Cadence

[ayceejay]

When a person first starts to ride a road bike they invariably get into a big gear and grind it round until it hurts and this seems to be the normal way: what this means is that pedaling to a high cadence is learned behavior.Back in the day we would ride fixed in a low gear to learn twiddling as we called it, nowadays it is called spinning but the effect is the same. I am not a psychologist but it seems to me that you need to train your body and program your mind to ride at a high cadence.

 

[uclown2002]

Certainly I've had to concentrate on increasing cadence as it doesn't come naturally to me.

 

[Cuchilo]

I tried it today and had a pretty crap ride according to the stats on strava . The ride also had me out of my comfort zone and pulled on a few muscles that I didn't like . All very interesting and as it was only a lap of Richmond Park ( 7 miles )
The park was about the only place I could try and keep an eye on the Garmin without face planting a car and I tried to keep it at 90 but average is 85 for that lap .
I'll try it a few more times though as I was held up big time by cars from Kingston to Putney and that's the fastest part so you can really get up to the 20mph speed limit

 

[JasonHolder]

What if i told you, you can maintain 90rpm even if you're doing 8mph
Yeah it takes time, what I do, because I coast ALOT when its on the books, is only look at current cadence when I'm properly putting power down, average is thrown way out otherwise.

 

[Cuchilo]

I don't get it to be honest . I wanted to change up most of the time but kept changing down to keep it at 90 . That slowed me down to be honest and then the twat in a BMW
I will give it a few more goes as it a small milage and nice to see whats going on

 

[ayceejay]

Jason, as usual talks from the other end.
What is the point of an increased cadence?
Can you go as fast with a lower gear for longer and with less bananas?

 

[JasonHolder]

The more efficient you get with time the bigger the gear you'll be able to spin. =speed gain
= less muscle fatigue+more stress on heart and lungs. #balancing act with your strong suite

 

[Cuchilo]

But I can push a bigger gear faster without dribbling and snotting like a twat . That's what I get from my first stats but time will tell .

 

[JasonHolder]

Economy aycehay. Economy =+speed over time! Sustainable. Survivability. Not all out speed.

 

[Cuchilo]

The stats didn't say I was dribbling and snotting like a twat BTW I just was .

 

[Tyke]

I might be wrong and I only started the spinning thing after the heart attack but the way I see it is if you spin a lower gear faster then you do the same speed with less strain regardless of cadence speed which will be a personal thing not a fixed number and as you improve your cadence will improve.

I find checking cadence a help in seeing improvement but only because my cadence is improving resulting in me going faster in any given gear and not because I don`t have the same as a tour rider thirty years younger than me.

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

Bit of a balancing act between the two for me; from personal observation, most of the fast guys in our local TT's seem to be pushing a big gear, can't see how you can develop enough power to enable you to do that if all you do is spin in a low gear during training, but I'm open to persuasion!

Must agree that for general poodling around and fast club runs, spinning is the way to go, cutting through a head wind and hill climbing have become so much easier since I've learnt a little of the art of spinning.

 

[50000tears]

When calculating a cadence average is this over the whole ride or just when you are actually pedalling? Guess it has to the latter or averages could get thrown out quite a lot if freewheeling times come into the calculation.

 

[uclown2002]

Just when pedalling.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

When calculating a cadence average is this over the whole ride or just when you are actually pedalling? Guess it has to the latter or averages could get thrown out quite a lot if freewheeling times come into the calculation.

Entire ride. You can turn off including zeros in cadence averaging in garmins thus a true average.