It seems most people I know who SS use a 2:1 or thereabouts. I am running 32 front/16 rear. I know a few guys that do 32/18 though. This is for MTBing btw....

The generally accepted gear for SS mtn bike is usually a 2:1 ratio. If you have a 34T in the front, run a 17T in the back. Personally, I would buy a gear up and a gear down since they only cost like 5 bucks and find the one that suits you and your terrain the best.

Marla won SSWC05 on a 32/18 ... it was hilly and technical ... sounds good to me.

This is almost entirely dependent on what you'll be using the bike for.

A few questions you'll need to ask yourself before you pick a gear -

1) Will I change my crankset?
2) Where do I spend most of my time now?
3) Primarily for singletrack or for other uses (like commuting)?
4) How much pain can I handle, and how steep a hill can I climb standing?

I'm in DC, which is flat as hell. I can handle everything near me on a 38/16, which is a bit rougher than most people would use. If there was more singletrack near here, I'd probably try 34/16, but then I'd want a new crankset, as mine is terrible and cheap and I can't just change rings.

The guiding rule is 2:1, but with that said, if where you ride is more flat than hilly, bump it up a notch or two. If it's especially hilly or you like to climb at a fast cadence, try something like 32/18.

Best advice I've heard: put the bike in a gear you think you like before you ditch all your other gears. Go ride on it and don't touch the shifters. No matter what. Could you live with that gearing? Only you can answer that.

Uh, what part of DC is "flat as hell"?

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Perhaps I should elaborate on my perspective -

I grew up in North Jersey, which is a fairly hilly place. I now make my permanent residence in a ski town in Colorado. It's not hilly there - it's mountainous.

DC is a lowland swamp, I have to say - there's a reason the British paid their diplomats hazard pay here for so many years. It used to be a malarial swamp. Now Georgetown gets to be "the Hilltop," and I'm telling you, it ain't much of a hill.

I stand by my "flat as hell" comments. You've got to go a few miles to find anything that qualifies as a hill in my book.

I've lived in DC for 15 years, so I'm familiar with that part of its history. If you get away from the monumental core and downtown, there's not much that has less than a 2 percent grade to it.

I use a 63-inch gear on the fixie that I use for a commute from Silver Spring to Bethesda because it's all up or down.

If it's all hills, it doesn't matter how tall the hills are--it's still hilly.

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___________________________________

Like what you read here? Read more at Crosseyed and Painless or Duathlonblog.

"We used to run Bstone prototypes into 3-foot-high cement walls to see what it took to bend them. If that sounds like crazy-good fun, it wasn't. Everybody wanted to watch, nobody wanted to ride, so we took turns."
--Rivendell Reader 36

I live and ride in Utah - I'd bet that our riding terrain is similar. 32 x 18 is a good place to start. It's a little lower than 2:1, but 2:1 would kill you in these parts.