Paul: the universal 69” to 74” single speed gears. Like 170 mm cranks and a ~45* torso bend to the bar, I think that there’s something inherently natural about this range, for most riders; or, let’s say, 65” to 75” with outliers perfectly justified in their choices.
Curious: why a higher instead of a slightly lower gear with a freewheel? I thought that generally people use a slightly lower gear with a freewheel since you can coast downhill and don’t have to worry about keeping your cadence up to the descent. I like a ~70” gear for everyday road errand ridings that often involves 25-30 lb loads, occasionally up to 50 lb, as long as things are flat (72” actual direct drive on the ASC errand bike I just had a very nice Fall ride on, but then this gives me a 65” #1 underdrive/second gear), and about 75” for a light gofast, but one very nice fixed gear that I regret not keeping was a top-line Diamond Back* from the very early 1990s that I built with 60 mm Big Apples, a 170 crank with 42 t ring and 17 t cog for a 64” or 65” gear, lower than I prefer for road bikes but just right for those fat, heavy (800 grams each for the “Lite” version!) slicks. Of course, being a NORBA-type mountain bike, the bike handled impeccably with the 60+ mm tires it was designed for, and the high bb let me pedal confidently through corners at speeds that, on a road fixed gear, would have me banging pedals. I used an ENO hub. *Funny: this was DB’s top of the line mtb back then (and it had the most perfectly elegant slender, tapered straight fork; steel allows that; don’t tell *me* that straight forks are ugly!) but it had fender and rack bosses, IIRC; certainly one pair at each end; and so much clearance that I installed 60+ mm Big Apples under SKS fenders and had sufficient air between tires and fenders. On Mon, Oct 6, 2025 at 11:22 AM Paul Richardson <[email protected]> wrote: > i had a ten year brake from riding a singlespeed, and agonized over this > question before jumping back in about a year ago. i like 42/17 for fixed > gear and 42/16 freewheel, riding around the suburbs of washington dc. some > moderate hills but nothing too wild. this on a roaduno with 45mm tires and > mks sylvan touring pedals (not clip-ins). > > paul > takoma park, md. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/2fbbd7ad-0db7-48f2-8bf5-6f7bf3eadc33n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/2fbbd7ad-0db7-48f2-8bf5-6f7bf3eadc33n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgsqQFo%2BFDtu0kMQ%3DjFgTPxdnJRp3eJtP5b6kkJmvnMzrQ%40mail.gmail.com.
