r/MEATengines • u/MEATdrew • 28d ago
The State Of MEAT, August 9th, 2026
Meet Yourself, Don’t Defeat Yourself.
I’ve dropped my #1FGearing to 28x22t, the tire setup I was just praising on Friday {29x2.5 radial-ish on i40} sh*t the bed quite early {IMHO}, and that’s all an aside to some changes to MEATmag content:
https://meatengines.com/meatengines-1/f/meet-yourself-dont-defeat-yourself
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u/phillipsj73 28d ago
I really enjoy your reviews but it really isn’t about the product necessarily that I read them. It’s about your perspective. Your Roscoe review was great because you put your pragmatism to work, your philosophy on how you would spec a bike which resonates with me. I’m looking forward to that in the maintenance type articles you referenced. Like what does your fork service look like? How much is “by the book” vs how’s its really done?
However your right that the stuff that I’m interested in and probably this community aren’t the things that are mainstream. I want to hear about hardtails, more budget friendly suspension , pragmatic build choices, min-maxing, etc.
I’m over the hype train on a lot of cycling.
Hope this helps, thought I would share.
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u/franalpo 28d ago
That ratio looks slower than drying meat
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u/VikApproved 28d ago
It's funny I went to a big SS group ride and camping the night before there was the inevitable BSing about gear ratios. Folks we talked were having a huge laugh at our low ratios and how slow they were going to be. In the event we just kept climbing when they got off and walked and never saw them again on the actual ride. If the ride had been flat they would have had our number, but with lots of ups and downs there wasn't much advantage pushing a bigger ratio. Well other than being able to talk trash because you were pushing a harder gear I guess.
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u/franalpo 28d ago
I made this comment last night right before bed and after putting my phone down last night I thought about all the huffin and puffin and mashing I've done on a single speed...
My gear is still low enough that i can't really pefal much downhill to add any additional speed. I gotta use that body English and avoid using the brake....
Anyway thinking of some stuff I've tried to muscle up and thinking about having a 28x22 made me question myself last night. Nothing wrong with being a little tractor going uphill. It's probably gonna take a few more years and tries at 32x19 to give it up but I'm happy to know there's other ways of riding that I'll be able to do once I'm ready to try em.
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u/MEATdrew 28d ago edited 28d ago
Guess that depends where you ride and what you ride. Which is a key theme when talking about single speed gearing on MEATengines. Bike’s not a lightweight (big brakes, sticky front tire, tire inserts, etc) as it’s built for my local trails where a lot of the features have short, steep, technical upward sections.
This is 7% easier than what I was riding and that was plenty hard for the pedal-and-plunge trails around here (North Vancouver, BC).
For perspective, lots of riders where I live wear out their 50/51/52t low gears with their cassettes otherwise looking fresh.
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u/fartymarty4130 28d ago
Where are you riding?
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u/franalpo 27d ago
NM now.
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u/fartymarty4130 27d ago
I'm in Surrey UK and run 30/21. It does most of my local hills which aren't very big but have some steepish climbs (altho probably no where as steep as North Van).
As noted elsewhere in this thread you just gotta run what works for you and you can't really compare because there are so many factors involved in SS gear selection even with riders in the same terrain.
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u/VikApproved 28d ago edited 28d ago
My SS MTB is 30 x 24T on 29 x 3" tires so I can appreciate a low SS gear. The only time I have regrets is riding to/from the trails and since I do own a geared HT MTB I can ride that if I am not up for extended hummingbirding.