Gearing

As a new singlespeeder, finding the right gear was a bit troublesome. I didn't have anyone to 'mentor' me and provide recommendations, I just had to figure it out on my own - which is half the fun anyway! I started kicking around in a 1x9 setup, just pedaling in the middle ring and trying the different cogs to see which seamed rideable for the whole course. (More on the regular ride in a later post.) I've been riding for the last decade and I love to tackle big hills, long courses and pretty much anything that friends think is unrideable or crazy. (Naturally, SS was simply a progression and bound to get me sooner or later.) I found that since I had a few front rings from old bikes lying around that I could swap out 32-, 34- and 36-tooth rings on the front and get the feel for several different gain ratios with the same cogs in the rear. (BTW, gear inches - though common - leave one crucial element out of the equation: the crankarm length... you can read all about it on Sheldon Brown's incredibly helpful page: http://sheldonbrown.com/gain.html.)

Anyway, I was able to see what various gain ratios would feel like under foot before buying a rear cog. Most people in the SS world seem to go with a 2:1 ratio - i.e.: a 32/16 or a 36/18 (which are the same gearing, anyway) or 3.8 gain ratio. However, here in SoCal where the hills are steep and often long, I have found more people recommending a 3.4 gain ratio. When it comes to SS, what you gain on the climb, you sacrifice on the flats. It's simple math: you can't have an easy gear going up that's also fast on the flats. So, the 3.4 seems to give me about 16+mph on the flats (in a dead-out spin) and yet let me climb 80% of the hills I encounter. Of course, over time I should be able to clear > 98% of these as my strength and endurance increase, but for now, I can get a darn good workout climbing until I'm about to pass out and then hike-a-bike the rest.

So for me, I've settled on the 32/18 as my gearing of choice for now. I'll be playing around with a 32/17 soon to see if the advantages on the flats can be coped with on the climbs. But regardless of the gearing, I just love SS. For me, it's simple, straightforward, get-out-and-ride fun.