arup’s blog

I’ve been riding 42/16 for ages, probably about two years and feel very comfortable with it. But when I first started riding fixed gear I used 42/17 and after about a year or so moved down a tooth on the cog. And now I’ve come to that point again. Why?

Even though I’m quite comfortable with this ratio and can spin quite fast I’ve been wanting to go a touch faster but also don’t want it to be hard on the hills as there are a few here in South London. I also wanted to replace the parts as they are quite worn out. The 16T cog that I’ve been running was an ebay second where I had to bash one of the teeth into line with a hammer. The chainring although still quite sound has a few nicks here and there. There is also the holy grail of perfect chain tension.

So with a new 1/8 16T Shimano Dura Ace track sprocket fitted along with a Sugino old skool BMX 110 BCD 1/8 44T chainring I took my maiden voyage on this ratio yesterday. It was hard. I mean a real workout. There were other factors to consider. I’m suffering from a cold so my energy is low. I had made the chain tension a bit too tight so it binds at certain points in the revolution. I was riding into a headwind and one of my brake shoes were rubbing.

But I was travelling a bit faster on the flat stretches and it wasn’t that much harder on the hills. It is harder to get going from a standstill though. And I think that overall my average speed is a bit lower. But let’s see how it goes over the next few weeks.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 10:19 am and is filed under fixed gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.