Cadence

[trio25]

Well I have a new geeky toy! Downloaded a plugin for sportstracks (where I record all my riding) that works out my cadence for the ride from my speed.

Got a max cadence yesterday of 137prm, higher than any previous ride. No wonder I was bouncing about.

But what sort of average should I be aiming for?

 

[gaz]

For comfort i would say between 90- 110.

 

[trio25]

Better get practising then, I have hardly anything in that range. Obviously need to learn to spin my legs faster!

 

[Wocce Racer]

It depends on your physical make up. Some people pedal faster than others. Induran was a low cadence rider and Armstrong a fast cadence rider. There is no hard fast rule for everyone, you have to find what is most comfortable and efficient for you.

 

[GrasB]

What I would do is after a longer medium distance ride go out for a few miles on flatish roads & undergear the bike. Just spin as fast as you feel comfortable doing so for a long period, ignore the speed it's irrelevant, just simply track what cadence you were doing approximately. This will give you an idea of what range you naturally ride in, you can get a more accurate idea of your optimal cadence with a turbo trainer (keep going up the gears until you get to the gear you're turning the fastest then record what your cadence was at that point) but it'll get you in the ball park.

As WR said, everyone is different , I often ride with a guy who I'm fairly well matched with for pace. He spins at 60-85ppm & will keep in that range for hours on end & when he wants to put in a spurt will gear up & grind it out. I on the other hand am spinning between 90 & 110ppm & to put on my spurt will be pushing the ppm beyond 140, on 2 occasions in the last month it's been over 165ppm for 30s or so on the flat!

 

[Rob3rt]

Depends what gearing your fixed/singlespeed is as to what your comfortable average will be.

My fixed is geared pretty low, so im spinning pretty slow and its really comfortable. Dont know the actual value because I dont have a computer atm.

If your running a higher gearing you may be spinning faster to get the same average speed, lower gearing, and you will be spinning slower for same average speed.


Guess best way would be to take your geared bike out on a typical ride you would do on your fixed, and figure out the gear you are most comfortable in and then gear the fixed to match that as closely as you can.

 

[Wocce Racer]

What I would do is after a longer medium distance ride go out for a few miles on flatish roads & undergear the bike. Just spin as fast as you feel comfortable doing so for a long period, ignore the speed it's irrelevant, just simply track what cadence you were doing approximately. This will give you an idea of what range you naturally ride in, you can get a more accurate idea of your optimal cadence with a turbo trainer (keep going up the gears until you get to the gear you're turning the fastest then record what your cadence was at that point) but it'll get you in the ball park.

A good way of getting a "ball park" idea of your pedalling style.

 

[Wocce Racer]

I am and 80 to 95 man myself. Though when out on the fixed I can really spin it when required. But fixed is a far different ride to gears. This time of the year I am on a 72", though when I get fitter I go up one or two teeth at the back.

 

[GrasB]

I should add that when I'm gearing a single speed or fixie for 'rolling' landscapes I'll aim to have my typical flat cruising speed around 2/3 to 3/4 of my maximum sustainable cadence.

 

[totallyfixed]

Hi Trio, you don't say how long you have been riding fixed or perhaps more importantly how much you ride it. As others have pointed out everyone is different on there comfortable cadence zone. The things that make the real difference are experience, length of cranks [shorter = easier to spin faster] and ultimately age.
No one has an average cadence that they can put a number to, or if they do it means they are either riding round a track or on a perfectly flat ride with no wind. In the real world of hills and wind and riding with others my cadence varies from down in the 20's when going up a tough climb to my high of 188 on a long downhill. And all this will depend on the gear you are riding.
Now I've probably thoroughly confused you. There is one constant in all of this that generally holds true, the longer you have ridden fixed for the faster you can spin.

 

[PK99]

There is no hard fast rule for everyone, .

LOL!

 

[Wocce Racer]

On the fixed I gear up one or two two teeth depending on my fitness) on the back as the flywheel effect of the fixed (as long as the back wheel is turning your pedals are too) and because there is no "dead spot" in the pedal cycle at the 6 o'clock position. I find that hill that I climb on, say, a 42x18 on a freewheel I ride 42x17 or 16 on a fixed.

 

[trio25]

Hi Trio, you don't say how long you have been riding fixed or perhaps more importantly how much you ride it.......There is one constant in all of this that generally holds true, the longer you have ridden fixed for the faster you can spin.

Well I've had the bike just over three weeks and have done over 300miles. So I guess I will get faster. Downhills are slowly getting less scary. I think the average cadence I get as well will be down as I don't stop as much just slow down to a crawl with lights etc!

 

[Rob3rt]

You should take the oppertunity to whip out an easy trackstand Its great, either that or im easily amused (I cant trackstand on any other bikes , so its novel being able to do ona fixed). Riding fixed is great I think, you feel more relaxed and ride more conservitivelly, rather than blast from lights to lights then stop, I find I am much more aware of whats upcoming and dont need to stop just alter speed to nip through as they go green.

Since riding fixed, do you feel strange on your other bikes? The deadspot at the bottom is really noticable for me on bikes with free wheel. To the point I stall a bit at bottom of each stoke for the 1st 5 mins or so.

 

[RedBike]

Well I have a new geeky toy! Downloaded a plugin for sportstracks (where I record all my riding) that works out my cadence for the ride from my speed.

Got a max cadence yesterday of 137prm, higher than any previous ride. No wonder I was bouncing about.

But what sort of average should I be aiming for?

IMO There's no point worrying about your average cadence riding fixed. It's not as though you can drop a gear to increase it.

I tend to pedal along at about 85/90rpm on the flat regardless of the gearing i'm using. If i've geared the bike lower then I just end up going slower. For me I think this is just force of habit / what feels comfortable.

I'm too much of a wimp downhill to go much over 20mph/25mph regardless of the gearing.