Cadence what is this

[Ian H]

Upper body movement is a sign of too slow a cadence.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I've just got a cadence sensor with my Garmin – turns out I'm pedalling a lot slower than I thought. In the gym I usually go at 80 to 95 without too much trouble, but on the road I was nearer 60. Think I need to get this up, and try to spend more time in a higher gear to get my average speed up a bit.

Lower gear higher cadence.

 

[DTD]

True, but I'm just too slow as it is.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

True, but I'm just too slow as it is.

Work on keeping cadence high in a lower a gear, and as your fitness increases start and use higher gears, because you wont push higher gears for long without getting tired.
My avg's

As my fitness as improved, so has the fact I can use higher gears my speed has imprved and though my cadence is down it's because I am climbing slightly tough climbs in a higher gear, something I couldn't do when I started. I could however get up most things with a 26th ring on the front and a 34 on the rear (very low gearing) I very rarely use the 26th these days even on the toughest hills round here (and in real terms they arnt that tough) 38/26 is usually the lowest I use.
I can drop onto the front 26 ring and use the middle of the rear giving about the same ratio as the 38/26 with a little more flexibility, some would see it as using the granny ring, I view it as using the correct gear ratio, gear inches for 38/26 is 38.4", for 26/17 is 40.2" and 26/19 36" and 26/26 is 26.3", to be honest I now find 26/26 to low for almost anything, but can still useful (though very rarely used these days) if completely k******* and I have to climb to the house.

 

[DTD]

Yeah I seem to have lost the stamina I once had, but have lost a couple of stone, so we'll see how I get on.