Dodgy Tarmac + Good Cadence

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Jdratcliffe

Well-Known Member
Location
Redhill, Surrey
how can they exist ? i have a part of my route that has patches and ruts and build outs and tarmac lumps all along it for about 4 miles and i cant seem to find a good way of keeping a smooth and fast cadence ideas? tips?

FYI i have a CAAD 8 105 with gp4000s ( soon to be 4 seasons for the winter) all way 23mm with front psi around 110-120 and rear from 115-125 depending on the weather, im 11stone on a bad day.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Ride fixed. No choice:laugh:
 

steve52

I'm back! Yippeee
yep its hard push harder and skip from crest to crest. i find it helps if i breath hard blowing snot and saliver out of mouth and nose as i do it helps a bit.
 

Koga

Senior Member
Sounds like Norfolk !
Just change gear to get the right cadence, you will probably slow down in the process, but that is what happens on bad tarmac, it slows you down.
 

Biker Joe

Über Member
Rough pave and high cadence do not go together.
Look at some clips from the spring classics on Utube. Particularly Paris/ Roubaix.
You'll notice that, on the rough sections,many of the classics specialists go up a gear or two, drop their cadence and ride on the tops of the bars.
I remember Cancellara and Magnus Backstedt discussing this during an interview. They were of the opinion that using the above method stops the bike from skipping about so much and riding on the tops absorbs the shocks better.
If it's good enough for Cancellara, ( my hero), then its good enough for me.
I use this method myself and find it the most satisfactory way to tackle rough pave.
 
You just have to lump it. Don't do anything that will cause jarring of your wrists.

Up to a point you can sometimes 'float' over rough surfaces (there is a notorious stretch on the Malvern Hills, but I'm not usually pedalling there).

If it's only four miles, just treat it as part of your warm-up or cool-down.

Or choose a different route. Really crappy surfaces just don't go with spinny cadences... but it's not a crime to ride in a big gear and Goombah your way along the road. Until quite recently, very few people spun in three figures.

And... dropping to just over 100psi will make the ride much more pleasant.
 
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