Single Speed Gearing

Often when talking about gearing a singlespeed, the expression "two to one" comes up. Beside the fact that this is a meaningless statement, it implys that the coice of gears is based on easy math rather than real decisions. Let's look at this.

Simple Math

32 devided by 2 is 16. So the ratio of 32 to 16 is 2:1.
34 devided by 2 is 17. So the ratio of 34 to 17 is 2:1.

We call this simple math. Any moron can do this math in there head with these numbers. What connection does this have with choosing a gear for a bicycle with at specific rider on a specific terrain? Absolutely none. It is just simple math. To base a gearing choice on the fact that the number of teeth on two chosen gears can be devided into the whole numbers of 1 and 2 is nuts.

Ratios

Here is a table of gear ratios with the more common gearing choices highlighted for off road riding, single gear, 26" wheel.


As can easily be seen, a great variety of gears exist within the 2:1 and 1.7:1 range.

Personal Selection

Personaly, I am running a 34/19 gear (1.789). We do a lot of climbing where I live, and I'm overweight and not the strongest climber. I would love to go up to 24/18 (1.889) or 32/17 (1.882). That would help my downhill speeds a little if I could handle the gear on the climbs, but with mud season coming, I may even have to drop to 34/20 depending on power losses. We will see.