How to Measure Cadence?

On 6/8/04 1:10 pm, in article [email hidden],
"Elisa Francesca Roselli" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike without
a function on the cyclocomputer?

The rollout distance for one revolution of a cycle tyre is approx 2m
The number of revolutions such a tyre makes per hour at 24 km/h is 12,000.
Dividing this by 60 gives 200 rpm.

Now all you have to do is to know your gear ratio. 38x19 is 2 so would be a
cadence of 100 at 24km/h

A bit of mental arithmetic can then give you the approximate answer.

ie 25km/h instead of 24 would be an extra 4 pedals per minute to give 104.

38x15 instead of 19 would be about 20-25% less, or between 75 - 80.

Once you have one mark to go on the rest can be estimated by extrapolation.

Or you can program the relevant formula into excel and print out a set of
tables to tape to your map holder..

...d

Quoted message said:

Thanks
EFR
Ile de France

Elisa Francesca Roselli said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike without
a function on the cyclocomputer?

Can you estimate seconds fairly accurately?

1 revolution in one second = 60rpm (too slow)
3 revolutions in two seconds = 90rpm (probably a touch fast for you)
2 revolutions in one second = 120rpm (Lance)

--
Mark.
http://tranchant.plus.com/

David Martin said:

On 6/8/04 1:10 pm, in article [email hidden],
"Elisa Francesca Roselli" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike without
a function on the cyclocomputer?

The rollout distance for one revolution of a cycle tyre is approx 2m
The number of revolutions such a tyre makes per hour at 24 km/h is 12,000.
Dividing this by 60 gives 200 rpm.

Now all you have to do is to know your gear ratio. 38x19 is 2 so would be a
cadence of 100 at 24km/h

A bit of mental arithmetic can then give you the approximate answer.

Oh dear. I think I'll go for the cyclocomputer.

EFR
Ile de France

"Elisa Francesca Roselli"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike

without

Quoted message said:

a function on the cyclocomputer?

Well. there's the second hand on your watch. Pick one of your feet,
and count how many times it goes down in 15 seconds - it's usually
easier to count for only fifteen seconds than to count for a whole
minute. If you only count for fifteen seconds, remember to multiply
by four to get your revolutions per minute.

Jeremy Parker

"David Martin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On 6/8/04 1:10 pm, in article [email hidden],
"Elisa Francesca Roselli" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike without
a function on the cyclocomputer?

The rollout distance for one revolution of a cycle tyre is approx 2m
The number of revolutions such a tyre makes per hour at 24 km/h is 12,000.
Dividing this by 60 gives 200 rpm.

Now all you have to do is to know your gear ratio. 38x19 is 2 so would be

a

Quoted message said:

cadence of 100 at 24km/h

Unfortunately I think Elisa has hub gears, which complicate matters.

cheers,
clive

Peter Clinch said:

Count the number of times you turn the pedals in a set time while
pedalling as you typically would. If you have (or can borrow) a
stopwatch (better still a countdown timer with an audible alarm) then
it's number of pedal revs divided by number of minutes to give you your
cadence.

Now that's better. My watch _does_ have a stopwatch function with audible
alarm. I wasn't clever enough to think of putting it to this use.

EFR
Ile de France

Elisa Francesca Roselli

Quoted message said:

David Martin said:

On 6/8/04 1:10 pm, in article [email hidden],
"Elisa Francesca Roselli" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike without
a function on the cyclocomputer?

The rollout distance for one revolution of a cycle tyre is approx 2m
The number of revolutions such a tyre makes per hour at 24 km/h is 12,000.
Dividing this by 60 gives 200 rpm.

Now all you have to do is to know your gear ratio. 38x19 is 2 so would be a
cadence of 100 at 24km/h

A bit of mental arithmetic can then give you the approximate answer.

Oh dear. I think I'll go for the cyclocomputer.

You could write down a handy table or memorise a few key values.

All you really need to know are the speeds you should use each gear
in.

A

Elisa Francesca Roselli said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike without
a function on the cyclocomputer?

The same way you measure your heart rate without a monitor - ie by
counting against the clock. I don't know any other way.

However, having used a cadence computer for a few months now I have a
reasonably good idea of what eg 90rpm feels like so I don't always have
to look at my computer to come up with a reasonably close estimate.

d.

Paul Rudin said:

Elisa Francesca Roselli said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike without
a function on the cyclocomputer?

Count how many times you turn your pedals in a minute?

The trick is knowing when the time-phase begins and ends, since I cannot look at my
watch and remain balanced on a bike at the same time. Peter Clinch in the UK forum
has reminded me that my watch has a stopwatch with an audible time-out alarm. It's
just a little fairy sound, so I will have to test this evening whether I can
actually hear it in traffic.

Thanks all,

EFR
Ile de France

Elisa Francesca Roselli said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike without
a function on the cyclocomputer?

Count how many times you turn your pedals in a minute?

Elisa Francesca Roselli said:

David Martin said:

On 6/8/04 1:10 pm, in article [email hidden],
"Elisa Francesca Roselli" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike without
a function on the cyclocomputer?

The rollout distance for one revolution of a cycle tyre is approx 2m
The number of revolutions such a tyre makes per hour at 24 km/h is 12,000.
Dividing this by 60 gives 200 rpm.

Now all you have to do is to know your gear ratio. 38x19 is 2 so would be a
cadence of 100 at 24km/h

A bit of mental arithmetic can then give you the approximate answer.

Oh dear. I think I'll go for the cyclocomputer.

Or you can simply count your pedal rotations for 6 seconds and multiply
by 10, to get a rough estimate. Counting for 10 seconds and multiplying
by 6 is a bit more accurate. And so on.

-km

--
the black rose
proud to be owned by a yorkie
http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts

Ambrose Nankivell said:

Quoted message said:

Oh dear. I think I'll go for the cyclocomputer.

You could write down a handy table or memorise a few key values.

All you really need to know are the speeds you should use each gear
in.

It's an awfully Rube Goldberg way of figuring something very easy:
count the number of times your leg completes a circle in a given
interval of time: maybe six seconds. Multiply that by ten. Cadence!

The musically-inclined can do it by feeling the beat of their own
footsteps. There was a thread here on RBM recently about that--I seem
to recall that "andante" corresponded to a comfortable and reasonably
efficient cadence for most people, while racers going full-out might
dance an aleghretto on the pedals.

Riding a bike is easy. Let's not make it any more complicated.

-Luigi

Cadence is simply beats per minute, so count the number of revolutions
in, say, 10 seconds and multiply by 6.

On a related matter:

A long time ago I published an article about gear seconds. A gear second
is a value which gives your speed in terms of revolutions. For example
if your gears are 52/18, then counting the revolutions for 14 seconds
gives your speed. (This assumes a 27" wheel). The formula is

gear seconds=R*pi*405/264,

where R is the gear ratio, such as 52/18 = 2.9, and pi is 3.1415.

Elisa Francesca Roselli said:

Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike without
a function on the cyclocomputer?

Thanks
EFR
Ile de France

--
Bob Wheeler --- http://www.bobwheeler.com/
ECHIP, Inc. ---
Randomness comes in bunches.

Elisa Francesca Roselli wrote:
|| Peter Clinch wrote:
||
||| Count the number of times you turn the pedals in a set time while
||| pedalling as you typically would. If you have (or can borrow) a
||| stopwatch (better still a countdown timer with an audible alarm)
||| then it's number of pedal revs divided by number of minutes to give
||| you your cadence.
||
|| Now that's better. My watch _does_ have a stopwatch function with
|| audible alarm. I wasn't clever enough to think of putting it to this
|| use.

I suggest the computer. Cadence is a nice function to be able to get without
timing anything. It's what I look at on my bike 99% of the time.

Elisa Francesca Roselli wrote:
|| Paul Rudin wrote:
||
||| Elisa Francesca Roselli
||| <[email hidden]> writes:
|||
|||| Is there any rule of thumb method to estimate cadence on a bike
|||| without
|||| a function on the cyclocomputer?
|||
||| Count how many times you turn your pedals in a minute?
||
|| The trick is knowing when the time-phase begins and ends, since I
|| cannot look at my watch and remain balanced on a bike at the same
|| time. Peter Clinch in the UK forum has reminded me that my watch has
|| a stopwatch with an audible time-out alarm. It's just a little fairy
|| sound, so I will have to test this evening whether I can actually
|| hear it in traffic.

Er, be careful. A cheap computer is better if you need cadence in traffic,
imo.

Roger Zoul said:

I suggest the computer. Cadence is a nice function to be able to get
without timing anything. It's what I look at on my bike 99% of the
time.

Mind if I ask, why? I just don't see the need for a heart rate monitor OR
cadence counter. I figure my heart will let me know if it's not happy with
my level of exertion; and I just pedal at whatever rate feels right for the
terrain ridden or speed maintained.

Bill "not serious enough I guess?" S.

S o r n i said:

Roger Zoul said:

I suggest the computer. Cadence is a nice function to be able to get
without timing anything. It's what I look at on my bike 99% of the
time.

Mind if I ask, why? I just don't see the need for a heart rate monitor OR
cadence counter. I figure my heart will let me know if it's not happy with
my level of exertion; and I just pedal at whatever rate feels right for the
terrain ridden or speed maintained.

My heart has a tendency not to complain early enough by any standards,
so an HRM means I can stay out longer and not be so knackered cause I
look at it and keep it nice and low. I imagine other people are
different.

A

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 14:59:49 GMT, S o r n i <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Roger Zoul said:

I suggest the computer. Cadence is a nice function to be able to get
without timing anything. It's what I look at on my bike 99% of the
time.

Mind if I ask, why? I just don't see the need for a heart rate monitor
OR
cadence counter. I figure my heart will let me know if it's not happy
with
my level of exertion; and I just pedal at whatever rate feels right for
the
terrain ridden or speed maintained.

Bill "not serious enough I guess?" S.

I like HR monitors because they can tell you things like how long you've
been in, above, or below your set range and what your average HR is. So,
even if I ride the same ride (which I do), if I average 157 bpm one day
and 160 bpm another, I know that my HR was higher for some reason (because
I took the downhills at a faster pace? Didn't get enough rest the night
before?). If my HR is way up for some reason, I know to back off training
a bit. I also can tell trends: am I now riding that 20 miles at a lower
HR than before? Is this hill a little easier? Sadly, my current HR
monitor freaks out with electrical interference, so my two hardest hills
have weird measurements ("My HR can't be 40 bpm!"😉. However, I have
another HR monitor I'm going to try (if I can find the darn thing).

I also like cadence, although my current computer doesn't have it. As I
ride in a hilly area, I would sometimes look down and see that I'm only
doing 50 rpm and this'll jog my memory to switch into an easier gear so
that I can bring the cadence up to 70 or higher.

--
Bob in CT
Remove ".x" to reply

S o r n i wrote:
|| Roger Zoul wrote:
||
||| I suggest the computer. Cadence is a nice function to be able to get
||| without timing anything. It's what I look at on my bike 99% of the
||| time.
||
|| Mind if I ask, why?

Not at all. However, you might also ask the OP why she cares, too.

|| I just don't see the need for a heart rate
|| monitor OR cadence counter.

Need? Did you say "need?" My comments don't suggest that I need either to
ride a bike, now do they?

However, I enjoy having both and find both useful.

|| I figure my heart will let me know if
|| it's not happy with my level of exertion; and I just pedal at
|| whatever rate feels right for the terrain ridden or speed maintained.

What feels right is a bit subjective, imo. I want to maintain as high a
cadence as I can for a given speed, assuming I feel stable at that RPM.
Also, many cycling authors claim that the proper cadence protects the knees,
and that's important to me. Sure, I can ride without it as you do, but it
gives me something to look at while fighting up a hill or when trying to go
at a faster pace.

As for HR -- I like to know where I'm at relative to my max levels. One can
track this info over time and look for improvement. If you're so good you
can't improve, or if you're not interested in tracking stuff, then have it
your way. But I enjoy it and find the info useful

|| Bill "not serious enough I guess?" S.

Or too serious. Toys enhance enjoyment. Sort of like having a GPS unit
along 🙂