Cadence / bouncing

Skippy2309

simply how the hell do I stop myself from bouncing around on the saddle :evil:

Club run was cancelled so got the rollers out and did a nice little 20minutes doing a minute at high cadence (need to plug my garmin in for the stats) followed by a minute at a lower cadence, was in 53x11 for the first set. then dropped down to a lower gear 53x13 / 14 maybe for another sprint, as at this point I was more thinking about the cadence than speed in the end I was doing 39 x something lol and just spinning and was still bouncing out the seat. I looked down and caught my speed at 24mph so must have been a good speed but the bouncing worries me :?

was nice to do a little spin session (let go of the wall quite a lot) no HR data but it didnt feel strenuous at all. Feet hurt today but were fine yesterday as were my hands.... :roll:

rick_chasey

It's quite tough to pedal a very high cadence without bouncing.

However, if you're bouncing quite a bit, try raising your saddle a little.

Herbsman

Sounds like you need to relax more and hold yourself steady.

Try riding fixed downhill for a few months, you'll soon get the hang of it.

Skippy2309

not done that for a while :P great fun doing so but i am lucky in having strong legs so i can control my descent - although i remember doing a hill in kingston when I first rode fixed my legs felt like they were going to come off

McBain_v1

Watch track cyclists... 160rpm+ with no bouncing. A fixed wheel teaches you that discipline. Get a bike on a turbo and practice would be my advice. There's a few spinning workouts that you can try, most involve spinning up your leg speed by 5rpm per minute (starting at 70rpm) for a set period. A warm up would look like this:

70rpm (1 minute)
75rpm (1 minute)
80rpm (1 minute)
85rpm (1 minute)
90rpm (1 minute)
95rpm (1 minute)
100rpm (1 minute)
105rpm (1 minute)
110rpm (1 minute)
115rpm (30 seconds)
120rpm (30 seconds)

After that you next step would see you start at 85rpm and get you legs up to 135rpm or so.

Of course this only really works if the bike on your turbo has a computer that reads pedal cadence

TheBullet

I have a very high cadence and if I start bouncing too much it's normally because I'm mashing down on the gears as if my legs were pistons. To combat this I try pedalling in circles in a smooth motion. Might help though it does feel quite unnatural to start with.

meanredspider

In Spinning classes they tell you that you bounce if there's not enough resistance on your bike (ie the pedals are turning too easily). There must come a point where you are applying so little force to the pedals that pedalling itself is ineffective (you're mostly just churning your legs). To cure the problem, maybe you just need to change up a gear.

SteveR_100Milers

Practice. Riding a fixed bike at a track is a good way to force you to learn to do it. I was no spinner until a winter at the veloidrome, 150rpm is feasible without bouncing around. The trick is to use your adductors to pull up and help pull your leg up and over the top of the stroke, at least that's what works for me.

Skippy2309

cheers guys, will have to get my fixed gear out for some runs.

I am not sure about the not enough resistance, as i was pushing 53x11 at the time which does strike me as strange. The garmin was showing me running out at 110-120rpm which is not as fast as i thought.

will try and do some cadence work tomorrow morning.

jgsi

Skippy2309 wrote:

cheers guys, will have to get my fixed gear out for some runs.

I am not sure about the not enough resistance, as i was pushing 53x11 at the time which does strike me as strange. The garmin was showing me running out at 110-120rpm which is not as fast as i thought.

will try and do some cadence work tomorrow morning.

err?
If this cadence done on resistance less rollers, then I understand.. quoting what gear you are in is pretty meaningless but no less impressive of course for an internet forum
You havent siad why you want a cadence lets say over 110..? If you are bouncing at that , then yes you need maybe to have some tuition.
I can think of bertter things to practise though such as creating a really smooth pedal stroke style but using real world gearings and effort levels..

Eddy S

Skippy2309 wrote:

cheers guys, will have to get my fixed gear out for some runs.

I am not sure about the not enough resistance, as i was pushing 53x11 at the time which does strike me as strange. The garmin was showing me running out at 110-120rpm which is not as fast as i thought.

will try and do some cadence work tomorrow morning.

Pedalling at high cadence is a technique you have to learn and practice and then practice to perfect. Your posts gives the impression that you automatically expected be able to do it!

Riding rollers in high gears is not the answer. As JGSI says, try some real world gears. All you are doing with 53x11 is mashing and forcing a big gear, rocking your body around, fighting the gear. There is no smoothness or fluidity in your pedal stroke. Try again with a gear that broadly equates to a 72 – learn to control and sustain that at 150 - 170 rpm.

Watch the body, watch the technique - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVbwngNoHm0

Skippy2309

I expected to do it as I used to be able to do it..... before I trashed my knee at work I could spin on a 50x15 fixed gear at 35mph with full panniers with very little effort. i expected the technique to be the same, although I was expecting to struggle with the strength work - the strength side of things seems fine just the technique is needing the work.

I can still push the big gears without too much fuss, I just cant get the cadence smooth at higher rpm's, I dont want to push myself and bounce around the saddle and lose control... hence why I asked - nothing wrong with wanting to be able to spin smoothly is there.

nferrar

Eh? spinning at 35mph with panniers taking very little effort?, I call BS assuming you mean actually outside on the road (if you meant on rollers then panniers are hardly relevant )

kieranb

15x50 is about a 90inch gear, and 35mph means approx 130rpm I estimate. Doable for sprint effort (especially given the panniers) but 'with little effort'? maybe a steep downhill?

My record was 200rpm downhill on my MTB in very low gear, only held it for a few seconds as the hill run out.

elmsallmissile

You are called Skippy & worry about bouncing :roll:

dennisn

I would suggest that when you get into high cadences that you start really thinking about pushing your toes forward(not down). Force your toes, just after they go over the top, toward the front of your bike. Try to avoid pushing down.

winterdancer

FWIW I find that I start bouncing at about 120rpm and then at higher rpm I stop bouncing - have got to 160 on my road bike (on the road, downhill, just for the hell of it :-)). I remember reading somewhere that the bouncing is because your muscles haven't been 'trained' to relax in between strokes at such high cadences, as they would normally be doing. Don't know if this information is of any use whatsoever...

SteveR_100Milers

dennisn wrote:

I would suggest that when you get into high cadences that you start really thinking about pushing your toes forward(not down). Force your toes, just after they go over the top, toward the front of your bike. Try to avoid pushing down.

+1 for that explanation dennis. This is exactly how I ride a track bike for most of the time.