high gear ratios
 

Over my time here on BF I have read a lot of peoples' posts about how they were into fixed gears before the fixie boom. I have also read a few times that it was common for people to keep their gears inches in the high 60's for street riding. So I am curious, how did the mentality that 70-75 GI is best come around? The idea of MASH

Did it start as a way to separate oneself from roadie culture and their SPIN mentality? I love my multi-speed, I love my fixed gear. I started riding fixed with 52:18, I found I hate mashing and moved down to 48:18. Still then I wanted to go lower and I went 48:19. Here I am happy. To hold 20mph I have spin as I would on a road bike and I'm not scared of hills because I have learned to really crank.

i ride 81 GI around the city and it feels great! hills are a different story... i'd tell myself to just suck it up but its killer on my knees and calves.

i feel like high 60s for normal riding a bit too low unless you're trying to develop a smoother cadence. 70-75 is good all-around for city and hills/descents. but everyone is different.

Probably more depends on ones preferred cruising speed and the stop frequency where one rides. For that reason higher GI than you note works much better for me.

I recently swapped out the freewheel on mine from the stock 16 to the shimano 18t. I was originally going to get the 17t but my LBS didn't have it in stock. No worries, feels AMAZING. I can't stress it enough I love actually spinning not mashing. Mashing for me always felt terribly inefficient and never floated my boat. But 70 GIs=phenomenal for me.

I think maybe cadence instead of speed. There's no big limitation on speed at the low gears unless someone just can't spin very well.

Same here. Even when I was riding at a high speed, the low cadence just made me feel slow and bogged down.

neww here, but ive been browsing for ages.

Ill jump in and say this: im pushing 80.6 gear inches in nyc, and when it comes to races in the park, i still should be pushing a higher gear ratio. if you can push a high ratio, youll be that much stronger when you switch out to a lower one. as it is, i push around 160rpm at 34 or 35 mph... not bad for the downhills in the park, and i can really haul ass up any hill you throw at me.

just to summarize... racers will look at any common "street ratio" and laugh at it. You just cant compete against the guys who can actually push a higher ratio

I ride 48x16, and I only feel like I am mashing when I am going up hills.

Everywhere else feels fine, spinning is not hard.

43x15 for the summer; 42x16 for the winter. I have two brakes, so I don't care about skid patches, just what feels comfortable.

Well I'm not asking about racing. More than half the fixie riders I see don't do fast group rides or anything of the sort but they run high gears and pedal real slow. This is what I'm curious about. They obviously suck at pushing a high gear but there's some social force that keeps them from using their noodle and gearing down.

I do have a smaller cog on the other side of my wheel for when I want to take my fixed gear on a real fast paced ride. If you're a real fit rider and can haul ass then more power to you with the higher gears. But it still seems like a PITA for normal street riding.

It seems like most of the new off the peg bikes come with gearings in the mid to high 70's (track influenced) while those who used fixed gear bikes as winter trainers usually ran gearings no higher than 70.

For an all around gear I like to be at that 70 gear inch mark as then there is nothing in my day that I can't overcome be it wind, hills, bad terrain, etc.

The winter bike runs a much lower gearing as do the fg tourers.

But the road bike runs 72 and 80 for those days when it's all about going fast.

That's exactly. For a month this summer I had a 52x15 set up on my fixed gear road bike. I had an idea that I'd enter the local TT series in true Merckx style. Never did, and riding around with that monster gear was a real ***** from stop sign to stop sign. (Although it did really fly out on the open road!)

i like the mid sixties.

Same.

Of course there's a limitation - you might be able to spin 120rpm fine, but 150? 180? more? Even if a rider can do it well, might he prefer something lower?

Your steady power output, with your preferred/most efficient cadence, gives a cruising speed. Your cruising speed, with your preferred/most efficient cadence, gives a gear ratio.

if you live in a flat area, and would like to go on rides that avg 20+mph, then something in the high 70s-low 80s work well while still being streetable. if you're just using it to commute or go to bars, then something in the mid 60s-low 70s will be better.

not really applicable to fixed gear. 18t may feel better on a ss because you can coast down the backside of the hill you just spun up. on a fixed, you gotta find a balance between killing your knees on the way up and spinning your brains out on the way down.

I ride 75.6GI in a very hilly town, and it feels just about perfect. I have to mash the pedals on quite a few inclines, but I also have enough top end that I don't coast too much (I ride SS, not fixed). I plan on upgrading to lighter wheels and tires in the future, and I'll probably swap my 16T for a 15T, which would give me 80.6GI.

I think one's preference has a lot to do with where they ride (flat areas vs hilly) and overall leg strength.

i just went from 68" to 75" a couple days ago. it feels a lot better in the flat urban areas that i usually ride. sometimes i go out to the hillier suburbs which kind of kicks my ass. but it's not unbearable or anything and i expect my legs to build up to the task over time. plus it discourages me from skidding around like an ***hole burning through perfectly good tires.

youre not a man unless youre 52x15 on the street.

Well we're not really answering the question. I just want to know if what I read was true or false. If true, then what caused the change.

Anyone tried a 12 tooth cog?

I saw that Sugino do a 12t Gigas cog, might be good to get my gear inches up as being as I have a 44t chainring. It's easier to just swap out the cog than change the chainring.

you da man

That's why I have Batou as my Avatar!

I'm pretty sure people just think they will be perceived as tougher if they have a steeper ratio. Simple as that.

Exactly. Sure I can spin up to 150 for a sprint, but prefer to cruise for longer distances 90-110. I don't consider that range to be mashing anyway. That is why I like around 80GI. 48x15 at 90 is about 23mph and gives overhead for when the pace picks up. I put in 7k miles in 2008 at an average speed of 19.7mph. That is ~80rpm average, which accounts for fast descents and some mashing up hills. I used to run a lower ratio, but just could not keep up at the faster paces for any longer stretches.