Gearing

By MrFixie

Gearing Advice for your fixed gear road bike:

If you’re going to ride a big gear, use a front brake, otherwise you’ll wear all the cartilage in your knees and regret ever riding a bike. If you choose the right gear for your own strength, it will be a knee friendly gear, you’ll find it capable of going as fast as you need the bike to go, while spinning at a rate that is comfortable for you. There are many, many combinations of gear choices out there. I have found some of the best hilly city gears for my own personal use have been:

46:17
42:15
42:16

It wouldn’t seem like one tooth on the rear cog makes a major difference, but it really does. 48:16 will be much more difficult to pedal than 48:18, but you will of course be able to go faster with the former and will spin more with the latter. If you intend to race or go fast you can either decrease the size of the cog or increase the chain disk or even do both!

This gear chart displays all the gear inch combinations for front and rear cogs. Racers prefer gears above 80 gear inches, while touring gears range from low sixties to mid seventies.

Gear chart for typical Road Bike
	25	23	21	19	17	15	14	13	12
30	32	35	39	43	48	54	58	62	68
42	45	49	54	60	67	76	81	87	95
52	56	61	67	74	83	94	100	108	117

	25	23	21	19	17	15	14	13	12
30	32	35	39	43	48	54	58	62	68
42	45	49	54	60	67	76	81	87	95
52	56	61	67	74	83	94	100	108	117

	25	23	21	19	17	15	14	13	12
30	32	35	39	43	48	54	58	62	68
42	45	49	54	60	67	76	81	87	95
52	56	61	67	74	83	94	100	108	117

	25	23	21	19	17	15	14	13	12
30	32	35	39	43	48	54	58	62	68
42	45	49	54	60	67	76	81	87	95
52	56	61	67	74	83	94	100	108	117