Ideal cadence and strength - have we been spoilt by lower gearing?

[ChrisEyles]

I climb a heck of a lot faster on my ten speed (low of 42/28) than on my tourer (low of 24/30). I also probably get a bit fitter when I ride it a lot. But it's definitely hard work and if I just want to go out on a pleasant ride and not worry about the hills I'd rather have the low gears to hand.

I do find I'm guilty of dropping right down to pretty much bottom and pootling up very slowly though!

 

[a.twiddler]

I remember seeing a documentary where he was doing that. It made me wince, but it obviously worked for him!


I've seen people ride amazingly steep stuff on fixed. I asked a couple of them how they could do it and they told me that the secret (apart from their fitness, obviously!) was the chain driving the cranks round through the deadspots.

The deadspots are what kill me on singlespeed, although my new technique of dropping my heels towards the top of the pedal stroke is helping me push the cranks through.

Oh, wow - I found the documentary on YouTube and Obree is doing the heel-dropping thing too! I'll start it at the bottom of the climb, but the whole documentary is there. I'll watch it again later.

It's nothing new. We used to call the "heel-dropping thing" ankling even when I was a kid cycling to school in the 60s, and no doubt someone older than me will refer to doing it at an even earlier date. At low revolutions it allegedly increases the efficiency of the pedal stroke, and I suppose super athletes can get a boost even at higher revolutions too. For the skint, it was what we used instead of gears. In those days I was riding a single speed with freewheel. I lived in Devon at that time, and walked up a lot of hills! The downhills were amazing though.

 

[ColinJ]

It's nothing new. We used to call the "heel-dropping thing" ankling even when I was a kid cycling to school in the 60s, and no doubt someone older than me will refer to doing it at an even earlier date. At low revolutions it allegedly increases the efficiency of the pedal stroke, and I suppose super athletes can get a boost even at higher revolutions too. For the skint, it was what we used instead of gears. In those days I was riding a single speed with freewheel. I lived in Devon at that time, and walked up a lot of hills! The downhills were amazing though.

I had heard of 'ankling' but didn't know what it was!

My first bike back then was a singlespeed, but there weren't any big hills in the area (north Coventry). I just about got up what hills there are.

 

[Ian H]

I had heard of 'ankling' but didn't know what it was!

There was a school of thought that a novice should learn to ankle before they were allowed to fit toe-clips*. Otherwise they'd NEVER learn to pedal 'properly'. All b*ll*cks of course.

* if you don't know, don't worry.

 

[ColinJ]

There was a school of thought that a novice should learn to ankle before they were allowed to fit toe-clips*. Otherwise they'd NEVER learn to pedal 'properly'. All b*ll*cks of course.

* if you don't know, don't worry.

I only cycled with toe-clips for a few weeks and hated them!

I switched to Look Deltas and loved those except for dodgy emergency dismounts on steep, slippery climbs. (I had a couple of near misses on wet/leafy 25% slopes!)

MTB SPDs are perfect for me so I fit them to all of my bikes.

 

[Toshiba Boy]

My times up my big* local climbs increased when I went from 34/32 bottom gear to 34/34. I prefer it that way.

* To pre-empt @ColinJ they're not really big, not like in t'north They are small unworthy molehills.

Do you guys "up t'north" have to "lick t'road clean" before you go t'work too?

By common consent, the two toughest days on LEJOG are the first two days up through the South West, just saying

 

[Ian H]

I only cycled with toe-clips for a few weeks and hated them!

<Old fart hat on> In my day it was toe-clips or nuffink.

 

[CXRAndy]

As an OAP with cycling not my main sporting activity, I'm looking for all the help I can get. My winter bike has a triple chainset with a 30 tooth granny-ring while my good bike has a sub-compact chainset with a 32-tooth small ring, combined with a 32t big cog. This lets me take on some routes, such as the other day, 40 miles with just under 2400 feet of climbing, all in the first 28 miles, with a couple of climbing sections over 12%, on the good bike.

I like to try to maintain a decent cadence on the hills, but sometimes, even with very low gearing, you just have to grind it out. At least these low gears let me keep going out on a good variety of routes, because it's hard to avoid hills in my area. No shame in low gears when the strength is declining.

Your gearing isnt low enough. Shimano do a triple 48/36/26 teeth. It gets me up 20+% with a decent cadence

 

[ColinJ]

<Old fart hat on> In my day it was toe-clips or nuffink.

As a child I had flat pedals on my bike. I had it stolen from school in 1969 and didn't ride a bike again until 1989. The pedals on the bike I bought then had toe-clips so I gave them a go...

I was young and healthy then so within 3 weeks of buying the bike I thought I'd be up to tackling local monster climb 'Mytholm Steeps' which has several ramps at over 15% before it gets to the worst ramp at 25%. I've posted pictures of it before...

The 25% bit...

I actually managed to get up that, but the gradient gets really savage round the LH bend at the top so I was intending to pull out to the R and swing round on the easier side of the road. An aggressive motorist put paid to that idea, severely left-hooking me, and forcing me well over to the left, where it looks like this!!!

Given that I was a novice cyclist and I had just been fried by ramps of 15%, 20%, 25%... my legs seized up completely and I came to a dead stop, only to remember that my feet were clipped to the pedals! I toppled sideways, still attached to the bike. Fortunately, I fell to my left and landed on the earth bank rather than the road itself so I wasn't hurt but it put me off toe-clips for good.

I can sometimes get up the climb now, sometimes not, but at least my emergency dismounts are much safer now that I use SPD pedals.

 

[gbb]

It's easy to forget your bike is the limiting factor, not you. You buy a bike with a particular setup...in my case when I first switched to a 50/34 quite early as I increased my cycling.
I gained fitness and at some stage you reach a peak on that setup, you start to spin out on the flat...but that bike will probably stay with you for several years.
When i brought my last roadbike i deliberately opted for a 53/39 and immediately could use the increased fitness I had gained.

 

[mustang1]

One could argue that more than one gear is hampering strength training so we should be riding ssfg.

 

[mustang1]

As a child I had flat pedals on my bike. I had it stolen from school in 1969 and didn't ride a bike again until 1989. The pedals on the bike I bought then had toe-clips so I gave them a go...

I was young and healthy then so within 3 weeks of buying the bike I thought I'd be up to tackling local monster climb 'Mytholm Steeps' which has several ramps at over 15% before it gets to the worst ramp at 25%. I've posted pictures of it before...

The 25% bit...
View attachment 547971

I actually managed to get up that, but the gradient gets really savage round the LH bend at the top so I was intending to pull out to the R and swing round on the easier side of the road. An aggressive motorist put paid to that idea, severely left-hooking me, and forcing me well over to the left, where it looks like this!!!

View attachment 547972

Given that I was a novice cyclist and I had just been fried by ramps of 15%, 20%, 25%... my legs seized up completely and I came to a dead stop, only to remember that my feet were clipped to the pedals! I toppled sideways, still attached to the bike. Fortunately, I fell to my left and landed on the earth bank rather than the road itself so I wasn't hurt but it put me off toe-clips for good.

I can sometimes get up the climb now, sometimes not, but at least my emergency dismounts are much safer now that I use SPD pedals.

Blxxdy heck. IDK if I should put a "wow" or a "tears" emoji. How long do those climbs go on for? I couldn't handle those kinds of gradients.

 

[Venod]

It's easy to forget your bike is the limiting factor, not you. You buy a bike with a particular setup...in my case when I first switched to a 50/34 quite early as I increased my cycling.
I gained fitness and at some stage you reach a peak on that setup, you start to spin out on the flat...but that bike will probably stay with you for several years.
When i brought my last roadbike i deliberately opted for a 53/39 and immediately could use the increased fitness I had gained.

If your spinning out on 50 x 11 on the flat you should consider going pro, with 25mm tyres on 700cc rims at 100rpm you will be at about 32 mph

 

[ColinJ]

Blxxdy heck. IDK if I should put a "wow" or a "tears" emoji. How long do those climbs go on for? I couldn't handle those kinds of gradients.

It's a short, sharp, shock that one. The first part with the steep ramps averages 16.3% for 825 m (just over half a mile) but then the climb continues for 700 m at 8.9%, and eases up into Blackshaw Head village with a 1.75 km drag at 2.2%.

 

[a.twiddler]

One could argue that more than one gear is hampering strength training so we should be riding ssfg.

One could argue that having one gear, especially fixed, in this day and age, is a masochistic affectation when the technology is there to make better use of what ability we have. Also not everyone is fixated on competing, even with themselves.