"i did macaframa the other day"

a dude told me that on the phone today. . .

dude: "do you have chainrings smaller than 46 teeth?"

me: "yes, why do you need it? what kind of bike or cranks do you have?"

dude: "i want to get a smaller chainring to have a lower gear. i have an IRO frame, and sugino messenger cranks."

me: "oh ok, its a track bike. its probably cheaper to buy a new cog to change your gear ratio than to buy a new chainring. you have a 130 bcd rather than a 144 true track bcd. 130 bcd chainrings in 1/8" can be pretty pricey. what is your gearing now?"

dude: "i've got 46x17. i was thinkin i could get a 44t chainring to make it easier to go downhill. or maybe a bigger cog. i did macaframa the other day, and i was spinning out on the hills."

me: (it took me a second to figure out that he meant he raced in the macaframa premiere alleycat. macaframa is not a verb.) "wait, you mean you were spinning too fast downhill?"

dude: "yeah, i want to not have to pedal so fast to be able to control my speed better downhill."

me: "oh ok i see. so what you really mean is that you want a higher gear ratio, so that you won't be spinning so fast downhill. therefore, you will need a larger chainring, or a smaller cog. the best way to control your speed downhill is to skip or skid. . . and if you run too big of a gear ratio, you won't be able to climb those hills anyway. . . ."

then i explained how gear ratios work (ie, bigger front ring = same effect as smaller rear cog), how to control speed while descending, what gearing is appropriate for SF for most people (i think he was from the burbs), etc.

this entire conversation must have lasted 15 minutes. he did macaframa.