The Bicycling Thread

[lilmira]

Looking back at my last 3 rides, my average cadence was 90, 94 and 90. When I was riding yesterday, even 80 felt slow to me. There is no one ideal cadence for everyone. Even for one person, it's good to have a range of cadence that you are comfortable with at your disposal. There is gearing on your bike and then there is gearing on your body. Most people without any cadence drills will be comfortable at about 60 rpm from my observation. 80-90 is quite achievable with a bit of practice. I'd say try to increase it gradually and eventually you'll find your sweet spot. You can always fall back to low cadence but you can't just spin faster on demand without practice.

[Penguin_Racecar]

I'm happiest around 90-105rpm on the flat. My climbing cadence is a little lower - around 85rpm normally assuming I'm not running out of gears. At higher loads my pedal stroke efficiency goes up significantly also.
Being comfortable at high RPM requires practice (and a correctly set up saddle height helps a ton). I believe when I did more pedal drills I peaked at 186rpm.

[taemo]

Last year I used to like 70-80 cadence as well, but now I average 85-95 and occasionally get to 100-105 especially when trying to over take someone.
I find it less tiring going higher cadence with bigger gear than low cadence on small gear

[buh_buh]

Outside, my average cadence is 90-100, indoors my average cadence is 100-110 unless I'm making a conscious effort to go lower, which I have to do since my outdoor cadence seems to be lower and I'm trying to make my indoor rides more applicable to my outdoor ones. VO2 max workouts though my cadence will be up around 105-110 still though.
It's just a matter of what system you're trying to recruit - muscular endurance vs aerobic endurance. The key is to find a good middle ground between the two, although I did just read this recently:

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/fitnes...-froome-191779

[bigboom]

There is no one size fits all for people. A lot of it is going to come down to what your physiological make up is, do you have more slow-twitch or fast-twitch fibers for your muscle buildup? I think most cyclists would agree though that a normal cadence should be at least 85rpm or higher to be more efficient and it may require some training. If you're lower than 85rpm then definitely spend some time training that.

[s_havinga]

Very Interesting, I made an effort yesterday afternoon to try stay around 90. It was a 17K ride and I was tired when I finished felt more like a 50K ride cardio wise. My average speed may have been slightly higher but only marginally. I'll try a few weeks and see how my body adapts.

[Brent.ff]

it was also a billion degrees yesterday, so that wouldn't have helped

[D'z Nutz]

I was completely unaware of this closure until i almost rode into the blockade this morning.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...cked-1.4759022

[Brent.ff]

It wouldn't be calgary, until the 'great pathway system' has more closures and detours on it.. Such a joke

[997TT]

Same. I hit it yesterday going home. Nothing like being pissed on then detouring onto memorial in rush hour traffic.
This morning and for the rest of the summer I’ll just ride on the south side of the river.

[D'z Nutz]

Just throwing this out there before I go buy one on Kijiji, but would anybody have a 3-bike hatch/suv compatible carrier you'd be interested in renting out to me for a week?

[CLiVE]

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Just throwing this out there before I go buy one on Kijiji, but would anybody have a 3-bike hatch/suv compatible carrier you'd be interested in renting out to me for a week?

Do you have a hitch mount?

[D'z Nutz]

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Do you have a hitch mount?

I do, along with a hitch mount carrier, but the vehicle we are taking doesn't which is why I'm looking for a hatch/suv compatible carrier.

[J-hop]

Frack. got a full face snocket rocket this morning from a guy in front of me. Yelled at the guy and he spat some bullshit about me following to close even though I wasn’t and he was riding about 4 feet off the back tire of the guy in front of him so even if I was pot meet kettle.

Trolled him hard though after haha. He tried to sprint away him on a decent looking road bike, me on my kona dew carrying a 30+ pound pack with workout gear, bike lock, lunch and laptop but I stuck with him and blew the doors off him shortly after.

Don’t snocket rocket during the morning commute, this isn’t the Tour de France, there is absolutely no reason to.....

[s_havinga]

Gross! What a way to start the day...

I rolled my ankle and tore some ligaments just over 2 weeks ago playing baseball so no biking for me lately. I have 4 weeks until the Vancouver Fondo so I'm really hoping to get back in the saddle soon.

[997TT]

That sucks. I hate bike path patrolman. I’ve had a few incidents last year but nothing since. Someone following me closely doesn’t bother me. I know they will pass me eventually as they are probably the stronger rider. I’m Sedona right now and was just at the white line yesterday as part of a tour. Tour guide told me to google white line Sedona as a mountain biking vid. Pretty sick ride.

https://youtu.be/GzhlDnTv0pc

[J-hop]

Glad I opted not to ride today, holy hell is it ever bad.

Anyone ever used one of those smog masks? Can they filter this out fairly well? I imagine the filter media isn’t super dense or it would be hard to breathe but I wonder if the condensation from breathing would help a lot (like oiling a car air filter)

[ZeroGravity]

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That sucks. I hate bike path patrolman. I’ve had a few incidents last year but nothing since. Someone following me closely doesn’t bother me. I know they will pass me eventually as they are probably the stronger rider. I’m Sedona right now and was just at the white line yesterday as part of a tour. Tour guide told me to google white line Sedona as a mountain biking vid. Pretty sick ride.

https://youtu.be/GzhlDnTv0pc

I'm sick just looking at that video.

[kJUMP]

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Glad I opted not to ride today, holy hell is it ever bad.

Anyone ever used one of those smog masks? Can they filter this out fairly well? I imagine the filter media isn’t super dense or it would be hard to breathe but I wonder if the condensation from breathing would help a lot (like oiling a car air filter)

i rode to work this morning which in hindsight was not a smart idea. my lungs are still feeling twitchy and it's almost noon. i've seen a couple people wearing masks but from afar, they just look like ones you can get from a drugstore - not sure how helpful those would be.

- - - Updated - - -

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Gross! What a way to start the day...

I rolled my ankle and tore some ligaments just over 2 weeks ago playing baseball so no biking for me lately. I have 4 weeks until the Vancouver Fondo so I'm really hoping to get back in the saddle soon.

@s_havinga how's your training going? i'm thinking about doing the whistler fondo but haven't yet signed up. i'm comfortable with the distance but the elevation is a bit daunting... only got up to 1500m on my training rides so far. from what i've heard after squamish (halfway point) it is literally climbing the whole way to whistler.

[s_havinga]

I'm still benched for now... hoping to get back to training next week. I have lost 5+ pounds in 2 weeks since rolling my ankle. Pretty sure its straight leg muscle loss since I can't explain it any other way. A little nervous what its going to feel like to start trying to put some miles on again.