Add or Remove a Tooth?
 

After this mornings high speed run into work with three road bikers, I have decided to either add a tooth up front or drop one at the rear sprocket. I’m leaning towards a larger front sprocket since I have a fair amount of chain slack and clearance in the dropouts and therefore wouldn’t have to add a link. Any opinions on which way to go are appreciated.

Removing 1 tooth in the rear would actualy give you a higher gear ratio then adding one tooth up front and unless you already have the chain ring probably a less expensive way to go. And it's easy to remove a link to get the chain the right length when you remove a tooth in the rear if it is needed.

Depending on your setup now, going to a one tooth larger chainring is not gonna make a heck of a difference..........you may not even feel the slight increase in gear inches. Go with the smaller cog.

I think the genral phrase is "one in the back is the same as three up front"

You would add a tooth to one or the other to raise the gear.


Gear Calculator

just do a small calculation. say you run 42/17. that's 26.3*42/17 = 65 gear inches on 700C wheels.
then removing a tooth from the back would give you 26.3*42/16 = 69 gear inches.
adding a tooth in the front gives you 26.3*43/17 = 66.5 inches, not much improvement.

usually, 4 to 5 gear inches is a noticeable increase. do some calculations and see what size ring you need.