I'm going to be relocating to SF at the beginning of the month for my new job!

What's the best suggested gearing for someone who, by all accounts, is a super wussy?

I'm currently running 40x16 in Austin...I have a 42t ring as well, but that brings the pain to my knees right quick.

Cheers, if you find me there, i'll buy you a beer!

better start training if a 40/16 is hurting you in austin!

its real flat in oakland you know.....

40x16s' fine....or 42 even better til you build the strenght to push the big manly gears

40/16 is comfortable for me. I started too high, and hurt myself, so now im back down to 40/16.

Oakland...Im staying in corporate housing in oakland for a month, and i'll be using the fixie to commute from housing to the BART and back, but im fixing (hah) to find an apartment in the city. Once that happens it'll be a mix of the Vespa and the Fixie to get around.

oakland is flat. no sweat. i still turn 46x18 in sf!

now there are hills in oakland...long billy goat hills...i tend to stay away from...well not really, i love redwood road-skyline-that whole montclair area....beautiful climbs....

I rock 46x16 on my bike with a brake and 45x17 on my brakeless trackbike (easier to climb up and skid down hills). When I first started riding fixed in the city I was using 42x16 and that seemed ok, but if 40x16 is hurting you in a flat city you're in for a surprise. My advice: work on your spin with that 40x16 and then step up gradually until you find a gear you can climb with and get good speed in the flats. Work on high rpm distance and you'll be fine once you start hitting the hills.

Let us know when you get here so we can take you on a ride and introduce you to all the bars, er I mean "bike routes".

Edit: Also, don't be too worried about the hills, there are ways around most of them. We'll show you...

I rode 40x16 for a while. Once I got stronger, I changed to 43x16 on one bike and 47x18 on another (both about 70 inches). 40x16 made my 2 mile climb home pretty doable but the crazy spin downhill was too much. 70 inches is a good compromise.

You'll have to do your commute and test out your gearing until you find a gear thats right for you.

i ride 43X15. i live in oakland but have no problems in the city, but then again i try to avoid big hills.

If 40x16 is hurting you in a flat city, don't ride fixed in SF... health is more important... Some people have better knees than others.. you should listen to your body and heed the warning signs before you get into some REAL knee problems... try rocking the singlespeed non fixed at a super low gear?? bomb down the hills past the fixed crew! lol...

Yeah, I don't really want to switch to single speed...the continuous flow and connected feeling I get with the fixed kinda overrides all of the discomfort. To be entirely honest, just one of my knees really acts like a jerk, and its not inside the knee, its the ligaments below it that start complaining when I get on with the high spinning. It only really starts getting tetchy when I do 15-20 miles in a day. I've been out training just about everyday on a 10 miler for the last three weeks without a single pain--I attribute it to stretching after my ride.

I should probably try different gear ratios--it may be the lower teeth and spinning that's causing my problem..

I've been pretty happy with 38x15 on 26" slicks in oakland. But I do have an 18 tooth cog on the other side just in case.

Do you ride clips or clipless? If clipless, have you had your cleat fitted or adjusted to best match your knee movements? Also, I've had knee pains on the outside, lower side of my knee if my saddle is adjusted just 1/2 cm too high.

I'm currently riding 38x18 on my fixed gear ('been riding fixed for barely 3 weeks now) in SF. All of 55 gear inches!

I commute to downtown from near Golden Gate park. My first 2 days on the bike I had 50x18 on it, which was way too high for me to start out with. I thought the 38 tooth ring was going to be too small, but it turns out that it's a great compromise -- I can't get going very fast (about 17MPH at 100 RPM), but then I rarely got above that on my geared bike either due to traffic, stoplights, etc... and I can get up all the hills I need to (I live at the top of a 15% grade).

As my legs get stronger, I'm thinking of moving up to 40 teeth on the front, and putting a 17 or 16 tooth cog on the other side of my flip-flop hub, but I probably won't go much higher than that in gearing.

I spin 42x16 which does me wheel except on long hills or the super steep ones but can still bomb most downhills without a problem. My room mate spins 42x17 and is in bad shape but can still cruise uphill but is a sitting duck downhill or even on flats. Let me know if you need the tools to change cogs. I have a lock ring wrench (rip off) and chain whip and stuff.

i'm running 44x16, no problems! as Judah mentioned, there's always a way around the hills. plus, you get to put in more miles this way.

on an aside, i'm very proud of myself for getting to the top of twin peaks on 44x16. really hard work, but damn rewarding. we should do a twin peaks ride some time! from up there, it takes approximately 40 seconds to make it to the Zeitgeist and get a Stella in hand

no wonder all you guys were off to such fast starts...my 53x17 a monster up some of the hills, but it more than makes up for it in the flats...where i spend most of my time...

So you live in Austin and are moving to SF? Bah! You suck! (j/k) .....[mumblegrumble wish i could live in all teh cool places]

heeh, good luck over there, lotsa good riding to be had. I spent all my time as a teen and grown?up in Tx in Houston, we visited Austin regular like, when we could stand it no more.

wanna hear something really funny?

well my bar manager at the bar i work at is from austin.....and the owner of the coffeeshop i work at during days...is from houston...i perfer houston over austin to be honest....and i'd take galveston over both....

yeah it goes both ways, Houston has much more of the "Big City" to it, if you live in Austin you visit regular like for that. gotta have Big City! until i get old-er anyway