no clue, but I love fooling around with Sheldon Brown's online gain ratio/gear calculator

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

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Two wheels good. Four wheels bad.

That is real easy and very hard to figure out. Front 38-42, back 16-18. Gear range 57-70 is inches. If you are a horse go big, if you are a pony go small. Probably 95% of the field is in that range. Where you fit is up to you. Some courses are faster and slower than others and some people futs around with their gear every week. I use 38/17 90% of the time and am toward the lower middle at best of the pack. But then I am 62 years old and am probably the oldest or second oldest single speeder out there every week.

I am a little faster on some courses on a geared bike, but not that much faster. SS makes you ride different as keeping your speed up is critical so I go into corners and dismounts a bit hotter than most geared riders. Sometimes I race SS against the gearies and finish pretty close to the same spot in the field against riders geared or SS.

Nailing your air pressure and tire choice is probably as important as your gear, but being in too big of gear sucks worse than too small of one. I would start with 38/17 for a couple races and see if you want bigger or smaller after that.

Agree with G that 38x17 (~60 gear inches) would be a good starting point. I've done a bunch of winter road miles on 70 gear inches, and while that's just about perfect for me on pavement, it's a bit tall for cross, particularly if you've got the possibility of mud and/or short, punchy hills.

I ride 40x17. You probably don't want to go any harder than that.

48x18, 175 cranks. Perfect for the C&O canal!

Caveat, I was talking about gravel grinder/cx riding/racing. If you ride on a rail to trail, canal, or pavement, I would think 70-80 inches may get away with it. But as soon as you get into the grass 72inches seems like a huge gear. Also where you are at in your career does matter. 10 years ago I would have told you 42/17 was a perfect gear, now that seems huge to me. It is really funny how in fixed gear/ss riding a couple gear inches can be huge cause you only have one gear. When you have a range from 35 ish to 113 inches a few cogs one way or the other is hardly noticeable. On the ss going from 38 to 40 teeth in front may seem like a big change.

I'm running a 42 ring up front and 17 tooth cog in the back in my redline ss conquest.

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"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson

42*17 is pretty standard starting place for someone with ok fitness

Hey, You calling me slow? If so you would be correct.

anyone who rides that event is tough in my book

The winner of the Dirty Kanza Half Pint was on a singlepeed 29er running 34x14 FWIW.

Try riding your geared bike without shifting. Find a gear you can turn over after spending some time at threshold. I settled on 36 x 16t and it always felt too small for the first 30 minutes and way too big for the last 14.


-SD

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