Cadence

[Enw.nigel]

I had been a weekend cyclist for decades but since retiring from full time employment a few years back have found myself out 3/4 times a week doing rides of 16/18 miles depending on the route. Upgraded my bike in May to a Focus Cayo 105 (triple just in case!!) and now just want to do more. My aim is to do a 40 miler in Sept and then 50 miles by the end of the year. At present doing 28.7 miles on Sunday with 18, 18 and 22 midweek.
Recently though I have been concerned about my cadence so upgraded my computer to monitor it. Now I didn't expect it to be too high as I have been in the habit of letting my legs do the work thinking that it would improve my fitness. On my first ride with the cadence computer my average over 22 miles was 65rpm. Now this shocked me as it seemed extremely low so I have been working on improving my cadence so that my riding becomes more efficient. That way the 40 and 50 milers in the future should be more manageable. 28.7 miles on Sunday my cadence is up to 71rpm and over 18miles today it is now 77 rpm. Most of this improvement has been achieved by changing gear sooner on hills to try to maintain a higher cadence. I expect cadence is a personal thing but I would be interested to know what cadence you more experienced riders aim for.

 

[smokeysmoo]

I was always told to allow your legs to spin, ie: use the gears like you've started doing rather than churning away in a low gear.

Alternatively get yourself a fixed gear bike, that'll improve your cadence no end

Well done on the distances though, you'll be doing lejog, or jogle before you know it

 

[4F]

Don't get hung up on cadence. Do what is most comfortable for you.

For me I am anything between 65 and 80. I can still average between 13 - 18 mph depending on mood, weather, company and it was good enough for a 150 mile ride in July, as indeed it has been for the last 20 years.

 

[Sittingduck]

I fitted a Cateye Strada (with Cadence) to my 'every day' bike last week because I was concerned my cadence isn't as fast as it should be. I find having the cadence feature showing all the time has been good, so far. Looks like my typical is around 85 but I am aiming to push this upto 90+ and trying not to shift up until I reach at least 90. I have felt a little less tension in my quads throughout the day and overall pace seems to be good, relative to effort.


As 4F says, try not to get too hung up on it. It's a personal thing and everybody is different, of course.

 

[gaz]

I aim for over 90rpm

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I don't worry about it, I just do what feels OK.

 

[gbb]

If you're suffering any knee soreness, raising cadence will help. If you're not suffering, i guess it doesn't matter if what you're doing works for you.

As a measure, i used to grind away in a big gear, maintain good speed but suffer sore knees after a while. Raising cadence to 80 or 90 seems counter productive at first, but as my legs got used to it, i maintain just as much speed but i rarely suffer knee soreness anymore.

 

[HLaB]

Don't get hung up on cadence. Do what is most comfortable for you.

+1

I have a very high cadence at times but I also freewheel a lot, so my cadence can vary on average between 68 and 88 and max's in the 120-160 range. Most often however I ride a bike without a meter and ride how I feel, but even the bike where I do have a cadence sensor it's only looked at as an afterthought and does not affect how I ride

 

[Norry1]

I average about 82 on normal road riding and about 95 on 10 mile time trials. I don't worry about my cadence much normally now - but that's mainly because I can sense roughly what I'm doing anyway.

Martin

 

[Enw.nigel]

Thanks for all your comments. From what you have said anything between 80 - 90 rpm seems to be the target for me to aim for. I have never suffered sore knees with lower cadence but my knees definitely knew they had been through some exercise with the higher cadence. I will persevere as I am hoping it will improve my endurance when longer distances are tackled but as many of you have said - cadence will not be the be all and end all.