Candence

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by powinc
Two questions?
1. What is a good cadence to maintain on an average 40-60km ride?
2. Can you trust the cadence value calculated by a Flight Deck?

powinc

Hi pownic,

1. Cadence is used by the rider as an indicator to maximise endurance. The general rule is that the comfortable cadence for the rider increases as the fitness increases. I was reading somewhere that 80-90 rpm is for an average rider while racers keep it around 110-120. The other factors to consider are the length of the ride and the terrain. One can afford higher stress (higher speed; rpm; heart rate) if it is not to be sustained over long time. So coming back to your question, your comfortable cadence depends on your condition and needs to be worked out by you over experience. In my little experience, the stable rhythm (indicated by cadence and heart rate) is the key to endurance. So start with a constant rhythm and if you need to and if you can, speed up your rhythm.

2. You can absolutely rely on the vitual cadence by Flight Deck, except for when you're not pedalling! There's not much into it. It reads your speed, and knowing your gear ratio and wheel size, it simply calculates the cadence.

Cheers,
Amir.

powinc <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Two questions?
1. What is a good cadence to maintain on an average 40-
60km ride?
2. Can you trust the cadence value calculated by a Flight
Deck?

powinc

A1. 85-105 on the flats, 70-90 on hills works for me. The
ranges are quite wide, but you're not a two-stroke
moto racer.

A2. I've never owned a FD, so I can't say. I imagine it
would give pretty weird results down steep hills
(especially if you change to the granny gear)

Ritch

powinc said:

Two questions?
1. What is a good cadence to maintain on an average 40-
60km ride?

As fast as you can maintain and still be comfortable
without bounce. Though, if you're not used to a fast
cadence, you WILL bounce at first till your brain gets
used to pedalling your legs like that.

I sit at 100 give-or-take. Downhills I'm doing 120, and
uphills, well, whatever I can manage. :-)

Be warned, a slow cadence will give you knee trouble. Back
when I didn't
know any better, my habit was to ride with a slow cadence,
and just torque it
through. Once I found it I *should* be sitting on 100, my
knees were fine.

I also noticed with the faster cadence, that my legs have
somewhat shrunk, but I'm still maintaining (or bettering)
my average speed. This is over a number of years mind you,
your legs certainly aren't affected quickly.

Quoted message said:

2. Can you trust the cadence value calculated by a Flight
Deck?

Providing you program the ratios for each gear
correctly, yes.

--
Linux Registered User # 302622 <counter.li.orgcounter.li.orgOpen ↗

[email hidden] (Ritch) writes:

[...]

Quoted message said:

A1. 85-105 on the flats, 70-90 on hills works for me.

Shouldn't these be equill? Infact I've found on short steep
climbs I tend to up my cadence rather then drop it. (Of
cause I drop into easyer gears to accomplish this effect).

--
Please excuse my spelling as I suffer from agraphia. See
dformosa.zeta.org.auSpelling.htmlOpen ↗ to find
out more. Free the Memes.

? the Platypus {aka David Formosa} said:

Quoted message said:

A1. 85-105 on the flats, 70-90 on hills works for me.

Quoted message said:

Shouldn't these be equill? Infact I've found on short
steep climbs I tend to up my cadence rather then drop it.
(Of cause I drop into easyer gears to accomplish this
effect).

If you can keep up 100+ cadance even on your lowest gear,
the hill isn't steep enough. :-)

Perhaps if we transposed the words "hill" and "wall" you'd
understand why a lower cadance is mandated...

--
Linux Registered User # 302622 <counter.li.orgcounter.li.orgOpen ↗

Originally posted by Ritch:

Quoted message said:

85-105 on the flats, 70-90 on hills works for me. The
ranges are quite wide, but you're not a two-stroke
moto racer.

Hmmm... 90-110 on the flats, anything down to about 30 on the uphill bits, and up to around 150 on the downhill bits.

Regards,

Suzy (49/19 fixed wheel)

? the Platypus {aka David Formosa} <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Ritch) writes:

[...]

Quoted message said:

A1. 85-105 on the flats, 70-90 on hills works for me.

Shouldn't these be equill? Infact I've found on short
steep climbs I tend to up my cadence rather then drop it.
(Of cause I drop into easyer gears to accomplish this
effect).

I don't think there is a requirement for equality. I find
that the slope of a hill changes as you climb, so a lower
cadence gives a wider range of speeds in the same gear to
accomodate variations in slope. There is clearly a limit to
this as other posters have pointed out the risk of knee
injury if cadence is too low. The steepest hills don't give
me much choice with 39/23 as my granny gear, but I don't
live in the mountains (Syd metro has some steep pinches, but
no really long and steep climbs).

Ritch