Cadence - how fast?

[Riding in Circles]

You tend to develop a much smoother cadence riding bent.

 

[Misty]

ACW - my husband bought me a garmin 705 for christmas last year (primarily because I have the sense of direction of a dead duck & wanted the gps to allow me to explore places I'd otherwise never find) - it came with a free cadence / speed monitor. The cadence monitor works on the recumbent boom but the pedal is too high above the wheel to also pick up from the spoke magnet (for speed).
But the gps works out your speed based on your gps position so you only need the speed via the spoke magnet if there's no gps reception.
It's an expensive piece of kit if all you want is speed / cadence, but the gps is awesome if you're thinking of touring - and there's loads of training tools like the virtual partner to race against, a heart monitor (stops me pushing it too hard!!!!), ability to upload circuits into the garmin training centre etc.

 

[ACW]

ACW - my husband bought me a garmin 705 for christmas last year (primarily because I have the sense of direction of a dead duck & wanted the gps to allow me to explore places I'd otherwise never find) - it came with a free cadence / speed monitor. The cadence monitor works on the recumbent boom but the pedal is too high above the wheel to also pick up from the spoke magnet (for speed).
But the gps works out your speed based on your gps position so you only need the speed via the spoke magnet if there's no gps reception.
It's an expensive piece of kit if all you want is speed / cadence, but the gps is awesome if you're thinking of touring - and there's loads of training tools like the virtual partner to race against, a heart monitor (stops me pushing it too hard!!!!), ability to upload circuits into the garmin training centre etc.

Thanks i will have a look at one,
went to the bike shop but none for sale so when i got home i worked out that fitting an old speedometer to the bike with the magnet fitted to the crank arm can work as a cadence meter.
if you set the wheel size to 2682mm and mph, then the speed = revs instead.
6.0mph = 60 rpm
if you want the maths it is 2.682m x 60 =160.9334m per min or 9656.004 m per hr or 9.656k per hr or 6 mph
did a trial run and it works 100rpm in top gear = 35 mph as predicted by the gear calculator on sheldon browns website.
well chuffed with it, only problem s i now know that i dont spin enough my usual comfortable rate is between 60 and 75 climbing a steep hill i was only getting up to 85

Must try harder!

 

[PalmerSperry]

ACW - my husband bought me a garmin 705 for christmas last year (primarily because I have the sense of direction of a dead duck & wanted the gps to allow me to explore places I'd otherwise never find) - it came with a free cadence / speed monitor. The cadence monitor works on the recumbent boom but the pedal is too high above the wheel to also pick up from the spoke magnet (for speed).
But the gps works out your speed based on your gps position so you only need the speed via the spoke magnet if there's no gps reception.

<nods> I've got a Edge 305 and find it great. (Particularly as I have 3 bikes - the MTB/shopping-hack, the Racebike and the 'bent - and can therefore use the same cycle-computer for all of them!) Alas, one of the 3 roads out of where I live goes through a tunnel for about 200 metres (and my nice little local hillclimb has sufficiently thick trees as to cause GPS problem) so I haven't yet decided whether I want speed or cadence on the 'bent ...

Have to admit I've given a little though to performing "surgery" on the speed & cadence sensor so as to gain both! Not had any luck locating any websites where someone else has already attempted this, but it seems to me that removing the screw that the speed sensor pivots around might result in coming off? Extend the wires sufficiently and waterproof the gaps, and maybe ... just maybe?

 

[Misty]

removing the screw that the speed sensor pivots around might result in coming off? Extend the wires sufficiently and waterproof the gaps, and maybe ... just maybe?
[/quote]

Yes, if you unscrew the speed sensor pick up it does indeed come all the way off (it wasn't my intention to do that, honest, it just fell off in my hand .... !!!)

But the wires inside are very thin and very tight ... I wouldn't fancy my chances extending them "cleanly". [But I'm useless at practical stuff - you may think it's a doddle .... if you work out how, do let me know !]

Personally, as a newbie to the weird world of recumbents, I've found the cadence monitor more useful than knowing how fast I'm going .... for speed, if I'm wobbling uphill, I must be at less than 4mph .... if it's slightly disconcerting downhill, but still well planted, I'm probably at 40 - 45mph .... if my teeth are rattling, I'm at 45 - 50 mph+ ! For the bits in between I'm starting to get a feel of the speed I would expect in each gear / cadence combination.
Right now, my aim is to ride a whole ride at a constant cadence, irrespective of the gradient.... so downhill you spin away in a higher gear & uphill, at the same rate in a lower gear. It's not as quick as it could be downhill, but I think it is training my brain to go for consistency and change gear sooner / more often, whilst on an upright I've got lazy and tend to just grind a bit harder before i drop a gear.

 

[PalmerSperry]

Yes, if you unscrew the speed sensor pick up it does indeed come all the way off (it wasn't my intention to do that, honest, it just fell off in my hand .... !!!)

But the wires inside are very thin and very tight ... I wouldn't fancy my chances extending them "cleanly". [But I'm useless at practical stuff - you may think it's a doddle .... if you work out how, do let me know !]

Thanks for the information, which is more than I had before! Of course, even if I do manage to successfully extend things that still leaves mounting the speed sensor end of things which might still be a little awkward/

Plus, if I'm honest, I'm not 100% certain a this point whether I'm staying with recumbents (and if so which one?[1]) or switching back to uprights on the grounds of there being .

[1] Currently got a pretty standard Giro 26, options are upgrading it or replacing it with one of Raptobike Midracer or a Challenge Furai 24.

 

[Misty]

Thanks for the information, which is more than I had before! Of course, even if I do manage to successfully extend things that still leaves mounting the speed sensor end of things which might still be a little awkward/

Plus, if I'm honest, I'm not 100% certain a this point whether I'm staying with recumbents (and if so which one?[1]) or switching back to uprights on the grounds of there being .

[1] Currently got a pretty standard Giro 26, options are upgrading it or replacing it with one of Raptobike Midracer or a Challenge Furai 24.

Mounting the speed sensor should be a piece of cake if you've extended the wire from the main unit - I'd have thought a zip tie to the forks somewhere with the magnet on the spokes ought to do it... if I get slippy stuff to zip tie, I tend to cut off a tiny strip of inner tube - wrap it round the thing you want to zip tie and the rubber is sufficiently "sticky" to hold things in place.

Yeah, I know what you mean about recumbents - I'm only riding one because I have to ... it's recumbents or giving up riding .... if I had a choice I'd still be spinning away on a carbon Trek and loving it. In my (very) humble opinion, sometimes the "disadvantages" of uprights are over stated - if you ride enough, most of them are minimised !
Maybe I'll feel differently in a year or so when the recumbent muscles and my sense of balance / adoption of the recumbent style has developed ... but I'm not one to give up easily, so I'm going to plug away at it for a while yet!!!

 

[tongskie01]

Mounting the speed sensor should be a piece of cake if you've extended the wire from the main unit - I'd have thought a zip tie to the forks somewhere with the magnet on the spokes ought to do it... if I get slippy stuff to zip tie, I tend to cut off a tiny strip of inner tube - wrap it round the thing you want to zip tie and the rubber is sufficiently "sticky" to hold things in place.

Yeah, I know what you mean about recumbents - I'm only riding one because I have to ... it's recumbents or giving up riding .... if I had a choice I'd still be spinning away on a carbon Trek and loving it. In my (very) humble opinion, sometimes the "disadvantages" of uprights are over stated - if you ride enough, most of them are minimised !
Maybe I'll feel differently in a year or so when the recumbent muscles and my sense of balance / adoption of the recumbent style has developed ... but I'm not one to give up easily, so I'm going to plug away at it for a while yet!!!

put more miles on it. more miles more satisfaction and lots of fun.

 

[MartinG]

You tend to develop a much smoother cadence riding bent.

As a total newbie to 'bent riding (and a very unfit returner to cycling at all), I already notice that I pedal a much smoother cadence on the 'bent and that each stroke of the pedals is smoother - less of the alternating piston effect, and a much smoother (- also less tiring and more powerful) circular action with NO KNEE PAIN!

Maybe having less well engrained DF habits is an advantage!

Yesterday I did my usual early morning ride and really pushed it, working the pedals hard and getting my heart-rate up. Today I took it easy and concentrated on keeping my cadence high: my times were identical but today I wasn't half as knackered!