>>1901949>>1901929First of all, you should be at running cadence when you're at a normal speed. If you're mashing potatoes, you're not going anywhere, even if you think that you are. If your gear ratio is too high you've just optimized your bike for a speed where the air resistance is high, so you just end up wasting your energy and going slow. Will it hurt your knees? idk, I'm not a moron, I used 46-19 on 700c tires
Back to the question, in theory the load path is not correct to hurt your knees. I didn't notice any knee problems after years of riding a fixed gear. Later, when I worked in a hospital, I transported patient beds which had four free-swiveling wheels. When I lifted weights I noticed some discomfort on the last set of my squats. Also, at the time, I was taking an online course where I had to memorize the names of the knee ligaments, tendons, and muscle attachments. I moved a bed, sit down, felt some slight knee discomfort, then opened the browser and looked at knee ligaments. If any one of these coincidences had been missing, I probably would have been fucked, but luckily I noticed it in time.
tl;dr sideways forces are fucking terrible for your knees, pic related;
bicycles? probably not
I preferred fixed gear +clipless because it gives you a good sense of connection and builds discipline for attacking hills.
