I've heard this term thrown around a lot in reference to gear ratios, but what exactly does it mean? I currently ride 42x16. I'm a pretty tall dude with long legs. Tonight someone suggested I get a bigger front cog to prevent 'spinning out'. Thanks in advance

You can't stop pedaling - it's the first thing you learn on a fixie. If you have too small of a gear, and go really fast, you can't shift, either. So your feet feel like they are going to fly off the pedals. Also, there gets to be a max RPM that you can push your feet, at which point you just can't seem to go any faster...

How is this;
With tired legs it is harder to resist and slow down the achieved momentum going down a hill. Without brakes to slow down the momentum you are now out of control. At this point you are meat.
If this is not a problem for you with your gearing, then ignore them.
Does this explanation work with the rest of you?

icithecat, no. Gears in which you spin out are usually easier to stop in since they're low enough that you have no problem powering up to the point where you can't spin any faster. It's when you get into higher gears that you have a harder time resisting. Besides, spinning out is about pedaling not resisting.

Spinning out is when you'd like to go faster but you're pedaling as fast as you can go. You may have more power left but you can't deliver it any faster, so you should change your gearing to deliver a higher gear ratio.

this made great sense, but im not sure its a problem with me.
thanks everyone

I was thinking that this term was in reference to when 'my friend the idiot' was coming down a 13% grade and could not stop because his legs were spagetti after climbing it and had no more power to resist. With no brake to slow him down, the inevitable happened.

[QUOTE=icithecat]when 'my friend the idiot' /QUOTE]

This is got to stop people. Just because we ride brakeless dosen't make us idiots. What make your friend an idiot is not being able to swallow his pride and walk down the hill. I refer you to a testimonial about going brakeless that states it better than I can. Please read:

https://www.oldskooltrack.com/files/home.frame.html

I realised the link was not working correctly so here is the article in full taken off the forementioned link:

How it Started
After two crashes in as many days last week, I knew something must be up. At first I thought it was a sign that I needed a better brake, but then I got to thinking (and riding) and it came to me....
Am I Really Doing This??
Of course, I was somewhat dubious about my conclusions. My "common sense" kept flaring up: this is berkeley after all, and I don't live in the flat part anymore- I live in the hills. How could it be safer to ride without brakes? So I devised an experiment, of sorts- I'd ride brakeless for a week, or at least as long as it took the new brake to come in the mail, and if I still had faith in my conclusions, I'd keep the brake off.
Yes Am I Really Doing This!!
Well here we are, a week later, and I am brakeless, and a safer rider for it. I am more aware of traffic, of pedestrians, of doors. I ride more flow, no sprints followed by quick deceleration at the other end of the block, simply because I have to. I find myself not taking the same risks I would with the "safety net" of the brake. I ride at a more laid back pace, to facilitate braking by backpressure, and I'm not tempted to go faster, especially because I have not yet mastered skipping/skidding. I wear a helmet where I wouldn't where one before.
Perfect Control
The culmination of the week was last night, when I took the fix to the Berkeley critical mass (yeah, we like to do things differently here in Berkeley...) and rode 2+ hours brakeless, feeling perfectly in control the entire time. Besides this fact, I met another brakeless rider (with an awesome old skool cinelli) who had come to the exact same conclusion- and he'd been riding brakeless for a year.
So I thought I'd make my joining the ranks of brakeless riders official. This is my testimonial.

Ride ON!
© Jeremy Till, 2004

Spinning out is when you can't go any faster because you're legs can't keep up. I ride 42-16 and I got a speeding ticket doing 32 in a 25. It was flat, and I was spinning as fast as my legs would go (my cruising cadence is over 100). 185 dollars later, I realized that even wuss gears like 42-16 can get you in trouble. As OneTinSloth knows, the only reason I run such a granny gear is so I don't get myself busted, but guess what... I did!

EDIT: This is my third speeding ticket on a bicycle... Cops suck!

Its your own fault for riding with a hat that has your name on it.

where are you getting tickets? i mean i know that cops can be anal in school and residental zones as i was talked to a couple weeks ago for going around a schoolbus that was letting some kid out...which i knew was wrong..as i told the cop, which may have led to my not getting ticketed..that gawd..

I can handle about 155 rpms under control, but can hit 180+ on the trainer.
I look forward to topping 40 mph using a 52x16t gearing once my broken shoulder
can handle the strain. I zoomed down a hill on a ride with some geared roadies
at over 36 mph (44X16T.) The woman behind me said I was, "spinning like a madman."

Hehehe... I hear that. I was motorpacing on one of the parkways here (Jamaicaway for anyone who cares) at just shy of 35 mph on a 48/17 earlier this spring. F'ing A my legs were whirring away. I understand some people can push a cadence like that without too much difficulty. I bow down.

If I got a speeding ticket on my bicycle I would frame that ****. And probably hug the cop, too.

Just thought I'd note that.

Whatever 'spinning out means', I 'spun out' about half an hour ago. I was running a 42x15 on my main ride which is what I am used to, and a 40x15 on my winter beater (which I was riding today). I changed the 15 cog to a 17 to make it better in the snow and today was the first time I got to give it a real test.

I was headed back home and hit this really steep downhill with pre-rush-hour traffic zooming down it, thinking 'feck' yeah, lets get some spin on!' Boy did I ever. I was passing all the cars cold chillin', but I noticed that the pedals were increasingly pushing my legs, not the other way around, so rather than slowing down, I decided to put more juice onto the pedals to get back control. This only made the problem worse, because I started spinning way faster than I could handle, and all of a sudden -POP- my feet just get ejected right out of my power grips.

So now I'm anything but cold chillin', hurtling down this hill at around 50km/h with my legs stuck out to the side and the cranks fiendishly churning at their own will. If that wasn't bad enough, a car catches up to me, and starts honking like crazy at my ass! Thank sweet little Jesus I didn't let my balls get the best of me when I built my bike up; a front disc brake is all the stopping power a man could ever need.

Moral of the story? I'll probably try to hit the same hill again tomorrow!

Front brake = allows you to go faster because you can stop faster.

No front brake = will make you more aware of your surroundings, but you will be riding slower especially down hills. In flat terrain there is porbably not much difference.

Your call. Personally, I believe either way is as safe as the other. My front brake is currently back on, because I was sick of going down Fulton at the speed of snail. Didn't feel very Zen.

Ha! Fricken genius! Tell us another!