With a fixed gear, your tire and cranks are linked by a fixed ratio, hence the name. Some chainring/cog combinations cause the same patch/es of tire to be worn every time you skid. Thus, your tire would be worn down to the canvas at the skid point long before the rest of it. These two tools should help you keep things in check, and help you get the most miles out of your tire.
A simple Widget for the Apple users.
A more complicated calculator for the real fixed nerds. This means me, and might mean you.
Awesome!
Unless you like me and you skid top so much in so many pedal positions you get one big skid patch around the entire tire
Awesome!!!! Thanks.
Very nice calculators!
If you choose prime numbers (for chainring or sprocket), you’ll always get the maximum number of skid points, e.g, Anything x 17 or 49 x anything.
For the painfully nerdy (yes, this mean me), there’s a discussion of the math behind this on bikecalc.com.