SD Fixed

In my udulation that I beat the mystical hill outside my house.. I figured I was now a fixed gear convertee.
Second day, and I snap the chain on the uphill. The chain broke into 5 pieces on me, I speared my stomach with my stem and nearly flopped onto my side.
I'm still laughing though. So busy thinking how cool it is and bink "what" crunch, there I am...

Anyway, I find out that the 1/8th cog in back is married to a 3/32 upfront and that the slop as the 1/8 chain goes over the 3/32 ring is probably what killed the chain.

Surly (@#$@#) doesn't make a 15 tooth rear cog in 3/32, financially, it made better sense to change the rear cog.

So, I went from 44/15 to 46/16.

This morning the difference seems incredidable.

I've read Sheldon Brown's table about gear inches, and etc.. It's all greek to me really. All I know is that it was harder.. noticeably. Not anything crazy, but enough to make me take notice.

What I'd like to know, is, has anyone done a similar change, and how much harder was the "perceived" effort?

Also, what chains (in the 3/32 variety) has anyone had with a large degree of durable experience with.. and what lube do you use?

46x17

KMC Z610HX (silver, bushingless); made specially for single-speed drivetrains - $15.00
Is probably the toughest 3/32 single speed chain. I got mine from https://businesscycles.com/trcomp.htm#chains.

Keep in mind that bad chainline and bad lube will brake any chain eventually.

I use phil wood tenacious oil as chain lube. I ended up with this after trying almost everything else and against advice from many other people. I believe it is the best, but chainlube is almost as personal as saddle choice. Also, I do not recommend Surly cogs. The EAI steel ones are what I use.

I even notice a switch of one tooth in the chainring. 47 ring feels harder than 46 ring. Nnot much but definitely noticeable. Currently I am riding 46x18 and it feels perfect to me.

techone

When I did run a 3/32 drivetrain, I never had any problems with a sram pc-1 singlespeed chain.

Apparently 1 tooth difference in the back is close to 3 in the front. When I built my first fixie, I ran 42/15 (73.6) which was way too spinny for me, so I went up to 44/15 (77.1)...perfect! For a while... Eventually I found it was just too big for all day, stop and go riding so went down to 44/16 (72.3), which is lower than I started out with, but it feels great!

Was the 3/32 a 'geared' chainring? It may have just tried to shift and the tension caused the chain to explode. That happened to me once when I first tried SS just by removing the derailleur, leaving the freewheel cluster on, choosing a gear, and shortening the chain.

*new*guy

I like the PC-1 and you can't beat the price just don't use the master link or whatever it's called.

progre-ss

I'm running a 48x16 using Surly 1/8 cog and a 1/8 BMX chainring. The chain is a cheap BMX-branded KMC chain from Walmart. Still holding strong. I forget what lube I'm using but I do know that I'm not using it as often as I should.

*new*guy

try a bit more foreplay.

jfmckenna

I went from a 46/15 to a 42/15 mainly so I could get a perfect chainline by switching to the other side of the spider on my road crank. The 42 was a road chain ring that was old so I ordered a bmx 42 and when it came in they sent a 40T instead. I decided to keep it and as it turns out the 40/15 is perfect. Much easier to stop on breakless and easier to get up and go too. I just deal with the spinning. The bmx ring is 3/32 but the cog is 1/8. I am using a 1/8 sram chain with the power link.

ImprezaDrvr

I moved from a 42x16 to a 44x15 and it's definately more of an effort on the gentle climbs I usually do here. Haven't tried anything approaching much over 4% or so as of yet, but I think it's going to be significantly harder in spite of my increased fitness.

SD Fixed

Well, I killed the hill.

So, all is good. Actually, somehow, the hill wasn't as hard.

I'm digging it.

Harder for general riding, but better on the hill.