Candence

powinc 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

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.

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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.

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[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).

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http://dformosa.zeta.org.au/~dformosa/Spelling.html 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...

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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)

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? 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