Cadence & Gear Inches

"Pat Fleming" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:Qc5Jb.37554$Do6.8575631
@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net:

Quoted message said:

Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road. You are also required to stay in
one gear and maintain a consistent cadence.

What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would you maintain?

There are too many variables to answer this question.

The first two I can think of off of the top of my head:

1) Is there any wind? If so, how strong and from what direction?

2) What type of ride is this? The state time trial championship or a recovery ride to the
store and back?

- Boyd S.

Pat Fleming said:

Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road. You are also required to stay in
one gear and maintain a consistent cadence.

What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would you maintain?

58/10 and 130 rpm 🙂.

Seriously, one approach is to consider hour record data: ida.physik.uni-ida.physik.uni-Open ↗
siegen.de/menn/hourrec.htm

Cadence is remarkably consistent @ 103 rpm or so, with the notable exception of Grahame Obree @
93rpm. The gear is calculated then from the speed/cadence ratio.

As has been discussed here, optimal cadence increases with power output. Women's data would thus be
more applicable to most non-international-class male racers. I don't have cadence data for women,
however: ida.physik.uni-siegen.dehourrec women.htmOpen ↗

So I'd scale back to 90 rpm or so.

For 12 m/sec (43.2 k/hr), and a 2.1 meter effective wheel circumference, this yields:

gear = 90/12/2.1 = 50/14

So that's what I'd use, if I could average 12 m/sec 🙂.

Dan

OK. No wind, time trial.

"Boyd Speerschneider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Pat Fleming" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:Qc5Jb.37554$Do6.8575631
@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net:

Quoted message said:

Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road. You

are

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

also required to stay in one gear and maintain a consistent cadence.

What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would you maintain?

There are too many variables to answer this question.

The first two I can think of off of the top of my head:

1) Is there any wind? If so, how strong and from what direction?

2) What type of ride is this? The state time trial championship or a recovery ride to the store
and back?

- Boyd S.

"Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Pat Fleming said:

Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road.

You are

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

also required to stay in one gear and maintain a consistent

cadence.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would

you

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

maintain?

58/10 and 130 rpm 🙂.

Seriously, one approach is to consider hour record data: ida.physik.uni-ida.physik.uni-Open ↗
siegen.de/menn/hourrec.htm

Cadence is remarkably consistent @ 103 rpm or so, with the notable exception of Grahame Obree @
93rpm. The gear is calculated then from the speed/cadence ratio.

As has been discussed here, optimal cadence increases with power

output.

Quoted message said:

Women's data would thus be more applicable to most

non-international-class

Quoted message said:

male racers. I don't have cadence data for women, however: ida.physik.uni-ida.physik.uni-Open ↗
siegen.de/menn/hourrec_women.htm

So I'd scale back to 90 rpm or so.

For 12 m/sec (43.2 k/hr), and a 2.1 meter effective wheel

circumference,

Quoted message said:

this yields:

gear = 90/12/2.1 = 50/14

So that's what I'd use, if I could average 12 m/sec 🙂.

And with this in mind I suggest what I have on my track bike - 48/14.

Try the ride with a choice of gears. Find the gear you are comfortable with and set your fixed gear
to that one.

Or estimate your speed and cadence you prefer and compute your gear.

For me in January at 0C: 35 kph, 50-15, and what ever cadence that is.

Bruce

"Pat Fleming" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road. You are also required to stay in
one gear and maintain a consistent cadence.

What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would you maintain?

Bruce said:

Try the ride with a choice of gears. Find the gear you are comfortable with and set your fixed
gear to that one.

Or estimate your speed and cadence you prefer and compute your gear.

For me in January at 0C: 35 kph, 50-15, and what ever cadence that is.

60*(35/3.6)/((50/15)*2.1) = 83

Thanks Dan. Now I'll add the units:

Quoted message said:

60*(35/3.6)/((50/15)*2.1) = 83

60 sec/min
3.6 kph/mps = kilo per hour / meters per second
4.1 meters per wheel revolution

then doing the math:
4/1.6 = 100/6
5/15 = 10/3
6/3 * 2.1 = 7 35*100/6/7 = 100 * 5/6
7/6 = .8333333 and finally, 2-place accuracy is more then enough. so we get 83 rpm.

Bruce

"Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bruce said:

Try the ride with a choice of gears. Find the gear you are comfortable with and set your fixed
gear to that one.

Or estimate your speed and cadence you prefer and compute your gear.

For me in January at 0C: 35 kph, 50-15, and what ever cadence that is.

60*(35/3.6)/((50/15)*2.1) = 83