single speed gear ratio for drumlin country

G rock

i'm moving back home from dublin at the end of the month (cavan/monaghan).


since last april/may i've been cycling my pompino throughout the week and covering about 200k per week on it. i want to be able to use it when i get back to the country since it's a nice wee bike to ride.

it's currently running 48-16 (about 81 inches i think, according to rabbit), which has been fairly ok, but i do need to get out of the saddle on a few hills on the commute (foster's ave, milltown hill etc).

i was thinking of 48-19 (68.2 inches) to allow me to at least attempt to use it at home!

is this a big jump?

dubmess

I ride 48/18 (fixed) in Dublin and think it's fine.

It'll be a fair jump from what you're used to, but I guess you'll get used to spinning that little bit more on the flats.

You may need a new chain though as I generally find dropouts will only stretch to a change of 2 teeth or so at the back, Pompinos have pretty long dropouts though so you may get away with it.

souter

Admittedly it's somewhat subjective, but I used to run a highish gear like yourself (48/15) then switched to 48/18 for the winter and haven't noticed a whole lot of difference, though there aren't any hills on my commute.

Then again did Wicklow 100 on 48/18 a couple years back and at times would have killed for another tooth at the back.

Greyspoke

That's quite a big jump and you'd certainly notice a big difference if you switched to it now for your regular commute. I guess the rolling countryside up around Cavan/Monaghan way has lots of relatively short but sometimes quite steep hills so the gearing you choose is all down to how strong (and how determined!) you are. You might have to experiment a bit to find a gear that you can (just) get up the hills on and which will not be too low for the downs and the flats. Personally, I find going down hills in too low a gear more of a pain than struggling up them in a higher gear.
Of course you could run the bike with a single speed freewheel and then you wouldn't have the problem of spinning out on the downhills and could enjoy just freewheeling down them.

kumate_champ07

Im a fan of 48:19 for everything. City and mountains.

G rock

Thanks everyone,

Too much of a wuss to ride fixed so it'll be with a free wheel.

Have a flip flop hub and will have an 18t fixed cog to try out when I work up the courage (less traffic,i like the security of the free wheel in dublin) so I suppose a 19t freewheel is a good option to have as well.

Not sure if I'd be strong enough to manage anything smaller on the back, good to know that there are string riders out there who don't think 19t is overkill

Holyboy

S.A. duomatic hub, you know it makes sense and it comes in anodised gold, what more could you want;)