Originally Posted by 79pmooney

Suggestion - convert your gear ratio to "gear inches". This gives you a single number you can compare directly to any other bike, chainring and wheel size no longer matter. To do this:

chainring teeth divided by cog teeth times wheel diameter in inches.

For your bike: 48/17 X 27 (close enough to the actual diameter of a 700c tire) = 76.2" 72: is plenty close. I've ridden a 42/15 (and 700c) = 75.6" My days of big gears are long past and 43/17 is plenty big for me now but fast group rides are also long past.

Not everyone "gets" gear inches but it has been around for 150 years and has been coming back recently. It is the big wheel of the old high wheeler (and kid's tricycle). Thinking gear inches, you quickly realize why modern bicycles with chains were such a breakthrough, Not just safer and easier to ride. Very few people had legs long enough to ride a wheel bigger than 6 feet. 72" Think trying to race in a gear that low.

I rode just one or two cogs for many years, then for the fun of it, got a bike where I can run a big selection of cog sizes without messing with the chain. I now have every cog from 12 to 24 teeth, have a flip-flop hub and take that bike into real hills. I also often go for flattish rides with two cogs one tooth apart and rife whichever cog suits my fancy that day. (Often start on the bigger one, flip when I'm warmed up and out of town and flip back to cool down coming home.

Just giving you ideas. I've been riding fix gears 40 years and love 'em. 10 years ago decided to make them more interesting.

Ben