Slowly slaying the high cadence myth....

[screenman]

Don't think that in 35ish years of riding I've ever met a cyclist with bad knees.

No we have never met but I can assure you I have very bad knee's, but they may have been worse if I was not a cyclist.

 

[flake99please]

My cadence used to sit between 60-65, and I usually rode in the highest gear possible. Since owning a recumbent I have noticed a huge difference in my riding style, as higher gears and lower cadence wasn’t doing my knees any favours on the trike. I now use lower gearing and spin consistently between 80-85 rpm on my upright bikes.

 

[dan_bo]

No we have never met but I can assure you I have very bad knee's, but they may have been worse if I was not a cyclist.

That'll be the cyclocross

 

[lazybloke]

Riding around with low cadence and high gears puts a lot of strain on the knees. Pedaling at a higher cadence is easier and enables me to ride longer distances with a heavier load.

Don't think that in 35ish years of riding I've ever met a cyclist with bad knees.

I have little opinion on best cadence within a range of say, 60-100.


However I had a road bike with awful gearing and considerably lower cadence that caused all manner of knee pains & aches. I persevered for a crazy 18 months before improving the gearing. The pain vanished overnight. Not had the problem since.
Avoid extremes!

 

[HMS_Dave]

I will be awarded a 'kerching' moment here im sure, but i don't want to ride as fast as i can, in a giant condom being concerned with my cadence or my speed for that matter. I haven't met a "normal" cyclist that does as the roadies are all wizzing past, spitting and trying to max out their aerodynamics by licking the handle bars not bothering to say hello... Too serious for me, nothing like a bimble down the road at a pace that i can enjoy the nature, something i have missed dearly.

Each to their own of course, You do you...

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

I don't want to know anything about touring and recumbents so I avoid those sections entirely, don't quite understand why you'd open a cadence thread in the training section to say you have no interest in training or cadence.

 

[screenman]

That'll be the cyclocross

More like heredity.

 

[12boy]

I've never thought I pedaled at a high rpm and ride single speed or bikes with big gaps in the gearing pretty much these days, so I am comfortable with a wide range of rpm from 10 to 60. I belong to the school of thought that sets the saddle high enough so the heel barely reaches the pedal when the leg is extended, been riding for about 60 years and don't have knee problems. I suppose I could go faster if I was a spinner but I am hardly in a race and go fast enough for me. As long as I can get my 20 miles in on days without ice or snow I am happy as a pig in poop.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Based on your data sample of one, I presume? Not confirmation bias at all, of course! :P

Based on my years of bike riding, clubs, zillions of cyclists I have mett and ridden with, none to date have complained ever of bad knees as a result of cycling. That’s not to say there are none but it’s one of those common tropes that I have never see real evidence of. If it were true there’d be a lot of old bike riders hobbling round...

 

[matticus]

Based on my years of bike riding, clubs, zillions of cyclists I have mett and ridden with, none to date have complained ever of bad knees as a result of cycling. That’s not to say there are none but it’s one of those common tropes that I have never see real evidence of. If it were true there’d be a lot of old bike riders hobbling round...

Shall I send you the receipt from my physio?
Or you could just google for others' problems ...

Sure, they're way rarer than in running and can usually get sorted out, but you're in some sort of dream-world to deny them completely

 

[Venod]

The best cadence is what your comfortable pedaliiing, I am now a high cadence pedaler, when I was younger it was a bit lower but I was also running a lot and my legs were stronger (more muscle).
I don't have a power meter on the bike but the turbo does, it shows I can put out more power spinning.

 

[MichaelW2]

I am usually a spinner but I injured my knee on a long complex uphill junction when the lights turned against me. I had to accelerate uphill in too high a gear.
I avoid pushing hard gears to protect that knee.

Optimum cadence is affected by the riders leg length, mass, muscle type and strength and by the relative length of the cranks.

 

[Lovacott]

Riding around with low cadence and high gears puts a lot of strain on the knees. Pedaling at a higher cadence is easier and enables me to ride longer distances with a heavier load.

I've always been the opposite. I prefer to work my legs harder which builds muscle and strength and therefore reduces the risk of injury.

I find pedalling really fast more tiring on my legs and lungs as well.

 

[steverob]

I find I use a really high cadence (around 100) on my turbo. Bike is much lower and depends on the length of the ride, how hilly it is, what mood I happen to be in and the alignment of the moons of Jupiter.

I don't know why I go so high on the turbo. I think it's because the turbo to me is just an exercise machine and not really that much to do with riding a bike. 100 just feels right for that. I also do hard intervals and put in quite a lot of effort on the turbo, which I generally don't do on the road.

Interesting - thought it was just me that did a much higher cadence on the turbo than outdoors! Having said that, for me a high cadence is high-80's, while on my normal bike it's mid-70's.

Always been more of a grinder than a spinner, but I put that down to the gearing on the bike I had in my younger days not really being suitable for the local area I was riding (undulating to hilly, but bike was biased to big gears). So if I had picked a gear to spin in on the flat, it would have had to be at the bottom end of the range already, leaving me nowhere to go to if I was needing to climb all of a sudden. When I eventually got a cadence sensor many moons later, I found my average was about 65rpm! Now with a bike with a more suitable range of gears (and slightly older legs), that's crept up to low and then mid 70's over time, but I feel comfortable there, so have no reason to change.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

"strength"