Cadence

dinsdale81

Need help.

Been a keen cyclist for a while now and have decided to get some training in this year prior to really hitting the sportives in 2010.

As part of my training, myself and 3 mates did the 100mile Norwich Charity ride on Sunday which we completed in a time of 6hrs 23mins which i thought was quite good for my first 100.

However, one of my mates that was riding behind me mentioned the fact that i was pedalling twice as fast as him to maintain the same speed.

Am i doing something wrong?

I'm sure i've read somewhere that if cardiovascular fitness is to par, you can increase your cadence to ease the amount of work your legs have to do. If your fitness isn't quite there, you would ride using the bigger chain ring and you would get more 'bang for your buck' so to speak.

Am i speaking complete sh*t and am i riding wrong. Does it even matter. I finished the 100 miles and other than being a bit knackered, my legs were pretty ok. Is it simply a case of peoples different riding styles. I stayed on the lower chainring for the majority of the ride while my mate never came of his larger one.

Can someone please clear this up for me? Should i be using the larger Chainring :?

chrisw12

The forum cadence expert will be along soon to answer.

To help him to answer, it might be an idea if you tell us exactly how many bananas you are eating at the moment?

shockedsoshocked

It depends if you were in the little ring, but then in the 12 sprocket at the back all the time for instance? Try putting it in the big ring and using the entire cassette.

But I wouldn't worry, it's not so much of an issue.

Alex_Simmons/RST

dinsdale81 wrote:

Does it even matter.

Not really.

dinsdale81 wrote:

I finished the 100 miles and other than being a bit knackered, my legs were pretty ok.

there's your answer

dinsdale81 wrote:

Is it simply a case of peoples different riding styles.

Pretty much.

rjh299

I would just go with what feels comfortable and natural to you

Pokerface

Of course you were pedaling twice as fast as him! He was behind you - drafting off you. So you were doing all the work.

neilo23

I can pootle along for hours at about 32 kmh / 20 mph in the small chain ring, but tend to get tired quickly travelling at the same speed in larger gears. As stated previously, it's what makes you feel comfortable that counts. I'm by no means a good climber, but it's the hills I ride a bike for. I have no interest in doing a 50 mile time trial so stomping around in big gears isn't of much use to me. However, if only doing repeats in your training, you should sometimes use the big gears to develop some more power. This will help you whether you're riding on the flat or in the hills.

@ShockeSoShocked,

Nice to see another Jam fan around here :-)

vorsprung

Doctor Ferrari believes that faster pedalling is better

http://www.53x12.com/do/show?page=article&id=15
http://www.53x12.com/do/show?page=article&id=27
http://www.53x12.com/do/show?page=article&id=36

If you sign up for his web/email/cheap training program then I suspect that most of the work is based on cadence

bompington

I found that when I started cycling I tended to feel more comfortable grinding in the big gears, my physique (if you can call it that) is definitely more suited to pushing it hard & slow, & I just struggled to keep it going at high revs. But the longer and harder I've trained the more I find I prefer spinning it faster.
Of course I don't know if that's because I just kept trying to up the cadence because it was supposed to be good for me, and it might just be an overall fitness improvement that would have happened even if I had kept in the high gears.

Infamous

bompington wrote:

....... and it might just be an overall fitness improvement that would have happened even if I had kept in the high gears.

bingo.

I think it's a self fulfilling prophecy, if you like riding with a specific cadence (either high or low or whatever), you're more likely to ride at that cadence, which makes you better at that cadence, which makes you like riding at that cadence etc etc

People have had success at every level of the sport with all types of cadences, no one cadence style is better than the other.