Is high cadence efficient? Research doesn't agree!

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

Those of you who don't buy into experimenting with cadence are missing out on a lot fun.

Over the last year or so every so often I will change my chainrings to simulate a 1x and it is quite noticeable how the ride changes, this morning I went out on a well known route with a 38x11-25 (8spd) and no big ring.

It was a quite weird ride in comparison to my normal 42/52 rings as I was forever in the "wrong" gear, and as lot of the small "ups" where I might have changed down a gear seemed to disappear it felt like different roads.

Yet I definitely felt faster on some up-hills as 52x21 is for wimps, that's a big sprocket but 38x15 is not,

but I really struggled on some down-hills as I am not happy much over 90rpm and prefer around 85rpm so I reckon that I lost 3-4mph and even if that number is wrong it felt a lot slower.

But I did find that 38x13 was a better fit for a lot of the ride as a select and forget gear, than either 52x19 or 52x17.

I am more convinced than ever that if I do buy a 1x road bike it would be a 10sp/11sp as the holes are noticeable and it would nag knowing that I could have filled them.

Bye

Ian

 

[Ian H]

Higher cadence seems to suit me better.
The theory is I think that you "dance on the pedals".

Pedal dancing is something else, more usually called 'honking' in the UK.

 

[Ian H]

Most people I know seem to settle on a kilometre-eater gear between 5 and 6 metres. My own preference is 5.62 metres (42x16 on 700c wheels)...

I'm afraid I prefer between 63 & 67".

I'm happy at any cadence between 60 (or lower on fixed) and 120 (or higher on fixed). It starts to get hard work over 140, but then, I'm not as young as I used to be.

 

[Blue Hills]

Pedal dancing is something else, more usually called 'honking' in the UK.

Am not a racer so I thought the terms were different about different things.
"Honking", which never sounds too graceful and dance-like to me, and doesn't look it, is when you get out of the seat i think. Something I never do.

 

[DRM]

Most people I know seem to settle on a kilometre-eater gear between 5 and 6 metres. My own preference is 5.62 metres (42x16 on 700c wheels). At a rough estimate, this rotates at around 75 revolutions a minute which gives an average speed of around 25kph. I knew I had the right gearing for me when distance suddenly became a matter of time rather than effort, a fantastic feeling of independent freedom. Enjoy the kilometres.

I think you’re right, unwittingly over time you find what gearing/cadence works for you naturally, after that you’re away, combine this with learning to read the terrain and reacting correctly before the road starts to go up, not leaving it too late to change gear and the miles fly by.

 

[Eric Olthwaite]

I seem to remember Richard's Bicycle Book advising, "pedal as fast as you can without going into orbit".

 

[Lovacott]

Many moons ago I was reading a review in Road CC and even by their standards it was a corker - if there was a cliche, it was in there. Carbon soaking up road buzz.

I used to instantly follow any page associated with my favourite football team.

But after reading 100's of articles promising major reveals (which came to nothing), I gave up.

 

[Ian H]

Am not a racer so I thought the terms were different about different things.
"Honking", which never sounds too graceful and dance-like to me, and doesn't look it, is when you get out of the seat i think. Something I never do.

These people agree with you: http://perfectcondition.ltd.uk/Articles/honking/Honking.htm

 

[DRM]

I think I have previously regaled you good folks with this, but its worth repeating.

Many moons ago I was reading a review in Road CC and even by their standards it was a corker - if there was a cliche, it was in there. Carbon soaking up road buzz. Ultegra being automatically better than 105 despite no mention of how the bikes being compared actually performed - it was Ultegra, therefore simply better in some way. Compliant and comfortable but somehow inexplicably stiff at the same time. Every piece of road bike BS you can imagine.

Out of curiosity I googled the reviewers name, and lo! 6 months earlier he had been writing for a model railway magazine. Never bothered buying a bike magazine since that day.

Exactly this, I recall reading a comparison of 26”, 27.5” & 29” wheels in one of the MTB comics, with a graph to show how super duper the all new 29er’s were, trouble is the exaggerated graph lines in regard to 29er wheels meant nothing as when you looked at the average speeds attained round a set off road course there was actually nothing in it, and the article was full of so much guff and buzzwords it was an absolute joke

 

[CXRAndy]

I've trained over winter on the turbo to pedal at higher cadences, building up to several hours of non stop. I could hold 95rpm for 3 hours, 100rpm for an hour. When taken to the road, I could ride 5-6 hours a day back to back with little leg fatigue.

I was happy to sacrifice a tiny bit of power to maintain fresher legs. My optimum max power cadence was around 85 rpm

 

[Lovacott]

Exactly this, I recall reading a comparison of 26”, 27.5” & 29” wheels in one of the MTB comics, with a graph to show how super duper the all new 29er’s were, trouble is the exaggerated graph lines in regard to 29er wheels meant nothing as when you looked at the average speeds attained round a set off road course there was actually nothing in it, and the article was full of so much guff and buzzwords it was an absolute joke

Surely a bigger wheel equals more weight on the bike (extra rubber, extra rim, bigger frame)?

So whatever efficiency you gain from having a bigger wheel circumference would be lost by carrying the extra weight?

 

[Lovacott]

I could hold 95rpm for 3 hours, 100rpm for an hour.

Go away. You are making me feel sick.

 

[CXRAndy]

Go away. You are making me feel sick.

 

[ColinJ]

Most people I know seem to settle on a kilometre-eater gear between 5 and 6 metres. My own preference is 5.62 metres (42x16 on 700c wheels). At a rough estimate, this rotates at around 75 revolutions a minute which gives an average speed of around 25kph. I knew I had the right gearing for me when distance suddenly became a matter of time rather than effort, a fantastic feeling of independent freedom. Enjoy the kilometres.

My choice gives me 5.8 metres (or 72 gear inches). That is 52x19 on 700/25C. My favourite cadence is 90 rpm, and that corresponds to 31 km/hr (or about 19.5 miles/hr). 70-90 rpm is fine and what I normally do in that gear. I can manage 100 rpm for a while. 120 rpm feels way too spinny.

 

[Mr Celine]

On the turbo last week I got bored of staring at the garage walls and noticed that the chain on the front chainring appeared to be stationary. 50 tooth chainring, 50Hz mains frequency therefore exactly 60 rpm. I dropped a few gears and spun it up until it appeared stationary again, so 120 rpm but I couldn't comfortably maintain that for long.