ok, i have ridden fixed for 13 years. i have been through many many frames, have destroyed some incredibly saucy wheels, and through it all, have never staryed from my beloved 42-15 chain ring to cog, tooth ratio. it was the first gear i ever tried, out of necessity of course, and it has never been anything but perfect, until now.
i am now 33 years old, and i live in the hills. i don't drive, and i am forced to climb a VERTICAL mile a week on my fixie, and most of it steeper than i think is "comfortable" for the amount of time i am forced to endure it.

here is the question:

should i even consider trying a 42-17 combination, or is that going to destroy the perfection that exists in the balance that my bicycle and i have. and is this balance simply a result of riding the fixie itself, with the CORRECT gear combination, and not a result of the magic i have attributed to my 42-15 combination through years of putting it on the proverbial pedestal.

in the flats, i absolutely stomp through traffic, i could not ask for more from my bike, but going home every night feels like i am pushing on a brick wall for 20 minutes. can anybody with a lower gear tell me how the control suffers for you, if at all... i would certainly appreciate any input. also, i want to say, i think it is sad that we can't use the word p*ssy on this forum.

-- mu

well you are what you eat ha ha and now for more seriousness it is perfectly fine to change your gearing for riding conditions it rains alot during the winter here so my winter bike is geared 42/16 in place of my usual 49/18~16 I like the extra zip but my top seed suffers

spinning is not a bod thing makes you more efficient

My daily climb is also ~1000 feet. I manage it fine on a 69 inch gear (47*18). I like this gear a lot for around town too. Once you get the spin it's really not a big deal. I suspect that many fixed street riders push unnecessarily tall gears.

Use whatever combo gets you up the hill. If doing so somehow insults your masculinity, I guess that is your issue to work through.

riding fixed for 13 years, we should be asking you.

but since you asked, why not just size up your chainring a tooth or 2. Probably won't be too different, but just might make the ride home less painful.

are you seriously telling him to drop $50-$60 on a chainring that's only two teeth smaller

I don't think it would destroy anything!! Rather, you'll most likely enjoy the increased control. Retem's right that your top speed will prolly come down, but if your objective is otherwise, that shouldn't be a problem.

First, I would try borrowing a 16 or 17 cog (even somebody's whole wheel) to see if it's any better for you. If you find that that works, another option is to keep the 15 on one side for the ride in to work, and turn the wheel around for a shorter gear on the way home.

Just curious, but, what is the most often used gear ratio for track racers?

sorry off topic

If it were perfect, you wouldn't be posting about it, right? Stop getting so wound up in philosophical mumbo jumbo, and buy a smaller gear if you need to.

WAY off topic.

Back ON topic... why would you drop two teeth at once? I guess it's personal preference, but I'd much rather struggle up a hill than struggle down one. At the very least you should definitely try out a 16. It's possible that you'll enjoy it more than your long-time setup.

Guess you don't like your knees much.

Put a 17 or 18 tooth freewheel on the other side (if you have a flip/flop hub). No shame in using the freewheel for climbing, since you can't really coast uphill anyway.

well, i would say drop your inches down a bit. i used to ride around with a 46x16 ratio which is about 77 inches. i now ride 46x17 and would actually like to drop down a tad more. ideally i think a gear inches right around 70 is great for street riding. a lower ratio actually allows for more control- faster acceleration, easier to stop and skid and easier climbing hills (obviously). the only thing that really suffers is top speed and who really rides around at top speed all the time. even dropping almost 5 gear inches i've yet to spin out on any of my local hills and there are some steep ones.

if i was you i'd try out a new ratio and see how it feels. cogs aren't that expensive and it's always nice to have extras around to switch in and out, sell or lend to friends or make ninja stars out of.

Dinglecog!

yes.

but...but but but...who's going to think of the chainline!

I second this.

Or for the sake of your knees get a second bike with gears. Get the right tool for the right job.

I say, try something new. You can always go back. Change is good, or at least interesting.

i'm in a very similar situation. 42-15's my favorite, and i'm rockin 42-17 right now on the commuter.

of course it depends on where you ride, but i think your speed will suffer a lot less than you think. you'll still go fast when you want to, you'll just force yourself to spin faster.

the idea that toughness is proportional to gear inches is pretty ********. any p*ssy can ride in a big gear. i used to have a bike that was geared 49 15 and rode it around in traffic all the time, no problem. i may have saved afew seconds gettin to the bar or to work, but it wasn't really improving my fitness.

the ability to get decent power at high cadences is something that actually takes skill. roadies work on it all the tme, it makes you faster in real life situations and it gives you a better aerobic workout. in the winter this is especially important to me because i don't have as much daylight to ride in.

so go for it. and don't think of it as gearing down, think of it as training to spin faster.

Definitely try a lower gear, stick with it for a few weeks to see if you learn to spin.
If you have a flipflop hub, maybe try changing it every day (I know I would just end up using the same gear, out of laziness...)

i went from 52x16 (yikes!) to 50x19 and it was of course kind of weird at first, and i can't go as fast without really spinning hard, but i love it and my knees love me back.

here's what I've done in the past to figure out gearing. I graphed the different combinations to see what chainring/cog combinations gave me a variety of gearing with a linear progression. For your 42 tooth chainring, I input from a 15-17 cog. I also input the same variables using a 43 tooth chainring and you can see a pretty linear progression. See where you are and adjust in small increments.

You're probably tired after work. I start my commute home riding up two stories of spiral parking garage ramp on a 30 degree angle, then a mild grade for a couple blocks, not to mention that the rest of the way is entirely uphill, albeit on a gentle grade that you just get used to if you ride in Montreal. When I'm burnt, really hungry, or way stressed, it seems way harder, and either way, when the grade levels out I have to catch my breath for a good minute before I'm back to normal.

If you're really crawling, change your gear maybe, but how much time out of all your riding do you spend climbing this hill? Part of a singlespeed bike is not having optimal gearing for all situations.

And many people object to that word for a number of reasons that aren't difficult to figure out - I do anyway.

if you have to ask...probably