Thanks Mickeg, interesting ..

Effectively, for me 36x16, the most important gear is the  first, i can climb almost  any hill..

But, my next Surly chainring  have 35 teeths, i got a good price for it,  I don’ t know if i have to keep my sprocket in 16 teeths or maybe 17 ! but i'm afraid to ́lost my first short gear..

For information, 36x16  transmission,  above 33km/h you can no longer pedal, sometimes it’s frustrating

My cadence has varied over time.  For the past few years, it usually is in the range of 66 when I am doing a multi-hour ride.  If I am working to get up a hill in a low gear, I try to raise it up to 72.  But if I have been in the saddle for most of the day already, it might dip down to 60.

I mentioned I use 36T/16T (ratio of 2.25) for touring.  But for riding around near home with an unladen bike, I put a 44T chainring one the bike, add four more chain links for a ratio of 2.75.  For riding near home, I never need a gear higher than 14 with that higher range of gears. 

But for touring, I value that low gear, so I can live with the loss of the higher gear that I would otherwise use on shallow downhills.

When I built up my Nomad, I calculated that if I wanted to use the stock 16T sprocket, pedal at a cadence of 72, and have a speed of 3.5 miles per hour, that I wanted a 36T sprocket.  I find that I can't get below 3 mph without oversteering to try to maintain stability, both directional and vertical.  And a cadence of 72 feels smoother than anything slower.  My point is I did some calculations to figure out that I wanted the 36T, I did not pick it at random.

And the 44T, that range of gears pretty much mirrors my range of gears that I think are ideal for riding near home on my other bikes.

For information, 36x16  transmission,  aboie 33km/h you can no longer pedal, sometimes it’s frustrating

Depends on your pedaling cadence.

I generally pedal relatively fast at about 90 rpm (tours par minute). With a 36x16 combination that translates into 36 km/h, which is way above a sustainable speed for me on the level, unless I have an exceptionally strong tail wind.

If necessary I can increase pedal cadence for very short periods. With a 36x16 combination at 120 rpm in the highest gear that would be 48 km/h. In practice, that kind of speed is not really useful for me, except perhaps when I negotiate medium size roundabouts, where I feel safer if I am doing roughly the same speed as most of the motor vehicules. 

My current highest gearing on any of my bikes is 42x19 on my Rohloff equipped Raven Sport Tour. I use that bike mainly for day rides with little luggage. Top gear with 42x19 is slightly lower than with a 36x16, the maximum speed I managed recently when pedaling (downhill) was 53 km/h at 137 rpm, just to see if I could still do that at age 69. But normally I would just stop pedaling and coast down the hill.   

Quote from: jul on July 26, 2026, 12:54:24 PM

maybe is it possible to find a similar saddle as the B17 but without leather ?

I went from the leather B17 to the rubber C17 and prefer the C17, it isn't identical, a bit like a half broken in B17, not everyone likes that, I bought a second C17 from someone returning to leather.

I have two C17 saddles that I really do not like, they are currently unused.  I am sticking with leather.

I had a bike fit by Hewitt Cycles as a part of the buying experience some 25 years ago, it made some changes to my position which I didn't at first like, but ended up changing other bikes to match.  That's an issue with trial and error, you will resort to what feels familiar, rather than what might be best.  Years later I tried the guide linked below, and it came within mm's of the Hewitt fit.  Both professional and guided need to be taken as a starting point, rather than an absolute, we are all different, though not as different as some assume.
https://wheel-easy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/bike-set-up-2017a.pdf

I applied Proofide to the top and bottom on a regular basis, initially more frequent than later.

IIRC, Brooks instruction for applying Proofide are to apply the proprietary wax to the top and the bottom when first applied, but for subsequent applications only to the top.

I presume that is to avoid building up wax on both sides so that the leather can breathe out any moisture through one flat side with only a light, single application of Proofide.

Trivia, I bought my Brooks saddle and leather grips in the Honey colour, not because it matched my bike well (it was actually a very good match but a bit flashy for me) but so that I could create a custom dark brown by soaking the saddle in neat foot oil (buy it from a saddlery or tack store which supplies the horse racing crowd).