How Should I Best Tweak My Gear Ratio?

[Herr.Wolfkatze]

I'm getting a hope pro 2 rear hub so i'm going to split my rear cassette into a 6 speed. The gear ratio right now can be pretty tough pedalling in the higher gears when I just want to cruise around, so I don't know whether to take the 3 largest cogs off, and get a smaller chainring to compensate for the loss of the low gear range, or just lose the 3 smaller cogs and keep the large chain ring.

When i'm cruising around I like to pick up a bit of speed so I spend alot of time on the 7th cog. If I lost the smaller 3 i'd be forced to hang around in 6th which isn't that big a deal to me. Though the idea of a smaller chain ring is also appealing.

Any ideas?

[maxxis26]

it all depends on the ring sizes

best thing to do is to lose the 3 "top" rings the biggest ones, that way you will still be able to pick up some speed

also what tooth sprocket are you running up front?

with trials you will want to keep the chain as short as possable to eliminate "chain slap" with a long chain it can come of the sprockets

yes a rear mech with help but keeping the chain short will help alot more

[Herr.Wolfkatze]

it all depends on the ring sizes

best thing to do is to lose the 3 "top" rings the biggest ones, that way you will still be able to pick up some speed

also what tooth sprocket are you running up front?

with trials you will want to keep the chain as short as possable to eliminate "chain slap" with a long chain it can come of the sprockets

yes a rear mech with help but keeping the chain short will help alot more

I'd need to count the teeth on the front chainring again but what I do know is that it's quite enormous

So I reckon I could get a smaller chainring and lose the top 3.

My chain is pretty tight right now but I could do with losing another link out of it, it's not quite as tense as i'd like it although I originally thought I had it set up right. I'll give the gears another tweak when my new shifter arrives and see.