I recently acquired an early 80s road bike with horizontal dropouts and some Suntour gears (stem-mounted shifters!) which I'm not really getting on with. When I replaced the gear cables I didn't tighten the bolt at the back up enough either, so for the past few days I have been riding in the smallest sprocket at the back. And I think it's time to fixify it.
Sheldon says 42x14 on 27" wheels is 81". If I'm happy with this gear on a singlespeed, what size of gear should I put on a fixed to give me the same level of effort - bearing in mind the "flywheel effect", straight chainline, the weight decrease from removing the mechs, shifters & sprockets, and all the rest of the gubbins generally talked about the increased efficiency of the fixed wheel bike
The answer that will make me happiest, by the way, is 85", as I have a cheap 700c wheel with a fixed 16T sprocket ready to be fitted, and I plan to reuse the 52T chainwheel. Does that sound doable?
I'm expecting also that replacing the platform pedals with SPDs might give me a bit more acceleration at the lights, which is the only real problem area right now ...
Sheldon says 42x14 on 27" wheels is 81". If I'm happy with this gear on a singlespeed, what size of gear should I put on a fixed to give me the same level of effort - bearing in mind the "flywheel effect", straight chainline, the weight decrease from removing the mechs, shifters & sprockets, and all the rest of the gubbins generally talked about the increased efficiency of the fixed wheel bike
The answer that will make me happiest, by the way, is 85", as I have a cheap 700c wheel with a fixed 16T sprocket ready to be fitted, and I plan to reuse the 52T chainwheel. Does that sound doable?
I'm expecting also that replacing the platform pedals with SPDs might give me a bit more acceleration at the lights, which is the only real problem area right now ...