Go Back  Bike Forums > Bike Forums > Singlespeed & Fixed Gear
Reload this Page >

Preferred Gear Ratio

Notices
Singlespeed & Fixed Gear "I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer? We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear!"-- Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 - 16 August 1940)

Preferred Gear Ratio

Old 07-22-20, 07:42 AM
  #26  
FiftySix
I'm the anecdote.
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: S.E. Texas
Posts: 1,823

Bikes: '12 Schwinn, '13 Norco

Mentioned: 9 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1110 Post(s)
Liked 1,176 Times in 795 Posts
Originally Posted by coopman
The Wabi Urban Thunder bike has choices of 44/18 gearing for urban riding and 46/18 gearing for rural riding, if that is useful. It is certainly individually subjective.
It's nice they give you that option when you order it.
FiftySix is offline  
Likes For FiftySix:
Old 07-22-20, 09:21 PM
  #27  
Gresp15C
Senior Member
 
Gresp15C's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 3,893
Mentioned: 20 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1062 Post(s)
Liked 665 Times in 421 Posts
Slowpoke here: 46:19 on 27" wheels, which works about to about 65 gi. These were the parts that I found in the bin when I threw the bike together, and the ratio suited me pretty well. There are a couple hills in my locale that I can barely crawl up.
Gresp15C is offline  
Likes For Gresp15C:
Old 07-23-20, 01:16 AM
  #28  
Vintage Schwinn
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 635
Mentioned: 16 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 342 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 388 Times in 254 Posts
Here is just a bit more to expand on the great info and explanation that 79pmooney provided on "gear number" and how to calculate it.

IF YOU TAKE THAT "Gear Number" and multiply it by pi .................that will give you the NUMBER IN INCHES you travel with each revolution of the pedals.

REMEMBER THAT pi is 3.14

.....so "GEAR NUMBER" X 3.14 = amount in INCHES that your bicycle travels with each revolution of the pedals


Then take that RESULT IN INCHES and divide by TWELVE to convert into FEET which may will be more meaningful and easier to visualize.
(*****alternatively you could convert that RESULT in inches into METERS, YARDS or whatever measurement makes you the happiest!*****)


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To Recap and Summarize what 79pmooney briefly but expertly explained earlier:

TEETH ON FRONT SPROCKET divided by TEETH ON REAR

take that and MULTIPLY it by 27 or 26 depending on the size of your bicycle's wheel (USE 27 for 630mm(27)... and for 622mm(700C)....)
(USE 26 for the 597mm schwinn tire, the 590mm common 26 x 1 3/8 tire, the 650 a, 650b, 650c tires, the old 584mm, and 559mm tires....)

Example: 45 teeth on front sprocket ........ divided by 15 teeth on rear = 3
3 X 27 = 81 gear number
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW FAR YOU WILL TRAVEL WITH EACH REVOLUTION OF THE PEDALS,
Take that 81 gear number and multiply it by pi and that will give you the total in inches that you travel with each pedal revolution.
So you would multiply 81 X pi ...................which would be 81 X 3.14 since pi is 3.14 when limited to just two decimal places....
Even Jethro Bodine can do this simple calculation.
I know you probably think it is too simple to be useful but as 79pmooney pointed out, this has been around for ages and it is very useful.
FIFTY YEARS AGO,SCHWINN and other manufacturers routinely stated the "gear number" for each and the overall wide range for ten speeds and five speed bicycles.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________
It is important that you select the appropriate (27) or (26) to be your wheel size in the simple calculation.
Why? Well I hope this ancient example is okay, since I am an ancient Schwinn rider and collector.........
The ancient early seventies to late seventies FIVE SPEED Collegiates and FIVE SPEED Suburbans have the exact same freewheel(32-26-21-17-14) and 46 teeth front.
The SUBURBAN has 27 x 1 1/4 630mm wheels --and-- the COLLEGIATE has 26 x 1 3/8 those 597mm wheels.
Well excluding the math computation.................IF YOU WERE TO COMPARE the 46 teeth Front and 17 teeth REAR combination (which is 4th gear on these ancient schwinns)
Well that 27 inch wheeled SUBURBAN would have a 73 gear number for that 46 Front and 17 Rear .....and travel a distance of approx 19 feet with each crank revolution.......................................that 26 inch COLLEGIATE would have a 70 gear number for that 46 Front and 17 Rear and travel a distance of approx 18 feet with each crank revolution...................so what you already knew but probably didn't much consider and that is that yes the wheel size does influence the overall gearing, and as you can see that having identical front and rear sprockets on different bicycles can't be considered exactly the same in overall gear ratio UNLESS the wheel diameter is indeed the same between both bicycles.................or more or less the same where the slight variance or difference is immaterial and not meaningful.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________
here is another speed at cadence chart that you can see at the same bikecalcDOTcom site that Ga Dude posted earlier.
https://www.bikecalc.com/speed_at_cadence
Vintage Schwinn is offline  
Likes For Vintage Schwinn:
Old 07-31-20, 04:29 PM
  #29  
due ruote 
Senior Member
 
due ruote's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 7,707
Mentioned: 30 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 903 Post(s)
Liked 524 Times in 318 Posts
Originally Posted by Trakhak
79pmooney and I are among the very few (I would guess) people posting on BikeForums who have been riding fixed gear for decades. In my case, I got my first track bike (a Helyett Jacques Anquetil model with Reynolds 531 frame and pretty junky French components) in September 1964, so almost 56 years ago. I used a 51/19 gear combination, which is 70.5 gear inches.

Now, at 68, I mostly ride a Specialized Langster (the aluminum model from the first year of production) or a Felt (aluminum) TK2. Both have 48/18 gearing, which is 70.1 gear inches. I think I'm about ready to go to a 19 tooth fixed sprocket, though.
Wait - me too! Beginning around 1977. My standard is 42 x 16 with 700c x 28 or 32 tires.
due ruote is offline  
Likes For due ruote:
Old 07-31-20, 04:40 PM
  #30  
JamesFromBusan
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 13
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 5 Post(s)
Liked 1 Time in 1 Post
Originally Posted by Vintage Schwinn
Here is just a bit more to expand on the great info and explanation that 79pmooney provided on "gear number" and how to calculate it.

IF YOU TAKE THAT "Gear Number" and multiply it by pi .................that will give you the NUMBER IN INCHES you travel with each revolution of the pedals.

REMEMBER THAT pi is 3.14

.....so "GEAR NUMBER" X 3.14 = amount in INCHES that your bicycle travels with each revolution of the pedals


Then take that RESULT IN INCHES and divide by TWELVE to convert into FEET which may will be more meaningful and easier to visualize.
(*****alternatively you could convert that RESULT in inches into METERS, YARDS or whatever measurement makes you the happiest!*****)


____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To Recap and Summarize what 79pmooney briefly but expertly explained earlier:

TEETH ON FRONT SPROCKET divided by TEETH ON REAR

take that and MULTIPLY it by 27 or 26 depending on the size of your bicycle's wheel (USE 27 for 630mm(27)... and for 622mm(700C)....)
(USE 26 for the 597mm schwinn tire, the 590mm common 26 x 1 3/8 tire, the 650 a, 650b, 650c tires, the old 584mm, and 559mm tires....)

Example: 45 teeth on front sprocket ........ divided by 15 teeth on rear = 3
3 X 27 = 81 gear number
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW FAR YOU WILL TRAVEL WITH EACH REVOLUTION OF THE PEDALS,
Take that 81 gear number and multiply it by pi and that will give you the total in inches that you travel with each pedal revolution.
So you would multiply 81 X pi ...................which would be 81 X 3.14 since pi is 3.14 when limited to just two decimal places....
Even Jethro Bodine can do this simple calculation.
I know you probably think it is too simple to be useful but as 79pmooney pointed out, this has been around for ages and it is very useful.
FIFTY YEARS AGO,SCHWINN and other manufacturers routinely stated the "gear number" for each and the overall wide range for ten speeds and five speed bicycles.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________
It is important that you select the appropriate (27) or (26) to be your wheel size in the simple calculation.
Why? Well I hope this ancient example is okay, since I am an ancient Schwinn rider and collector.........
The ancient early seventies to late seventies FIVE SPEED Collegiates and FIVE SPEED Suburbans have the exact same freewheel(32-26-21-17-14) and 46 teeth front.
The SUBURBAN has 27 x 1 1/4 630mm wheels --and-- the COLLEGIATE has 26 x 1 3/8 those 597mm wheels.
Well excluding the math computation.................IF YOU WERE TO COMPARE the 46 teeth Front and 17 teeth REAR combination (which is 4th gear on these ancient schwinns)
Well that 27 inch wheeled SUBURBAN would have a 73 gear number for that 46 Front and 17 Rear .....and travel a distance of approx 19 feet with each crank revolution.......................................that 26 inch COLLEGIATE would have a 70 gear number for that 46 Front and 17 Rear and travel a distance of approx 18 feet with each crank revolution...................so what you already knew but probably didn't much consider and that is that yes the wheel size does influence the overall gearing, and as you can see that having identical front and rear sprockets on different bicycles can't be considered exactly the same in overall gear ratio UNLESS the wheel diameter is indeed the same between both bicycles.................or more or less the same where the slight variance or difference is immaterial and not meaningful.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________
here is another speed at cadence chart that you can see at the same bikecalcDOTcom site that Ga Dude posted earlier.
https://www.bikecalc.com/speed_at_cadence
That was extremely informative and broken down into an explanation that was reasonably easy to understand with your examples!

Thank you very much!

I’ll use this information for the rest of my days!
JamesFromBusan is offline  
Old 08-02-20, 09:51 PM
  #31  
ofajen
Cheerfully low end
 
ofajen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 1,965
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 642 Post(s)
Liked 1,040 Times in 663 Posts
Just this afternoon I set up my ‘88 RockHopper as a SS again, this time with 42/16.

Last time I ran 42/17 but that seemed a bit low so this time I did 42/16. That seems about right since we have an abundance of hills.

I’ve been riding just the 42/16 combination of a 1x7 gearing for the last week or so to make sure it would work out.

Otto
ofajen is offline  
Likes For ofajen:
Old 08-03-20, 01:11 AM
  #32  
GhostSS
Senior Member
 
GhostSS's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Hawaii
Posts: 639

Bikes: 2012 Switch Performance BlackSkin LE Urban, 2013 Leader 725, 1975 Fuji America, 1990 Giant Cadex 980c, 1986 Peugeot PH10LE, 1995 Trek 2120 Carbon ZX

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 5 Post(s)
Liked 22 Times in 13 Posts
When I first started out with my crappy Retrospec "fixie" and I was 7 years younger I was running a stupid 53/16 (87.1 GI) ratio with mini aerobars. At the time it made sense, I was commuting on that gear on flat roads and I felt safer keeping up with traffic. I watched tons of UCI track videos, emulated how to do track starts, getting into the aerobars, and loving the feeling of going as fast as possible. According to my cateye I was averaging 23 mph and hitting 32 mph top speed give or take a few depending on the day. On a ride with some roadies I hit 36 on a sprint before I had to slow for a traffic light.

In recent years I've dialed it down to 48/16 (78.7 GI) which i feel comfortable at. I did all my vacation rides on that gear (anywhere between 45-80 miles) and my natural selected cadence put me around 18 mph on flat straights, which if I'm honest it was to keep warm on one trip because it was raining and 45 F, the effort kept my core warm.

Last edited by GhostSS; 08-03-20 at 01:30 AM.
GhostSS is offline  
Old 08-12-20, 08:22 PM
  #33  
crankholio
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2020
Posts: 108
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 48 Post(s)
Liked 29 Times in 20 Posts
I ride very relaxed and slow gearing. It helps with hills, and also I'm slow in any case.

On my SS/FG, I run 47/21 SS and 20 FG.
On my around-town beater, I run 34/18.
On my mountain bike, I run 32/19.
crankholio is offline  
Likes For crankholio:
Old 08-13-20, 04:57 PM
  #34  
pbass
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SoCal
Posts: 1,186

Bikes: 2016 Surly Cross Check, 2019 Kona Rove ST

Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 284 Post(s)
Liked 313 Times in 211 Posts
Well, I gear low, 42x19 for me. I've got 16 and 17t cogs in my bin, but I live right next to the mountains and my ss sees lots of steep fireroads and trails (even right out my front door the first thing I hit is a 20% grade). And I just turned 60. Those are my excuses!
pbass is offline  
Likes For pbass:
Old 08-13-20, 05:57 PM
  #35  
ofajen
Cheerfully low end
 
ofajen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 1,965
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 642 Post(s)
Liked 1,040 Times in 663 Posts
Last weekend I also set up the ‘80s Schwinn road bike as SS, again with a 42/16 (roughly 71 gear inches).

That bike has a rear freewheel, so it’s using a SS freewheel I got at the LBS. I un-dished the wheel enough to get the chainline correct.

That bike is a total blast to ride! 👍

SS really works well for me around here, as we have only hills up to the level of river relief, typically 100 feet elevation up to 200 feet in the bigger ones. My usual rides only have hills up to about 100 ft elevation and on the steeper ones I typically just stand up and ride all the way up.

Also, a lot of my rides spend a fair amount of time on converted rail trails that have only modest ups and downs.

Otto
ofajen is offline  
Old 08-13-20, 09:20 PM
  #36  
Lakerat
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 516
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 213 Post(s)
Liked 37 Times in 21 Posts
I'll be 66 in a couple of weeks and my fixed road bike is 49-17 which is 76 inches. I ride an 18.2 route selected for as few large hills as possible, at least 4 days a week. A normal time is about an hour and 15 minutes including warmup.

This gearing is pretty perfect for the route I ride and my strength and endurance. Can handle the hills both up and and down and decent speed on the flatter areas of my route.

Last edited by Lakerat; 08-13-20 at 09:33 PM.
Lakerat is offline  
Likes For Lakerat:
Old 08-13-20, 11:04 PM
  #37  
79pmooney
Senior Member
 
79pmooney's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 12,830

Bikes: (2) ti TiCycles, 2007 w/ triple and 2011 fixed, 1979 Peter Mooney, ~1983 Trek 420 now fixed and ~1973 Raleigh Carlton Competition gravel grinder

Mentioned: 128 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4745 Post(s)
Liked 3,861 Times in 2,510 Posts
I rode my namesake today fixed up to the ridge line of the Chehelem :mountains"s southwest of Portland (1500' staring at around 200.) My old Peter Mooney is now set up fix gear with 3 separate chainlines. This was a challenge. I needed the gearing range to match the custom fix gear I mentioned in my post last page since I am nine years older than I was when i got that bike and the hills haven't gotten any lower. Now the big challenge with the Mooney is that the dropout is a fairly short standard Campagnolo horizontal dropout of the 1970s. Sliding the wheel to change cogs allows for fine gear tuning only.

So 3 chainlines. 3 completely separate gear systems except: all run with the same chain and each combo adds up to close to the same number of teeth so the hub stays in nearly the same place.

I left the house on the 44-17. (70") Got to the climb. Stopped and moved the chain inboard front and rear to 38-21 (49") Stopped at the top, turned the wheel around and moved the chain to the outside chainring. 46-13 (96") Rode down a 9% 2 mile small country road using plenty of brake (alternating front and rear) and backpedalins some for a nice easy descent in light that is tough on my eyes. Got to the bottom, went back to the original 42-17, added a couple of extra miles and rolled home.

Now, let me explain the "triple chainline". It is a combination of a double sided track hub (fix-fix), a triple crankset and a 'dingle" double cog on one side of the hub. (All cogs 1/8") So, starting in back - I run that "dingle, 17-21 on one side of the hub. I run my small cog (today the 13) on the other, I also dish the hub slightly so the dingle moves in about 2mm and the small cog out 2mm. The dingle was made with two separate cogs that I bought new. The 21 was flipped so the cog is right next to the spokes. (Chain goes exactly the speed of the spokes so minor contact doesn't matter.) A framebuilder cut out the center of the 17 so it slid nicely over the "inboard" (now outboard) portion of the 21. He made a steel "washer" as a spacer between the cogs and brazed the three parts together.

In front, I run an old Sugino 110 BCD crankset on a short Phil Wood bottom bracket. Three 1/8" chainrings. The two small ones are set like a normal double, 38 inside and 42 outside, Then the big difference. I run the third cog outside the normal outside, using custom long bolts and spacers. The bolts are 8mm flat heads with the heads on the inside, nice big stainless steel nuts on the outside. That 46 tooth large chainring is close to the crank but there is no front derailleur so it is not a big deal.

So, each chainring lines up (almost perfectly - certainly within the variations of crank locations on a tapered spindle) with its respective cog. This is NOT a 3 X 3 = 9 possible combinations, This a bike with three different velodrome worthy chainlines but none of them on the track standard line. My lowest gear is inside the track standard and the flat ground gear is outside that line. High gear another step outside that.

This was not an easy project. I designed it on a CAD program (with many trips to the shop with calipers). Had a framebuilder with real machining skills (Dave Levey at TiCycles) made the dingle and the chainring bolts. The bolts took two tries. A place where there could be no play but I still had to be able to assemble it!) And yes, the crankset assembly is time and patience consuming. But the end result? A classic English fix gear road bike that handles like a dream (thank you, Peter Money) AND I can take it into real hills as a 67 yo, Going up, I get to keep my knees and have then have a blast coming down. (The road limits my speed, NOT my ability to spin and the crotch damage I am willing to accept.) Best of all, every inch of the ride is fixed.

The Mooney has finally found its true calling. It was conceived as a bike that could be ridden in the lower 48 states 12 months of the year, do fast club rides, climb (I'm a born mountain goat), tour, and do a little off road. It's done all that. And its first calling - be the place I could go anytime to keep my sanity after a major TBI that made for years of recovery. I had no idea where I would be living. So when I ordered that bike (with a sole job of being my sanity link) I had no idea exactly what it was going to do or need, So it's a real all-arounder. Doesn't do anything really well. Not until 3 years ago when I took advantage to the long chainstays and big tire clearances and horizontal dropouts (just in case I ever wanted to go fix gear) and set it up to ride Cycle Oregon's ride to Crater Lake with miles of gravel. Did this crazy conversion so I could enjoy the gravel fixed on big tires. Yes, it worked! Really well. But I had to try fast tires also, of course. And wow! This is what this bike was made to do! So at year 38 it found it's niche.

Oh, the Mooney' s name is Pete. (Not Peter like its builder or my brother and uncle. Just Pete.) Pete will be painted on the top tube when he gets the deserved paint job in the coming year.

Ride fix gears for 35 years as much as I have and you will start thing about a custom to do what you really want. At 40 years, you might do something crazy. Just warning ...

Ben
79pmooney is offline  
Likes For 79pmooney:
Old 08-14-20, 01:34 PM
  #38  
Lakerat
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 516
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 213 Post(s)
Liked 37 Times in 21 Posts
79pmooney- As Johnny Weir the figure skater's fashion makes me feel relatively boring, you do the same with my cycling dreams.
Lakerat is offline  
Old 08-14-20, 02:38 PM
  #39  
ofajen
Cheerfully low end
 
ofajen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 1,965
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 642 Post(s)
Liked 1,040 Times in 663 Posts
Originally Posted by Lakerat
79pmooney- As Johnny Weir the figure skater's fashion makes me feel relatively boring, you do the same with my cycling dreams.
Yeah, if this keeps up, he’ll inspire me to get a flip/flop hub with a fixed gear on one side and start riding that on flatter rides. Who knows where that would lead? 😊

Otto
ofajen is offline  
Old 08-31-20, 02:19 AM
  #40  
gios
Senior Member
 
gios's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: NV
Posts: 600

Bikes: 2021 Litespeed T5 105, 1990 Gios Compact Pro 105

Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 167 Post(s)
Liked 325 Times in 182 Posts
From my brief searching, not many singlespeed complete bikes offer a 53 chainring. If I like 53 / 18 on my multi-speed, what gear ratio would be close to that with a chainring in the 40s?
gios is offline  
Old 08-31-20, 05:46 AM
  #41  
ofajen
Cheerfully low end
 
ofajen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 1,965
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 642 Post(s)
Liked 1,040 Times in 663 Posts
Originally Posted by gios
From my brief searching, not many singlespeed complete bikes offer a 53 chainring. If I like 53 / 18 on my multi-speed, what gear ratio would be close to that with a chainring in the 40s?
53/18 = 2.944 ratio or 79.5 gear inches assuming 27” wheel.

47/16 = 2.9375 or 79.3125 is as close as you will come in the 40s.

Edit - if you can do 50/17, that is 2.9412 or 79.4 gear inches and would be even closer.

Otto

Last edited by ofajen; 08-31-20 at 09:43 AM.
ofajen is offline  
Likes For ofajen:
Old 08-31-20, 08:28 AM
  #42  
wjjones
Slowpoke
 
wjjones's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Minneapolis
Posts: 34

Bikes: Shinola Detroit Arrow; Burley Rumba tandem

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 10 Post(s)
Liked 7 Times in 4 Posts
My Shinola Detroit Arrow was 38/18 and I was spinning out. I changed it to 38/16 (65 inches) and that works out better for me (68 YOA with bad knees). I use the bike for short rides, seldom over 10 miles, at around 10-12 mph.
wjjones is offline  
Old 08-31-20, 08:40 AM
  #43  
TMonk
Not actually Tmonk
 
TMonk's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 13,938

Bikes: road, track, mtb

Mentioned: 140 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2505 Post(s)
Liked 2,960 Times in 1,571 Posts
42/17 - road easy
42/15 - road fast
52/15 - (outdoor) track
__________________
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
TMonk is offline  
Old 08-31-20, 10:08 AM
  #44  
mrv 
buy my bikes
 
mrv's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Michigan
Posts: 1,801

Bikes: my very own customized GUNNAR CrossHairs

Mentioned: 19 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 518 Post(s)
Liked 424 Times in 247 Posts
interesting thread - I have a 42t x 16t (71 inches) freewheel on my s/s. I'm going to switch to a 38t x 16t (66 inches).
I'm struggling a bit on the up hills, which are not really much to worry about in the south east corner of the Nations High Five. But my knees are good and I want to keep it that way.

- QUESTION: I'm struggling to find what kind of chain to use as I mix and mis-match chainrings and cogs. I got a bit of a click-y drive train and I suspect I have the wrong chain with the freewheel.
I think my SHIMANO freewheel is supposed to use a 1/2 x 1/8in. I am using a single speed chain, but what size? i dunno.

any pointers to threads discussing this in detail would be helpful. thanks.
like this, but more basic-er: https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair...-compatibility

no, i really don't know what i'm doing with these single speed set ups....

cheers!
mrv is offline  
Old 08-31-20, 10:20 AM
  #45  
ofajen
Cheerfully low end
 
ofajen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 1,965
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 642 Post(s)
Liked 1,040 Times in 663 Posts
Originally Posted by mrv
interesting thread - I have a 42t x 16t (71 inches) freewheel on my s/s. I'm going to switch to a 38t x 16t (66 inches).
I'm struggling a bit on the up hills, which are not really much to worry about in the south east corner of the Nations High Five. But my knees are good and I want to keep it that way.

- QUESTION: I'm struggling to find what kind of chain to use as I mix and mis-match chainrings and cogs. I got a bit of a click-y drive train and I suspect I have the wrong chain with the freewheel.
I think my SHIMANO freewheel is supposed to use a 1/2 x 1/8in. I am using a single speed chain, but what size? i dunno.

any pointers to threads discussing this in detail would be helpful. thanks.
like this, but more basic-er: https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair...-compatibility

no, i really don't know what i'm doing with these single speed set ups....

cheers!
There are two common chain widths: 3/32” (used mostly for derailleur systems) and 1/8” (used for single speed systems).

You can use 3/32” chain for single speed ONLY if both your chairing and cog are 3/32”.

If either component (or both) are 1/8”, then a 3/32” chain won’t fit and you must use a 1/8” chain.

Otto
ofajen is offline  
Likes For ofajen:
Old 09-01-20, 10:05 AM
  #46  
y0x8
Ups!
 
y0x8's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: Kirovo-Chepetsk
Posts: 235

Bikes: SE, Polo&Bike, Forward Indie, New Fixed Gear

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 47 Post(s)
Liked 164 Times in 79 Posts
Fixed Gear Forward Indie 1.0 - 46T/16t=2,88
Fixed Gear Polo&Bike virens - 48T/17t=2,82
Fixed Gear SE Bikes SE Tripel 2015 Vatte Black - 42T/18t=2,33 (winter)
New Fixed Gear - (48T/17t)x(53T/22T)=6,8
y0x8 is offline  
Old 09-01-20, 02:15 PM
  #47  
y0x8
Ups!
 
y0x8's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: Kirovo-Chepetsk
Posts: 235

Bikes: SE, Polo&Bike, Forward Indie, New Fixed Gear

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 47 Post(s)
Liked 164 Times in 79 Posts
Yes, by the way, gear ratios are not correctly specified without the tires used. Therefore:
Indie: 700x33c Maxxis Mud Wrestler 62a WireTPI60
Polo: Mitas PHOENIX RACING PRO 23-622 (700x23C) ROAD
SE: Schwalbe Marathon Winter front tire 240 spikes (28" x 1.35 / 35-622) Schwalbe Marathon Winter rear tire 240 spikes (28" x 1.60 / 42-622), RaceG Both four rows.
NFG: MICHELIN 1,4 wild Run'r 26x1,4 (35-559)
y0x8 is offline  
Likes For y0x8:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.