What does 55x11 mean?

Question

What does 55x11 mean?

Answer 1

Sounds like a gearing ratio where the front chainring is 55-tooth and the rear cog is 11-tooth.   Keep your eyes peeled and you'll see those types of numbers all the time when people say they're "running a 25/9", etc.  

That's a very tall gear and wouldn't be legal for road racing.  

Another way people express gearing is with an actual ratio such as 2.5:1.   To find that, you divide the number of chainring teeth by the number of cog teeth.   Your 55/11 example would come out to 5:1.   Pretty steep!

Answer 2

it means you better be riding down hill or on the level--or have really big guns

Answer 3

Largest chainring on the front has 55 teeth.

Smallest cog on the rear cassette has only 11 teeth.

Every time you make one revolution of the front chain ring you move 55 links of chain.  Since there are only 11 teeth on the rear, you have turned the rear wheel 5 times.  As others have pointed out, very tall gearing.

My tandem is equipped with 54x11 gearing.  More than tall enough for the two of us.

Answer 4

maybe 55 tooth rear sprocket and 11 tooth front sprocket...