Have my first FG built, have yet to ride it. Is 55t X 19t ridiculous? No hills to cover, just flats. Thanks in advance, HR.

https://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

I roll 70 odd Gear Inches for hills, and can do about 20 on flats and sustain it

for flats, people run up to about 80-85GI

Find What works for you

That's not an unreasonable place to start, especially if you don't deal with hills very often.

What works for you all depends on your level of fitness.

There's no shame in gearing down. My fixed gears run 44x20, 42x16, and 52x20.

I know some people directly correlate gear inches to penis size, but test it out and ride what your are comfy with. I started with 48x16 and just adapted it. I have climbs galore where I live and at first would cringe every time I approached one. If you live in a flat area then start out high!

I run 53x19 and like it pretty well for town riding. I don't think I'd ride anything above 75 gear inches seriously around town for anything other than an alleycat where I knew the course was going to stay flat, though.

its pretty flat here to, i ride 53x17 (84")
I sometimes run a lower gear , but it gets boring on the flats.
Oh forget skidding with that gear, unless its raining.

Find what works best for you. I originally ran 42X16 here in Louisville which is pretty flat with only moderately sized hills. But I eventually went to 48X16 because I find it to be the perfect compromise because it allows me to keep up with the typical roadie and/or paceline on the open roads yet it's low enough to make sprinting from light to light through the city streets, storming into head winds coming off the Ohio River and climbing the hills a relatively casual affair.

Do you like your knees?

why would riding a big gear damage your knees?

There's a reason I no longer wear platform shoes... you do the math.

then you better go tell the roadies, they ride with 53x11, 52x12

Obviously my attempt at humor was missed. Tall gearing... tall shoes... nevermind.

It's not a big gear, it's 76 inches on a 23mm tire, 78 on a 35mm. A San Jose comes off the line @ 70 inches. 53X11 is 124 inches. I'd say this is a perfect starting point. Spokane's a bit hilly though I think (I was there for about 20 minutes once) You may choose to go lower in the future.

50x18 is fine for me and im doing hills in my area...u should be fine

i can skid my 85" on anything, riding platforms and a heavy cheap steel frame with lazy geo yeah!

(yes, my knees and tops of my feet hurt.

at first.)

55x19 is fine to start with on a 23c tire. I ran about the same for awhile untill I started getting hit with wind. That nice 22-23mph cruising speed gets nailed in headwind so I geared down just a tad to 73GI and it helped and I can climb decent grade with the 73GI. On my last long ride I walked two hills that had everyone else in their granny gear rolling as fast as I was walking, so it's all relative I guess.

I'm rocking 57x19...
is it too much? at times, yes (mostly because of hills)

other times, uh uh (mostly because of hills)

I don't see how it is a tall gear...basically same as a 46 X 16 right??? Am I missing something here?

I'm curious, why did you choose this gear combo? It's the same as several other combos with smaller (and probably more easily available) chain rings. You could be on a 48x16 for example, or a 42x14. Aren't rings that big pretty expensive?

Well A it looks cool, you dont really need a B after that. But bigger rings and cogs generally have a smoother feel to the a generally wear a little slower.

To HOLYROLLER, I told you so. That actually not a terrible ratio, if it works for you why change?

feels smoother
as for price, i got a very good deal on ebay

Rode it, crashed it, love it...and yes it looks awesome. Will be posting pics soon. Thanks all for the input.