now regarding crank & cog ratio. I live in seattle...on capitol hill...and I have to deal with lots of hills...high, medium and low on every ride I go to...even to the grocery store..what is a good ratio to have? I'm not this super athletic person but I"m also no weak...and I don't mind sweatying too much but I'd like to not to have to walk my bike up a hill or be pedaling SUPER fast going down a small hill. Any suggestions?

it's hard to say

whatever you're comfortable with today will be far too easy for you in a month

whatever will be best in the long run will be a pain in the ass today

i would recommend something around about 2.6 to begin with. try to choose your chainwheel and cog so that you can get a good range around one chainring by switching your cog. eventually you may want to go as high as 3.0

nice gummo avatar boots

if you go with a lower gear ratio, you'll need to spin fast down hills, so go with a slightly shorter crank. if you go with a higher gear ratio, go for a slightly longer crank to give more leverage. with longer cranks, you run the risk of pedal strike unless your BB is sufficiently high.

I like ~75-80 gear inches as an all-purpose ratio. If you don't mind fast spinning, go lower. Flip-flop fix-fix hubs are good for flexibility in grocery-getting/barhopping vs training/racing/going fast

Okay someone needs to give me a link or something because I don't get it. my current crankset on my old motobecane has a 2 chain gears and one says 52 and the other says 40.

what about the cog? what is the difference in teeth numbers and what does the 1/2 x 1/8" mean?...(CLUELESS)

ok, you need to read this https://sheldonbrown.com/fixed/index.html and this https://sheldonbrown.com/gears/ will tell you about gear ratios (make sure you select 'gear inches' in the 'gear unit' dropdown).

1/2 x 1/8" means 1/2 inch pitch (the spacing between the rollers on your chain, and the industry standard.) and 1/8" means the the chain is 1/8 inch wide, which is pretty much standard for track chains (it's sometimes -- incorrectly -- called 1/8" pitch).

road chains are 1/2 x 3/32"; the pitch is the same as a track chain (rollers are 1/2" apart), but the chain is 3/32" wide.

you can run an 1/8" chain on 3/32" cogs and chainrings, but not the other way around.

Hhhmmmm..... maybe you should just go to Reload and talk to Ellie or something. I believe they're on pike and 12th or something like that, so that shouldn't be too far from you. Reload just makes bags, but they'd be able to explain/tell you what gear ratio you should be riding.

hey! i live on capitol hill, too, so i'm very familiar with all hills in the area.

i think 75-80 gear inches is too high, though. i'd go with something in the high 60s. dolface provided the link to figure out your gear inches from your chainring/cog ratio.

here's what i've got on my bikes:
bike one - 44t chainring and 17t cog (w/front brake)
bike two - 47t chainring and 18t cog (no handbrakes)

they work out to be pretty similar gear inches (~70). if i'm going up 24th ave after a long ride, sometimes i wish i geared lower. i feel like i'm mashing up the hills sometimes. but when i'm on flats or going downhill, sometimes i wish i geared higher. with one gear, you have to sacrifice one or the other.

hey habitus what do you think I should go for if I use a 40t chainring? w front brakes

14 or 15t.

I'm in Montpelier VT whgich is a pretty hilly city. I'm running 42x16 with a 27" wheel which sheldon says gives me 70.9 gear inches.

I can push it up the steep hills, but just barely. I assume it will get better, but for the meantime it works ok both up and down, and it's a decent ratio for spinning on flats.

...with the sound of music (lalalalah)

"Liesl thinks 40x16 is da bomb."

Agree w/Habitus - I recommend starting on the conservative side (40/16). You'll get stronger over time and front chainrings are cheap and easy to source.

FWIW, I run:
- 70 on my fixie commuter (front brake)
- 77 on the trackie (brakeless)

yeah...im around greenlake and the hill and started out in the same arena... graduated out pretty fast but if you go to recycled cycles chain rings are like $5 used... have you been there yet?

Not trying to hijack this thread but I think this question could help to OP as well.

When you want to go to a harder gear, is it easier to switch the chain ring or the cog?

I have a casette rear wheel so, technically, it is easier to switch the cog, yet for bigger changes is is easiest to change both, so the chain length = effective wheelbase remains the same. ( I am lucky enough to have 43, 50, 52 chainrings now when 46T one went to nolageek).

Golden.