Big or Small ring?

[ColinJ]

What point did he make?

Apparently - "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink"!

 

[S-Express]

Apparently - "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink"!

When did you make that point?

 

[david k]

So I'm trying to improve my cycling performance, so trying to use my commutes as workouts but also riding with others on training runs. On one of these runs they kept remarking they thought I should be on the small ring more often as I'm not efficient by expending energy I don't need to. I felt comfortable enough at the time but I do feel my legs are letting me down first as my weakest point, and I did begin to flag a bit on this run as well. Would spinning on the lower ring help this even if I was trying to keep my speed reasonable?

I forced myself to spin, didn't feel right at first but became more natural after time. I feel it's much more comfortable than a heavy gear, not that I ride fast but I usually stay in the small ring

 

[nickyboy]

So someone pushing 200 watts at 70 rpm is going to tire quicker than someone pushing 200 watts at 90rpm. I don't think so.

This

The only issue to be considered is whether 200 watts can be more efficiently maintained at 70rpm or at 90rpm. That is down to the physiology of each rider. However, it is clear that most professionals (whom I presume have some fairly serious analysis done on power outputs) seem to cycle this towards the higher end of the spectrum

Having said that, anecdotally, it does seem that the more "powerful" professionals (like Martin, Cancellara etc) tend to ride at lower cadence than the less powerful (like the skinny climbers) so maybe muscle mass has some bearing on whether lower of higher cadence is more efficient

 

[S-Express]

If anyone is interested in a game of 'pubmed tennis', I'll start with this

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22045414

The main conclusions of this study were that when cycling uphill, it is reasonable to choose (1) a lower cadence and (2) a more upright body position.

That should send the 'high cadence fan club' into crisis mode. I'm sure there are plenty of other studies out there which suggest the opposite, which kind of makes the point that there is no single answer.

 

[Slick]

Obviously not just as straight forward as I first anticipated when I posted the question.