Fixed wheel - Cadence & Gearing

FixedNewbie

Good Afternoon all

Been lurking around the forum for a wee while and thought i should probably say hi! Of course you cant say Hi without a wee question or two hehe.

Reasonably new to the whole fixed wheel riding thing and after reading around here about sore knee's and cadences thought I should ask a few questions about it.

With the gearing i have just now I can sit quite happily on the flat at 100rpm. My main aim is to get strength into my legs as i think i am ok at spinning. If i have a wee bit of wind behind me I can hold 115rpm -- of course I am working hard! My worry is, is that on hills my rpm is obviously slower, I am out the saddle and working hard, on some hills i reckon my rpm is probably down to the 50's (maybe even bellow). Does this mean that I should lower my gear even though I am happy with it on the flat? At what point do you know you are causing damage?

Oh and I think there should be a warning accompanying all fixed wheels and that is “Your freewheel bike will feel cr@p afterwards!!” -- Ive never been so lost in my gears or felt as though so much energy was being wasted!

Any advice greatly appreciated :-)

Oh and as a side, Ive just moved to Basingstoke from Edinburgh so if anyone out there fancies a wee cycle at the evening or weekends let me know :-)

Cheers

Martin

ride_whenever

On the hills you need to really work to maintain your cadence out of the saddle, try and keep fluid and smooth, if you're coming down to 50 for any great length of time I'd consider adding a tooth the the rear sprocket or loosing one of the front (so you don't need a longer chain) to help you maintain speed up the hills, beware it might actually feel harder with the lighter gearing.

Greg T

FixedNewbie wrote:

At what point do you know you are causing damage?

Damage is good - it makes you stronger - but it needs to be the "right sort" of damage.

FIzzyology is very complicated and I'm not, but this is a very brief and probably wrong tour.

Damage caused by overloading muscle causes damage, tearing and inflammation that as it heals builds more muscle. The higher the load / lower repitition the bigger the muscle becomes - body builders do low repition / high load to failure sets to get huge and very "strong", marathon runners run for hours and hours and are super skinny (low load high reps) and are very "fit".

The damage that LiTs was talking about was "bad" damage due to over extension - this will load the front of the knee and "stuff" repeatedly and damage will occur that won't fix or get better.... Avoid long term damage and look for "good" developmental damage.

Most people want good aerobic fitness and to look good naked. Me - well I like to look at good looking people naked, the aerobic fitness helps me run them down when they come round, but I digress.

Having a fixed gear means you can't make up for lack of fitness / strength in the gearing. The best way to get better at doing hills is to do more hills. Strength being speed specific you should try to do this training at the cadence you want to climb at... You might want to down gear for your hills training but this will have you spinning out on the flat..

If you have a flip flop you can have a big cog and a little cog to get you there whilst saving your blushes before swapping down.

Of course the other option is to keep your 14 cog, man the the fuck up and drive on.

Good luck, let us know how you get on....

lost_in_thought

I have to echo the MTFU from Greg there, push harder, you will get quicker up the hills. If you're comfortable with it on the flat, then a smaller gear will lead to spinning out and frequent scalpings. :shock:

ride_whenever

Or you could get a fixie dinglespeed.

FixedNewbie

Cheers for the replies :-)

I am more than happy to MTFU, dont mind the work as long as i am not going to scunner myself down the line!

Ive noticed you have the odd meeting in London, hopefully ill be able to join you all through there in a few weeks
 

il_principe

Yep, MTFU fella.

Please do pop along to drinks one day, we'd all love the opportunity to fondle your equipment... well Greg would anyway. :?

You don't say what gear you're riding by the way. Cog sizes please.

wgwarburton

Gear for cruising speed, push on the ups, spin on the downs...

It's possible that using too high a gear will cause knee pain, if you end up grinding along on the flats at 60rpm with your blood vessels bursting from your skin. That's not the same as having your cadence drop a bit while you push up a grade.

Some (most?) of the banter about cadence has been light-hearted exchanges between the "I'm so strong I can push a 100-inch gear" and the "I'm so quick I can spin 200rpm" camps of fixie riding.

Note that the key message is that the best riders are the ones who can spin a 100-inch gear at 200rpm... But we try not to talk about that :-)

Cheers,
W.

Clever Pun

My knee has started to hurt today.... (well yesterday doing burpies) but I've got a nagging suspicion it's due to my fixed riding

I only spin like a loon on downhills the one proper up hill is reasonably quick and doesn't need me to stand so I could remove a few teeth to lessen the cadence if needs be. but on the flats my cadence is ok although it's a guess 80-90 maybe? probably less

what's the official leg distance to pedal measure?

does braking using legs affect your joints?

why only one knee damnit?

could of course be conincidence

FixedNewbie

Hehe, unfortunately i am in neither the 100inch camp or the 200rpm camp! Think the best ive managed on the fixed is 167 down hill!

I was riding a 48x18t but was spinning out too often when chasing things, now on a 48x16t which is great on the flat/undulating roads. Bloomin hard work up the hills but the bike seems to respond quite well to any effort you put in

I avoid using my legs to slow me down, brakes are there for a reason! Although the fixed can be a bit lairy when trying to slow down going down hill in the wet, very "active" back end!

ah and Greg, ill be sure to get some more hill practice in, fingers crossed ill not have to be a gimp and push it up :oops: -- not had to yet!

redddraggon

48x18 OK for slightly bumpy stuff? I'm finally getting around to finishing my Langster.

It's not really for any sort of serious riding, maybe short commuting now and again.

attica

Clever Pun wrote:

My knee has started to hurt today.... (well yesterday doing burpies) but I've got a nagging suspicion it's due to my fixed riding

I only spin like a loon on downhills the one proper up hill is reasonably quick and doesn't need me to stand so I could remove a few teeth to lessen the cadence if needs be. but on the flats my cadence is ok although it's a guess 80-90 maybe? probably less

what's the official leg distance to pedal measure?

does braking using legs affect your joints?

why only one knee damnit?

could of course be conincidence

Don't hate me for suggesting this <whispers> how about a freewheel? <\whispers>

You've done fixed, so you know you CAN keep pedalling, no reason why you shouldn't keep pedalling for all but the fastest descents, well this works for me just about.
Your knees will probably thank you for it