I feel like grinding is more fun and spinning more exhausting.. When my legs hurt, I can just keep going anyway, through the pain, but when my heart rate or breathing gets to fast, I need to slow down.. But I'm also on a Singlespeed most of the time, so changing gear isn't even an option. I will try some high cadence intervals next time tho :)
Good information. My normal cadence is 80-85. Grinding a big gear will lower your heart rate but wear your legs out and deplete your glycogen more quickly, while spinning a smaller gear will raise your heart rate but save your legs and glycogen. Spinning at over 100rpms is something that takes training, as they say in the video, but once you do it, you'll find that you can ride longer without your legs turning to rubber. I'd end by saying that no one cadence works for everyone. Find what works best for you to enjoy your rides and do that. Be safe out there.
weird. spinning fucks my legs up hardcore but grinding doesnt (atleast when i am already like 5km into my ride and the legs are nice and warm). maybe i am just used to it.
@@SimonBauer7 As I said, everyone is different. Even in the pro peloton there are guys who grind big gears very successfully. I don’t prefer cadences over 85 or so, but if the legs start feeling a bit sore, a lower gear and some faster rpms usually helps shake the lactate out of them.
@@SimonBauer7 For a consistent speed grinding is more efficient. As soon as you start doing intervals, hanging on a fast group, you kill your muscles in the first sprint and cannot recover anymore. I have a similar friend, he is easily cycling 33 in average on any distances. Then I usually find out some excercise and he has no chance to catch my wheels. I just cycled 5 km/h faster than his comfort zone and got dropped immediately.
My comfy cadance is between 90-98. I have a friend, another road cyclist, who use to get tired very easily when we starting riding back in 2015. I noticed his cadance, guessing, was around 75 - 80. we would normally do aroud 30 to 40 miles on Saturdays. I told him he should consider raising his cadence but do it slowy. i.e. 85 for maybe a month, then 90, then 95. He did according to what I had told him. He now pedals without fatigue between 85-90'ish. once in while he will do 95. He is so happy that he doesn't fatigue as easily as before. He sweats a lot more but he carries a camelback 72 oz. mainly during the summer. He really, really loves the higher cadence especially when we have high winds here in Sacramento, CA. He use to grind at 60-65 against high winds now he actually enjoys going against the wind because he doesn't grind through it like he use to. CHEERS! 😁
Good video! After decades of riding I've settled around 90-95 rpm normal. Around 100 for spirited riding. And over 110 when I'm about to get dropped and am hanging on for dear life at the back of a fast group. But these numbers have come naturally over time.
Amazing work!! I'd love to get into cycling at some point and eventually be able to compete. Hoping to get my first road racing bicycle soon, and to find an amazing group of people in my area to go riding with. Seems like a dream to be honest.
These videos are coming out at just the right time for me. Just recently started trying to get better on the bike instead of grinding out a low gear and cruising. Did 27 miles at a steady high cadence and felt great after it
It may actually be a bit TOO imprinted in my head though, since I once did a 105 mile charity ride some 18 years ago, and did not come off of the small ring once, (thinking that I was still not 'ready to' ride the huge gears yet at that point- it was EARLY May) and was riding with a fairly high paced group (like 23-25 MPH). Of course, back then I had a 39 tooth small ring and a 11-23 cluster vs. a 34T and 12-25 nowadays.
I can confirm this works great in situations where you have some headwind (and perhaps you've been cycling for some time) and using this will allow you to gain some speed and persist it for longer time.
Low cadence has just as many benefits as high cadence when it comes to training and adaptation of the muscle, the key is to do both to become a better cyclist
@@KILLTHEREDDITOR not even close, there are loads of climbers who grind, including a certain young columbian who won le tour a few years back... the thing w the pros is they can ride at a way wider range of cadence and still be comfortable.
@@KILLTHEREDDITOR if you have a high vo2 max which they all do, high cadance works well, but most people can get more power at a lower cadance and sustain it. as there heart rate is there limiting factor. In the old days, even the pros would do low cadance and the TDF was even longer then. If you train low cadance you will not burn out so most people don’t train it so they can’t do it. Even the pros do low cadance drills.
I started adding cadence drills to my training this year and I've really noticed improvements in my riding especially on any hills. I used to really struggle and now I'm passing other riders
I take it that this obsession with high cadence is for racing cyclists. As a 74 year old leisure cyclist who enjoys riding along quiet country lanes at a relaxed pace, I find 50 to 60rpm is in my comfort zone. The 12 speeds on my Shimano XT gives me ratio for most gradients. Crikey spinning at 120 rpm, I would hook myself up to the National Grid and apply for a feed in tariff
It's not compulsory. You can either do it or ignore it, nobody is bothered. If improving your aerobic efficiency and overall fitness isn't important then just skip these videos. Using a higher cadence will generally create less muscle fatigue. This is particularly helpful for anyone clocking up big mileage or riding several days in a row.
Trust me, try riding in just one easier gear and raise your cadence by 5rpm and you will immediately feel the benefits for your knees and muscles after the ride.
67 here, and I spin like crazy right now while still working on my base. At this point, I feel like I am going to have to do weight/resistance/gym work this winter/spring in order to ride in the big ring/bigger gears anyway, so small ring/high revs is it for now. But YES, an older rider who is neither racing, has no racing background at all, just starting out, has cardiovascular/pulmonary conditions must be mindful of their heart rate for sure, and should probably bring those revs down a bit. 😉
A lot of newer riders I've ridden with will spin super slow (>70rpm)... And it does surprisingly well, until around 30 miles into a ride and your legs are shot... I think high cadence drills can really get you thinking about how fast you should really spin, which is usually a good thing!
The much younger me loved muscling up steep climbs at lower cadence - I even put higher tooth front sprockets on to push speed at lower cadence. The older me, who no longer lifts weights competitively, has learned that cadence can be your friend. It took me way to long to learn this lesson. You should have told me this 35 yrs ago.
as a kid i left my 3x bike in the big ring 90% of the time, even on the huge hill (for a 12 year old) up to my middle school. it wasn't a good idea but i did get strong
Always heard that grinding was better because it makes you stronger. But since I started spinning more than grinding, it feels like, idk, a revolution for me.
It’s good to know some physiology. The muscle isn’t perfused with blood (ie oxygen) when it is activated and tense; it’s only done when the muscle is in a resting state. Thats because the small blood vessels within the muscle itself get totally compressed by the tightened muscle cells around. When the muscle relaxes and the vessels suddenly open up there comes a burst perfusion and it’s very short, probably measured in milliseconds. So in order to get as much delivery of oxygen to the muscle as possible you should strive to have many shorter relaxations of the muscle instead of fewer but longer. Our physiology professor explained this to us back in the nineties with a similar example of hiking uphill a mountain where you should take smaller steps with a higher frequency. As I remembered they had even done a study showing that longer steps caused a greater buildup of lactate.
My natural cadence is 80-85 and have surely some improvement to do. In hilly familiar places I grin more than spin since I know distance and there can go on same gear uphill. Great video as always GCN!
@@PoliticusRex632 PRE-Eddy B days, Oliver Martin's guidance from the late '60s to early '70s. The president of the USCF then, Mike Frayssee learned that Eddy B had (sort of) defected to the U.S. from Poland, was living here, and brought him on board as the top coach of the National team at that time.
I did my first 70.3 triathlon with an average cadence of 55. People pointed out that wasn't a good idea so I did a new FTP test keeping the cadence as high as possible, lost about 80w but trained at that for over 6 months then started working the FTP back up keeping the cadence high. I've just done an event with a 70km bike and 1000m elevation at 13% in parts and got round with an average of 80rpm. It isn't the 100 you suggest but a lot better than it was.
John Howard, in some of the earliest Ironman events, was able to smoke those who were much better runners and swimmers than he, mainly because they were all riding the bike segment totally grinding away in 53x13s the whole way, while he (albeit a great national class rider at that time, which yes helped a lot) rode a slightly smaller gear at a higher cadence. Of course, they eventually all caught on, and then started beating him. This was all long before the whole aero/TT bike revolution in that sport, which yes, much of which was then transferred over to cycling TT/timed track events.
In my first event last year (about 85 miles) I spent the whole time doing this. Gut instinct told me not to change up as I didn't think my legs would take it. Glad to see it's valid.
Riding track bikes for years allowed me to get great aerobic cadence. I’m not super strong so on days where I let the ride come to me and don’t hammer right away I’ll always go further and my legs will last way longer especially on hills. It’s tough to pace yourself in the beginning and let people pass you but your ride will be better in the long run. The older I get the longer it takes to get in the legs loose, but after an hour or so of lower cadence I’m usually good to go for 6-10 hour rides.
Need to learn to restrain myself. I just cannot resist going all-in. My problem is not with the day's ride - but I sometimes need a recovery day afterwards.
I'm a 66 yr old pensioner, and the only thing I've ever won was making it to retirement after 35 yrs "grinding" away as a boilermaker, now I'm "spinning" away on the thin ice of a new day riding my Atheos with ZIPP 303 firecrest wheel set. Tankx Boilermakers local 28.
Everything the two of you have said is true. I have a 52/42/30 crank with a 12-25 cassette which makes travelling up steep inclines very difficult. Having an 11-36 or even an 11-34 cassette would be absolutely perfect for the task.
Yes I can agree that having lower gears ⚙ on your bicycle 🚲 does help with efficiency. I upgradded my Trek road bike with lower gears and noticed an increase in my overall climbing performance and efficiency. Efficiency is the name of the game when climbing up mountain ⛰ roads.
This is in line what Paul Köchli taught in the seventies he was a pioneer of scientific methods We had to train on fixed gear on flat terrain something like 42x18 a good coordination of movement is key
i learned this lesson after getting my MTB with a 30 tooth crank, oh boy, you gotta spin those pedal to go anywere with a decent speed. That "tecnique" got me to start to pedaling faster also on my road bike, and guess what, i become not faster but waaaaay more consistent in my avg speed, cadence, heart rate and power. In my book those thing as all good, aka, i feel a better cyclist now.
Learning to pedal complete circles at 120+ rpm while at a low wattage was game changing when it comes to putting down sprints, an invaluable technique that will help not just raise efficiency but also deliver much higher power throughout an effort
@@marcvb3364 👍👍👍 Its a good arrow to have in the quiver. Definitely really helps when it comes to staying consistently efficient once the initial surge of power drops off. Works for me anyway 😁
I am now ancient and largely static. Many of my opinions exist mostly in on the past. I notice (for the past 20 years) that fixed-gear bikes on tarmac have been largely the preserve of urban hipster types.... But on truth they are an EXCELLENT training tool. A nice fixie ride over rolling hills is excellent for getting used to very high and very low cadences. My Fixie is currently set up 52/20 with 700c x23 tyres. (68 gear inches). A ride over rolling hills gives a lot of 100rpm, a little bit of 45rpm and the odd bit of 165+. Gorgeous and good for me. If you want to be happy at bigger cadences, rode fixed in the hills. 😊
Went up Tourmalet recently and actually put it in the 2nd largest sprocket to keep my HR down and shift the strain to my legs that are quite good at buffering lactate.
I can easily keep up 75-80 RPM for days and really enjoy low cadence (like 50-60 RPM) drills, but at 120-kg, the idea of swinging these tree trunks I have for legs around at 100+ RPM for more than a few minutes has my head spinning just as fast lol
Same here, my favourite ride by myself is knocking out 100 miles at about 12mph, enjoying the scenery and eating flatjack. If I was keeping up 150bpm+ all day id probably die.
As an inventor/engineer of an automatic CVT/IVT transmission for bicycles, I've done a lot of research on cadence and torque for optimal efficiency and endurance. Several scientific studies show that most riders get the best results at a cadence averaging 85-90 rpm at 200 Watts; torque actually varies greatly thru each pedal revolution, similar to a sine-wave twice per revolution. A technique for changing the foot-angle thru each stroke to 'flatten' that torque curve, extending the force-duration, is worth developing (while spinning) to enhance endurance. Changing cadence occasionally also helps, but it's very important to select gearing that keeps the cadence at about 90 rpm when ascending hills & mountains to avoid over-stressing leg joints (especially your knees). I've noticed a few grinders I've ridden with needing arthroscopic surgery because they didn't keep spinning up hills!
I’ve just realized that changing my foot angle and riding with higher torque seems to be what I needed to increase leg strength and ultimately speed on flats. And I’m hoping climbs
This all makes sense, but I think you need to account for how a person is built. I raced BMX for many years and there were two types of riders, power riders, and spinners. Power riders would run a higher gearing than spinners, yet they would both be equally as fast. Usually, the more muscular built riders were power riders and the taller thinner riders were spinners. I ride a mountain bike more now, still do some BMX from time to time, and a friend of mine told me to shift a gear or two easier on climbs. It works to be in an easier gear for longer sustained climbs, but for short punchy climbs, I prefer to stay in a harder gear and just stand and power through. I have only recently gotten into more road and gravel riding. I also ride my trainer quite a bit more on Zwift now, especially in the winter. I have found that my ideal cadence is between 75 and 85 RPM as I am more of a power rider. I have been trying to work on a faster cadence, but it gets uncomfortable for me pretty quickly. When I am over 90 RPM I feel like I am spinning out of control. Maybe it's something I can keep working on, but I do think my body type has a lot to do with it. I am 5' 7" tall and 190 pounds, with very wide shoulders and very large thighs and calves. So much to a point when I put knee/shin pad combos on for jumping and skateparks the XLs just barely fit me. When it comes to jeans if I don't get the stretchy kind I am very uncomfortable. So I do think body type and build have a lot to do with ideal cadence.
In my experience, the blocky muscly guys are able to rely on their power as a crutch and develop bad habits. The thinner, weaker guys don't have the option of powering through things, so they have to spin faster. I'm a former powerlifter and when I was starting out cycling I loved sitting in the highest gear and cranking it. When I got a speedometer I discovered my preferred gear and cadence was actually 2-3 mph slower than the same perceived effort with an easier gear and higher cadence. It felt like pushing harder meant I was going faster, but my avg speed improved greatly by focusing on cadence Another poster called out crank length, which could be worth playing with too since you're shorter and not a typical "cyclist" build
@@nk-dw2hm I have experimented with this stuff for many years. In BMX racing it was popular to run 180mm cranks in the later 80s and 90s. It was all about the gate start. But I dropped down to 175mm cranks in the mid 90s and I got faster. I was able to drop a tooth in the front which allowed me to get the same gate start but I was able to spin faster and have more power out of the turns and such. So I am well aware of how crankarm length affects cadence and power for a shorter rider. In BMX we are always standing. I also rode singlespeed mountain biking through most of the 2000s and I ran 175mm cranks and changed my gear ratio based on the terrain I was going to ride. I still have a singlespeed mountain bike and I tried 170mm cranks and it didn't provide enough leverage on climbs, again while standing as sitting and powering on a singlespeed is not good on the knees. With geared bikes I run 170mm cranks because I am seated most of the time and I can shift into that ideal spot. This is both for road and MTB. I have thought of trying 165mm cranks to see if that helps, but I do like to stand and power through often to where I start to get concerned about whether a 165mm crank will provide enough leverage. I should certainly try 165mm cranks on road and see if that helps since I don't stand nearly as much riding road or gravel. I don't think being a power rider is any slower and actually, if you are conditioned for it, it doesn't take much more energy because you have more than enough muscle capacity to compensate and then are at a lower heart rate also. My point is, this suggestion in the video shouldn't be a blanket suggestion, it should be based on body type and build. Yes, I have increased my cadence compared to where I used to be. I have never thought being in a super hard gear and using lots of power was faster. But I don't think it's ideal that I am pedaling at 90 RPM or higher often as it seems the video suggests. As I said, 175 - 185 feels ideal to me and I can go a long distance and keep up with other riders that way. I will however try a shorter crank arm and just maybe 90 RPM and above feels okay. If it doesn't take away the leverage I want when I do power hard, I might end up liking it. I won't know until I try it.
It takes some time for the body to adapt going from low cadence to high cadence without having high HR bpm issues as most commented. I used to ride about 80-90 rpm, or even lower. Lately, I can go around 95-105 hitting the wind at the front or on the climb, when I need to push more W. More efficient and less muscle fatigue at about the same heart rate range as before. Perhaps it's due to better cardio efficiency...
I find as well that your feet have a bit of momentum at the right high cadence (96-105 for me), where turning the cranks feels like that's doing the work.
Spinning is critical when one goes from riding upright bicycle formats to recumbent bicycles/tricycles so as to adapt the leg and back and core muscles to a quite different motion, load on knees in particular on those little inner muscles and tendons and ligaments of the knees.
Spinning at 100 rpm might make you stronger but the sweet spot from efficiency point of view is definitely mid-rpm. I believe the shape of the power vs rpm curve of a human riding a bike would be increasing from low rpm to mid rpm, then decrease from mid to high rpm. Next video idea: Do 1h FTP tests at 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 rpm then plot a graph.
High cadence yes - it's super cool and makes long ride pure bliss but ultra high (especially on ascends) are more demanded than hard "stomping" on pedals.
Great video you are sharing. For me, and with age, no doubt high cadence has benefits, but did learn different tecnhiques on how to pedal. At different cadence I employ different effort on muscles. As it applies when you stand up on pedals.
It certainly depends on the person's physic. Some people, like myself i have to grind. High cadence heats my body quickly and I start sweating excessively to cool off. I've done many tests to understand how I can maintain a 2-3 hour ride. In high cadence, i have to carry additional bottles of water not to mention the massive amounts of salt i lose making me cramp easily. I could scrape the salt off of my face and helmet straps. At 85rpm and below is the ultimate cadence switching gears to maintain 150 to 250 watts depending how i feel. So no, high cadence doesn't make you better cyclist. Perhaps it makes us smarter to know the difference.
My fixie has helped me to train my high cadance at a ratio of 49x19. And when I switch to my road bike everything just seems easier I tend to switch gears less and settle on the cadance that I prefer the most which is around 90-100 rpm.
i just bought a fixie for my birthday and let me tell you, riding it is the most joy ive had all year. i really regret not having a bike that fit me during the pandemic but now i can enjoy myself
I was a grinder in my cycling club days and did okay; I tried spinning a few times but felt like a mouse on a treadmill getting nowhere with my legs going like the clappers. The best approach seems to be "throw out the cadence charts and just do whatever floats yer boat"..:)
3 mins in, and I've seen enough. This is a video for those few rare people who grrrriiiiiiinnnndd at 40rpm. This video isn't applicable to most riders who usually spin sufficiently at 80rpm+. I tried this crazy high revs lark for a month and just found myself so fatigued and getting nowhere slowly. I went back to what my body was telling me it felt was good and that was around the 80/90 mark. Marked improvement immediately. Surprise surprise I have read from a number of distinguished sources at this stage that albeit keeping a focus on higher cadence in mind, that one should adopt what the body feels is comfortable as depending on your own innate musculature, the body will tell you what IT feels is most efficient for it. It'd be nice if GCN imparted some of this well documented findings into their videos, and not keep trying to be 'RADICAL' and reinvent the wheel.
I naturally ride at a fairly low cadence, I haven’t counted but probably around 70-80 rpm. High cadence just feels so weird to me and I can’t maintain it very ling
Was riding 170 cranks, avg cadence around 85-90, anything higher and my heart rate shoots through the roof. Went down 150 cranks and cadence went up to 100-110 avg, less fatigue, much lower heart rate as well
@@nguyenho9591 I was rather meaning, if your knees are happy, then: 👍👍👍👍. No need to pop in with that tone. I would have thought a shorter crank will subdlty change the biomechanics of some of the things you just listed?
crank length is important relative to cadence because smaller cranks spin faster but may deliver less power. if you put together a very light singlespeed road bike with a 160 crank then your gear can spin faster more comfortably giving you a higher topend speed.
I recently got on a bicycle machine to see where I stand as a complete noob to the sport of cycling, and my average cadence was around the 105-110 RPM. But in a full sprint I managed to exceed 120 at 125 RPM. I love cycling so I'm not surprised but one thing I need to work on is improving my cardiovascular health to sustain a sprint for longer durations however I'm a climber at heart so it'll probably be best to focus on more muscular health to climb steep terrains.
It doesn't look like anybody has fixed the "sciency bit," so I'll have a go. The output that you care about is ultimately power (which is measured in watts). Power is work per unit time. Now work is force x distance, where for a bike force is how hard you push the pedal at a right angle to the crank, and distance is how far your pedal moves. Pushing harder through one nice, round pedal stroke does proportionally more work. Alert readers will already notice that crank length will come in here; if you push a longer crank with the same force as a shorter one, you've done more work, because you pushed through a longer distance. To move back to power, we need to figure out how much work is done per second. If you pedal with the same force, then doing it more often - pedaling at a faster cadence, that is - does more work per second and generates more power. That's bascially why sprinters tend to go at a high cadence - they've pretty much maximized how hard they can push the pedal with their quads (the work per pedal stroke), so they pedal as many times as possible in a second to maximize power. This also means that you can generate the same power by pedalling hard at a lower cadence, or easier at a higher cadence. In the real world, of course, there are lots of tradeoffs, in terms of which muscle fibers you use pushing harder at a lower cadence, or easier at a higher cadence, to generate the same power. If you are using a big gear and mashing hard, you are gonna have to use fast-twitch (both type IIX and IIA), which fatigue quickly. On the other hand, spinning really fast makes it hard to coordinate your muscular contraction to push at right angles to the cranks (and any pushing that isn't perpendicular to the cranks, i.e. pedaling circles, is just wasted effort). You can train that coordination, but there are diminishing returns once you get your cadence high enough to only use slow-twitch fibers to generate the power you need. Torque, by the way, is a way of normalizing all the possible forces and leverages in something like a crank into a twisting force. You can think of it as force out of the crank after all the leverage from pedals through crankarms has happened. So a larger force through a short crank could generate the same torque as a smaller force through a longer crank. I sure wish GCN had somebody on staff who actually listened during their first-year physics class!
Are your cadence numbers appropriate for older riders? I am 70 and usually ride between 10 and 25 miles, 4 to 5 times a week. Duration is between 1 and 2 hours. I pedal at whatever cadence feels comfortable for the situation and gear. I don't mind giving this idea a try, I just don't want to break the motor!
Right on! Notice the TDF riders are all going at almost exactly 90 rpm? That's the point the legs follow the crank around rather than mashing down only. Mashing down uses the fast twitch muscles, builds up lactic acid, and rider has to slow down to recover. Following the crank around uses slow twitch fibers, the aerobic fibers that supply oxygen and nutrients directly to the muscles. Rider can go forever, as long as he stays below anaerobic threshold. And when he does have to go into anaerobic, his legs will expel lactic acid at 90 rpm, and recover quickly. Learning how to recruit slow twitch fibers also eases the pain in all out efforts, such as sprints or chases. So spin, guys, ramp up the cardio system. Improve VO2 max.
I can see how this would work for shorter riders at around 150lbs/68kgs, but if you're already very tall/heavy (over 6'5"/195cm, over 220lbs/99kgs) the bike cranks already feel tiny (like riding a kiddie big wheel), and whipping your legs around is more difficult at 100+rpm. It feels like you're doing the "flashdance" on your pedals 😂. I'm already bouncing out of my seat on each stroke before I even reach 100rpm!
As I get older I have moved from a cruncher to a spinner. Not sure why, but feels much better on my legs and I recover much quicker between rides. Now 63, been riding 2 - 3000 miles/ yr for about 30 years.
Coming back and watching after seeing the zone 2 training videos, and I have 1 takeaway from all of these: I find it funny that most cyclists believe that only 1 variety of training will result in gains in ALL specialties. Im an experienced personal trainer of over 13 years, and you NEED to change it up constantly. Theres science that backs that up. We're all looking for the 1 thing that helps us all, but truth is that there's no such thing. Thats why pro riders do interval training consistently. And, believe it or not, most high level athletes in all disciplines do the same.
Nice Vid, focus in high cadence now :) Saalbach-Hinterglem is a nice MTB spot. Ride the Hackelberg-Trail - awesome Trail, nice to ride and you can have break at the half ot the trail - Hackelberg Alm! Do it!
Spinning fast is ineffective and exhausting for me. Perhaps I can work on it a bit, but I still think pushing a moderately hard gear at a moderate pace is more effective and efficient for me.
Cyclists will gravitate towards a natural cadence and this will be most efficient for them than forcing themselves to ride at a higher cadence. But high cadence efforts are good for training.
@@discbrakefan I think, there should be separation. To have a higher cadence as comfortable, you should train it, which means you should force yourself for it. Just like resistance exercises, you need to learn form, not how your body wants to do it.
Mixed feelings about this. I tend to spin in the mid/upper 90’s most of my rides but what I have noticed my tolerance for pushing a big gear for absolute speed, or sustaining a climb up anything steeper than 5+ degrees for more than a minute is uncomfortable more so than when I was riding mid 80’s and bigger gears. Yeah, I can go longer, but I don’t feel “power” like I used to.
For me it is tricky (60) doing high cadence in steep climbs. My heart goes up the roof. So, I tend to go for lower cadence in order to keep my heart rate controlled. Somehow lower cadence/bigger power works better in that respect for me.
I‘m used to higher cadences from the MTB where you want to be smooth and don‘t have big torque jumps on the back wheel that can make it slip. However I did a bit of low cadence work for climbing on the road bike because if I come across a 20% bit with that, I‘m in trouble.
Not saying you guys are wrong but spinning has never been my thing. I think I'm more of a diesel and I always ride very big gears at very low cadence. Sounds counterintuitive but I generally pull away from all the spinners on steep climbs. One thing I've never heard mentioned is it does take a certain amount of energy just to make a revolution. In my logic more rpms = more energy used. Could be just because I really dislike spinning though?
I always pedal at about 70-80 rpm when I am in the draft. Otherwise, I spin between 85-95, unless I need to catch a group or struggling during a sprint, where I top 100.
Whenever I do a ride according to strava I am around 85-95 in a ride. When I first started riding I used to climb around 115-120 but as I have got better and older I cannot do that kind of cadence now sends my heart rate through the roof I will ride around 100-106
I got heck from my bike mechanic because based on what he sees my cadence is too low and my grinding is doing a number on my lower bracket and the wear and tear of the component parts. Now with this, it explains the other benefits so off I go to practice!
I think this video is a little more conclusive than it should be. There's huge individual variability to muscle fiber type. I'm a powerlifter and therefore have a greater ratio of slow twitch fiber. Riding at a lower cadence and exerting more force subjectively feels easier for me. Though I recognize that to increase power beyond a certain point cadence must increase as well, this is context dependent
I'll just throw out that if you like to spin at 100-120+ rpms, it's worth investigating shorter cranks as well. It's smoother and more efficient to spin in smaller circles. 5-10mm doesn't sound like much but around the entire circumference x 100 times it adds up to a good amount of less actual travel. The loss of theoretical torque at the cranks due to leverage matters little since you're getting your overall torque more by using smaller gears at higher rpms anyways. I ride 165s at 5'11", and would change to even smaller cranks if I could.
Na szosie mam 90 do 100 obrotów, jest to naturalna moja kadencja, nie muszę jej pilnować. Na tym samym rowerze jadąc w terenie mam 65; 70 obrotów i to jest też naturalna. Czuję to po nogach. Próbując jechać jak na drodze zupełnie czuje jak bym kręcił 120 na asfalcie. Tak będzie lepiej w dobie google translatora ;)
I've been spinning 100-105 since the 1980's, it was not popular at all back then. Every spring to get a more fluid spin I do 5 to 8 reps of 10-15 second super spins 130-160 rpm. Gets my legs spinning more effortlessly for the summer.
I think it wasn't popular back then because bikes didn't have the range of gears we have now, and no compact chainsets. My first proper road bike i got in 1995 had 52/42 and 8 speed 12-21 whereas now i have 50/34 and 10 speed 12 -27 so i would have been grinding a lot of the time in the past.
As many in the comments also address. I think the who crank arm length and cadence correlation is missed. I went from 175mm to 185mm and my avg. speed increased by 3 kmh. And much better power transfer. Never focused on cadence in particular, I've had success just by feeling what seems the most efficient. Which is around the 85-90rpm mark with the longer cranks. It would be really interesting if you did some sciency-testing with different crank arm lengths, cadences with different size riders.
Do you spin a high gear, or do you grind? Let us know in the comments!👇
I'm always on the *g r i n d*
My weak legs force me to grind. I means, even at lightest gear, I am incapable to spin it more than 50 rpm. :P
As a sprinter I spin a lot but now also learning to grind in top gear as far as possible. Shut Up Legs!!!
grind to the moon
I feel like grinding is more fun and spinning more exhausting..
When my legs hurt, I can just keep going anyway, through the pain, but when my heart rate or breathing gets to fast, I need to slow down..
But I'm also on a Singlespeed most of the time, so changing gear isn't even an option.
I will try some high cadence intervals next time tho :)
Good information. My normal cadence is 80-85. Grinding a big gear will lower your heart rate but wear your legs out and deplete your glycogen more quickly, while spinning a smaller gear will raise your heart rate but save your legs and glycogen. Spinning at over 100rpms is something that takes training, as they say in the video, but once you do it, you'll find that you can ride longer without your legs turning to rubber. I'd end by saying that no one cadence works for everyone. Find what works best for you to enjoy your rides and do that. Be safe out there.
Absolutely right, Shep! Keep to what you feel comfortable doing - but if you train your legs to spin faster, you might see a few benefits!
weird. spinning fucks my legs up hardcore but grinding doesnt (atleast when i am already like 5km into my ride and the legs are nice and warm). maybe i am just used to it.
@@SimonBauer7 As I said, everyone is different. Even in the pro peloton there are guys who grind big gears very successfully. I don’t prefer cadences over 85 or so, but if the legs start feeling a bit sore, a lower gear and some faster rpms usually helps shake the lactate out of them.
@@SimonBauer7 I am the exact opposite, I can do 95rpm comfortably for hours, but once my cadence drops under 80 I suffer instantly
@@SimonBauer7 For a consistent speed grinding is more efficient. As soon as you start doing intervals, hanging on a fast group, you kill your muscles in the first sprint and cannot recover anymore. I have a similar friend, he is easily cycling 33 in average on any distances. Then I usually find out some excercise and he has no chance to catch my wheels. I just cycled 5 km/h faster than his comfort zone and got dropped immediately.
My comfy cadance is between 90-98. I have a friend, another road cyclist, who use to get tired very easily when we starting riding back in 2015. I noticed his cadance, guessing, was around 75 - 80. we would normally do aroud 30 to 40 miles on Saturdays. I told him he should consider raising his cadence but do it slowy. i.e. 85 for maybe a month, then 90, then 95.
He did according to what I had told him. He now pedals without fatigue between 85-90'ish. once in while he will do 95.
He is so happy that he doesn't fatigue as easily as before. He sweats a lot more but he carries a camelback 72 oz. mainly during the summer. He really, really loves the higher cadence especially when we have high winds here in Sacramento, CA.
He use to grind at 60-65 against high winds now he actually enjoys going against the wind because he doesn't grind through it like he use to. CHEERS! 😁
Good video! After decades of riding I've settled around 90-95 rpm normal. Around 100 for spirited riding. And over 110 when I'm about to get dropped and am hanging on for dear life at the back of a fast group. But these numbers have come naturally over time.
Amazing work!! I'd love to get into cycling at some point and eventually be able to compete. Hoping to get my first road racing bicycle soon, and to find an amazing group of people in my area to go riding with. Seems like a dream to be honest.
This is actually, well.... revolutionary.
I hate you for that.
Golden comment
Damn
Bahahahahahaha 🤣
Turning in the puns. Very good.
Wow you guys are right ! I tried it! I increased my rpm to 90 from my 75 and my speed increased by 3 km/h 😅..... Thank you
These videos are coming out at just the right time for me. Just recently started trying to get better on the bike instead of grinding out a low gear and cruising. Did 27 miles at a steady high cadence and felt great after it
I learned this is a teen when I started riding road bikes, and it's a principle that never goes away.
It may actually be a bit TOO imprinted in my head though, since I once did a 105 mile charity ride some 18 years ago, and did not come off of the small ring once, (thinking that I was still not 'ready to' ride the huge gears yet at that point- it was EARLY May) and was riding with a fairly high paced group (like 23-25 MPH).
Of course, back then I had a 39 tooth small ring and a 11-23 cluster vs. a 34T and 12-25 nowadays.
I can confirm this works great in situations where you have some headwind (and perhaps you've been cycling for some time) and using this will allow you to gain some speed and persist it for longer time.
Low cadence has just as many benefits as high cadence when it comes to training and adaptation of the muscle, the key is to do both to become a better cyclist
Weird how every single pro in the TDF rides at a high cadence, no?
@@KILLTHEREDDITOR not even close, there are loads of climbers who grind, including a certain young columbian who won le tour a few years back...
the thing w the pros is they can ride at a way wider range of cadence and still be comfortable.
@@KILLTHEREDDITOR if you have a high vo2 max which they all do, high cadance works well, but most people can get more power at a lower cadance and sustain it. as there heart rate is there limiting factor. In the old days, even the pros would do low cadance and the TDF was even longer then. If you train low cadance you will not burn out so most people don’t train it so they can’t do it. Even the pros do low cadance drills.
@@KILLTHEREDDITOR Well, the vast majority of us are not pros.
I would only ride low cadence if forced to by the terrain.
I started adding cadence drills to my training this year and I've really noticed improvements in my riding especially on any hills. I used to really struggle and now I'm passing other riders
Awesome! How did you do it?
I want to pass more people ;)
Well torque gearing on hilly climbs are are very hard
I did too. And I can say that my "form" of pedalling improved drastically. Also sustainability too, on any roads and steeps/descents.
Fascinating
I take it that this obsession with high cadence is for racing cyclists. As a 74 year old leisure cyclist who enjoys riding along quiet country lanes at a relaxed pace, I find 50 to 60rpm is in my comfort zone. The 12 speeds on my Shimano XT gives me ratio for most gradients. Crikey spinning at 120 rpm, I would hook myself up to the National Grid and apply for a feed in tariff
It's not compulsory. You can either do it or ignore it, nobody is bothered. If improving your aerobic efficiency and overall fitness isn't important then just skip these videos.
Using a higher cadence will generally create less muscle fatigue. This is particularly helpful for anyone clocking up big mileage or riding several days in a row.
Trust me, try riding in just one easier gear and raise your cadence by 5rpm and you will immediately feel the benefits for your knees and muscles after the ride.
humor recognized and appreciated
67 here, and I spin like crazy right now while still working on my base.
At this point, I feel like I am going to have to do weight/resistance/gym work this winter/spring in order to ride in the big ring/bigger gears anyway, so small ring/high revs is it for now.
But YES, an older rider who is neither racing, has no racing background at all, just starting out, has cardiovascular/pulmonary conditions must be mindful of their heart rate for sure, and should probably bring those revs down a bit. 😉
A lot of newer riders I've ridden with will spin super slow (>70rpm)... And it does surprisingly well, until around 30 miles into a ride and your legs are shot... I think high cadence drills can really get you thinking about how fast you should really spin, which is usually a good thing!
The much younger me loved muscling up steep climbs at lower cadence - I even put higher tooth front sprockets on to push speed at lower cadence. The older me, who no longer lifts weights competitively, has learned that cadence can be your friend. It took me way to long to learn this lesson. You should have told me this 35 yrs ago.
I destroyed my knees grinding up hills as a younger rider. Wish I knew then what I know now!
as a kid i left my 3x bike in the big ring 90% of the time, even on the huge hill (for a 12 year old) up to my middle school. it wasn't a good idea but i did get strong
Always heard that grinding was better because it makes you stronger. But since I started spinning more than grinding, it feels like, idk, a revolution for me.
🤣
It’s good to know some physiology. The muscle isn’t perfused with blood (ie oxygen) when it is activated and tense; it’s only done when the muscle is in a resting state. Thats because the small blood vessels within the muscle itself get totally compressed by the tightened muscle cells around. When the muscle relaxes and the vessels suddenly open up there comes a burst perfusion and it’s very short, probably measured in milliseconds. So in order to get as much delivery of oxygen to the muscle as possible you should strive to have many shorter relaxations of the muscle instead of fewer but longer. Our physiology professor explained this to us back in the nineties with a similar example of hiking uphill a mountain where you should take smaller steps with a higher frequency. As I remembered they had even done a study showing that longer steps caused a greater buildup of lactate.
My natural cadence is 80-85 and have surely some improvement to do. In hilly familiar places I grin more than spin since I know distance and there can go on same gear uphill. Great video as always GCN!
Going to my Saturday cycling, no much motivation, but now I will train the cadence.
Thx
An older cyclist told me when I was starting out in road cycling in 1985 to always pedal above 90 rpm and change gears according to wind and terrain.
Just as older riders, and the national coach at that time, told me the same in 1970. 😉
@@nofascistsonmywatch Eddie B?
@@PoliticusRex632 PRE-Eddy B days, Oliver Martin's guidance from the late '60s to early '70s.
The president of the USCF then, Mike Frayssee learned that Eddy B had (sort of) defected to the U.S. from Poland, was living here, and brought him on board as the top coach of the National team at that time.
High Cadence all the way for me! I live in the Pyrenees in SW France so need it to climb!
I did my first 70.3 triathlon with an average cadence of 55. People pointed out that wasn't a good idea so I did a new FTP test keeping the cadence as high as possible, lost about 80w but trained at that for over 6 months then started working the FTP back up keeping the cadence high.
I've just done an event with a 70km bike and 1000m elevation at 13% in parts and got round with an average of 80rpm. It isn't the 100 you suggest but a lot better than it was.
John Howard, in some of the earliest Ironman events, was able to smoke those who were much better runners and swimmers than he, mainly because they were all riding the bike segment totally grinding away in 53x13s the whole way, while he (albeit a great national class rider at that time, which yes helped a lot) rode a slightly smaller gear at a higher cadence.
Of course, they eventually all caught on, and then started beating him.
This was all long before the whole aero/TT bike revolution in that sport, which yes, much of which was then transferred over to cycling TT/timed track events.
In my first event last year (about 85 miles) I spent the whole time doing this. Gut instinct told me not to change up as I didn't think my legs would take it. Glad to see it's valid.
Riding track bikes for years allowed me to get great aerobic cadence. I’m not super strong so on days where I let the ride come to me and don’t hammer right away I’ll always go further and my legs will last way longer especially on hills. It’s tough to pace yourself in the beginning and let people pass you but your ride will be better in the long run. The older I get the longer it takes to get in the legs loose, but after an hour or so of lower cadence I’m usually good to go for 6-10 hour rides.
Need to learn to restrain myself. I just cannot resist going all-in. My problem is not with the day's ride - but I sometimes need a recovery day afterwards.
I'm a 66 yr old pensioner, and the only thing I've ever won was making it to retirement after 35 yrs "grinding" away as a boilermaker, now I'm "spinning" away on the thin ice of a new day riding my Atheos with ZIPP 303 firecrest wheel set. Tankx Boilermakers local 28.
Everything the two of you have said is true. I have a 52/42/30 crank with a 12-25 cassette which makes travelling up steep inclines very difficult. Having an 11-36 or even an 11-34 cassette would be absolutely perfect for the task.
Go champs go for it, cycling makes life worth living & you are doing a great job guys
Yes I can agree that having lower gears ⚙ on your bicycle 🚲 does help with efficiency. I upgradded my Trek road bike with lower gears and noticed an increase in my overall climbing performance and efficiency. Efficiency is the name of the game when climbing up mountain ⛰ roads.
Just got my first road bike! These video's are great for helping me out with wath to do amd wath not to do on a bike! Thanks GCN!
We're glad we could help! We hope you have fun :D
Which road bike did you get?
Too low of a cadence is probably the most common beginner mistake, kudos for looking for info rather than ingraining bad habits!
This is in line what Paul Köchli taught in the seventies he was a pioneer of scientific methods
We had to train on fixed gear on flat terrain something like 42x18 a good coordination of movement is key
Add: The British riders that come from track racing are all good in spinning
i learned this lesson after getting my MTB with a 30 tooth crank, oh boy, you gotta spin those pedal to go anywere with a decent speed. That "tecnique" got me to start to pedaling faster also on my road bike, and guess what, i become not faster but waaaaay more consistent in my avg speed, cadence, heart rate and power. In my book those thing as all good, aka, i feel a better cyclist now.
Learning to pedal complete circles at 120+ rpm while at a low wattage was game changing when it comes to putting down sprints, an invaluable technique that will help not just raise efficiency but also deliver much higher power throughout an effort
Ah, the Campenaerts method!
@@marcvb3364 👍👍👍
Its a good arrow to have in the quiver. Definitely really helps when it comes to staying consistently efficient once the initial surge of power drops off. Works for me anyway 😁
@@ryanmussett1016 Definitely makes sense! I was planning on training this in the winter, once I take the rollers back out
I struggle with maintaining a cadence over 75 even on flats irrespective of what gear i'm on. Trying to improve!!
Been doing base training. Incredible how much I've naturally drifted from 95 rpm to 105-110.
I'm just here for all the Durianrider references. 😂
I am now ancient and largely static. Many of my opinions exist mostly in on the past.
I notice (for the past 20 years) that fixed-gear bikes on tarmac have been largely the preserve of urban hipster types.... But on truth they are an EXCELLENT training tool.
A nice fixie ride over rolling hills is excellent for getting used to very high and very low cadences. My Fixie is currently set up 52/20 with 700c x23 tyres. (68 gear inches). A ride over rolling hills gives a lot of 100rpm, a little bit of 45rpm and the odd bit of 165+. Gorgeous and good for me. If you want to be happy at bigger cadences, rode fixed in the hills. 😊
I’m a grinder but really need to learn to spin it to win it not getting younger legs get tired quickly. Thanks guys 👍👍
Went up Tourmalet recently and actually put it in the 2nd largest sprocket to keep my HR down and shift the strain to my legs that are quite good at buffering lactate.
I can easily keep up 75-80 RPM for days and really enjoy low cadence (like 50-60 RPM) drills, but at 120-kg, the idea of swinging these tree trunks I have for legs around at 100+ RPM for more than a few minutes has my head spinning just as fast lol
ditto
Same here, my favourite ride by myself is knocking out 100 miles at about 12mph, enjoying the scenery and eating flatjack.
If I was keeping up 150bpm+ all day id probably die.
There is a lot of well documented evidence saying that your body will tell you what IT feels is the most efficient cadence for it.
My guess is that you avoid even bumps in the road (let alone long rises, steep hills, or mountains) like the plague. ???
Grind all the way, but that’s just my way. Thanks for the look at all ways
I agree!
I always do high cadence in the last 1 mile after any work out. it saves my legs to be fresh to the next ride.
As an inventor/engineer of an automatic CVT/IVT transmission for bicycles, I've done a lot of research on cadence and torque for optimal efficiency and endurance. Several scientific studies show that most riders get the best results at a cadence averaging 85-90 rpm at 200 Watts; torque actually varies greatly thru each pedal revolution, similar to a sine-wave twice per revolution. A technique for changing the foot-angle thru each stroke to 'flatten' that torque curve, extending the force-duration, is worth developing (while spinning) to enhance endurance.
Changing cadence occasionally also helps, but it's very important to select gearing that keeps the cadence at about 90 rpm when ascending hills & mountains to avoid over-stressing leg joints (especially your knees). I've noticed a few grinders I've ridden with needing arthroscopic surgery because they didn't keep spinning up hills!
Up hills I’m probably 50 to 60 rpm. But then I’m 76 years old.
I’ve just realized that changing my foot angle and riding with higher torque seems to be what I needed to increase leg strength and ultimately speed on flats. And I’m hoping climbs
This all makes sense, but I think you need to account for how a person is built. I raced BMX for many years and there were two types of riders, power riders, and spinners. Power riders would run a higher gearing than spinners, yet they would both be equally as fast. Usually, the more muscular built riders were power riders and the taller thinner riders were spinners.
I ride a mountain bike more now, still do some BMX from time to time, and a friend of mine told me to shift a gear or two easier on climbs. It works to be in an easier gear for longer sustained climbs, but for short punchy climbs, I prefer to stay in a harder gear and just stand and power through.
I have only recently gotten into more road and gravel riding. I also ride my trainer quite a bit more on Zwift now, especially in the winter. I have found that my ideal cadence is between 75 and 85 RPM as I am more of a power rider. I have been trying to work on a faster cadence, but it gets uncomfortable for me pretty quickly. When I am over 90 RPM I feel like I am spinning out of control. Maybe it's something I can keep working on, but I do think my body type has a lot to do with it. I am 5' 7" tall and 190 pounds, with very wide shoulders and very large thighs and calves. So much to a point when I put knee/shin pad combos on for jumping and skateparks the XLs just barely fit me. When it comes to jeans if I don't get the stretchy kind I am very uncomfortable.
So I do think body type and build have a lot to do with ideal cadence.
In my experience, the blocky muscly guys are able to rely on their power as a crutch and develop bad habits. The thinner, weaker guys don't have the option of powering through things, so they have to spin faster.
I'm a former powerlifter and when I was starting out cycling I loved sitting in the highest gear and cranking it. When I got a speedometer I discovered my preferred gear and cadence was actually 2-3 mph slower than the same perceived effort with an easier gear and higher cadence. It felt like pushing harder meant I was going faster, but my avg speed improved greatly by focusing on cadence
Another poster called out crank length, which could be worth playing with too since you're shorter and not a typical "cyclist" build
@@nk-dw2hm I have experimented with this stuff for many years. In BMX racing it was popular to run 180mm cranks in the later 80s and 90s. It was all about the gate start. But I dropped down to 175mm cranks in the mid 90s and I got faster. I was able to drop a tooth in the front which allowed me to get the same gate start but I was able to spin faster and have more power out of the turns and such. So I am well aware of how crankarm length affects cadence and power for a shorter rider. In BMX we are always standing. I also rode singlespeed mountain biking through most of the 2000s and I ran 175mm cranks and changed my gear ratio based on the terrain I was going to ride. I still have a singlespeed mountain bike and I tried 170mm cranks and it didn't provide enough leverage on climbs, again while standing as sitting and powering on a singlespeed is not good on the knees.
With geared bikes I run 170mm cranks because I am seated most of the time and I can shift into that ideal spot. This is both for road and MTB. I have thought of trying 165mm cranks to see if that helps, but I do like to stand and power through often to where I start to get concerned about whether a 165mm crank will provide enough leverage. I should certainly try 165mm cranks on road and see if that helps since I don't stand nearly as much riding road or gravel.
I don't think being a power rider is any slower and actually, if you are conditioned for it, it doesn't take much more energy because you have more than enough muscle capacity to compensate and then are at a lower heart rate also. My point is, this suggestion in the video shouldn't be a blanket suggestion, it should be based on body type and build. Yes, I have increased my cadence compared to where I used to be. I have never thought being in a super hard gear and using lots of power was faster. But I don't think it's ideal that I am pedaling at 90 RPM or higher often as it seems the video suggests. As I said, 175 - 185 feels ideal to me and I can go a long distance and keep up with other riders that way. I will however try a shorter crank arm and just maybe 90 RPM and above feels okay. If it doesn't take away the leverage I want when I do power hard, I might end up liking it. I won't know until I try it.
It takes some time for the body to adapt going from low cadence to high cadence without having high HR bpm issues as most commented. I used to ride about 80-90 rpm, or even lower. Lately, I can go around 95-105 hitting the wind at the front or on the climb, when I need to push more W. More efficient and less muscle fatigue at about the same heart rate range as before. Perhaps it's due to better cardio efficiency...
I find as well that your feet have a bit of momentum at the right high cadence (96-105 for me), where turning the cranks feels like that's doing the work.
Spinning is critical when one goes from riding upright bicycle formats to recumbent bicycles/tricycles so as to adapt the leg and back and core muscles to a quite different motion, load on knees in particular on those little inner muscles and tendons and ligaments of the knees.
Spinning at 100 rpm might make you stronger but the sweet spot from efficiency point of view is definitely mid-rpm.
I believe the shape of the power vs rpm curve of a human riding a bike would be increasing from low rpm to mid rpm, then decrease from mid to high rpm.
Next video idea:
Do 1h FTP tests at 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 rpm then plot a graph.
High cadence yes - it's super cool and makes long ride pure bliss but ultra high (especially on ascends) are more demanded than hard "stomping" on pedals.
This all may be true, but there is still something amazing about someone throwing it onto the big blade on a climb and just powering away!
Hell yea
Great video you are sharing. For me, and with age, no doubt high cadence has benefits, but did learn different tecnhiques on how to pedal. At different cadence I employ different effort on muscles. As it applies when you stand up on pedals.
It certainly depends on the person's physic. Some people, like myself i have to grind. High cadence heats my body quickly and I start sweating excessively to cool off. I've done many tests to understand how I can maintain a 2-3 hour ride. In high cadence, i have to carry additional bottles of water not to mention the massive amounts of salt i lose making me cramp easily. I could scrape the salt off of my face and helmet straps. At 85rpm and below is the ultimate cadence switching gears to maintain 150 to 250 watts depending how i feel. So no, high cadence doesn't make you better cyclist. Perhaps it makes us smarter to know the difference.
My fixie has helped me to train my high cadance at a ratio of 49x19. And when I switch to my road bike everything just seems easier I tend to switch gears less and settle on the cadance that I prefer the most which is around 90-100 rpm.
i just bought a fixie for my birthday and let me tell you, riding it is the most joy ive had all year. i really regret not having a bike that fit me during the pandemic but now i can enjoy myself
I was a grinder in my cycling club days and did okay; I tried spinning a few times but felt like a mouse on a treadmill getting nowhere with my legs going like the clappers.
The best approach seems to be "throw out the cadence charts and just do whatever floats yer boat"..:)
As a mountain biker, I've been a spinner forever, dropping gears like crazy to prepare for a steep climb is the way to go.
Wow you should get a medal 🏅🏅
3 mins in, and I've seen enough.
This is a video for those few rare people who grrrriiiiiiinnnndd at 40rpm. This video isn't applicable to most riders who usually spin sufficiently at 80rpm+.
I tried this crazy high revs lark for a month and just found myself so fatigued and getting nowhere slowly. I went back to what my body was telling me it felt was good and that was around the 80/90 mark. Marked improvement immediately. Surprise surprise
I have read from a number of distinguished sources at this stage that albeit keeping a focus on higher cadence in mind, that one should adopt what the body feels is comfortable as depending on your own innate musculature, the body will tell you what IT feels is most efficient for it.
It'd be nice if GCN imparted some of this well documented findings into their videos, and not keep trying to be 'RADICAL' and reinvent the wheel.
Manon is such a great presenter. The gents are good, but clearly GCN needs more females.
I naturally ride at a fairly low cadence, I haven’t counted but probably around 70-80 rpm. High cadence just feels so weird to me and I can’t maintain it very ling
On flat terrain my cadence is about 65rpm, I find this working for me the best.
Was riding 170 cranks, avg cadence around 85-90, anything higher and my heart rate shoots through the roof. Went down 150 cranks and cadence went up to 100-110 avg, less fatigue, much lower heart rate as well
If your knees are happy 👍👍👍👍
how do you put out any power with 150 cranks . I ride 175 cranks at 100- 105 cadence on climbs, and 85 cadence on the flats
@@WheezyCyclist you grind. done. longer cranks have a higher mechanical advantage thus allowing you to spin less and grind more.
@@gaijintendo wrong stance width, saddle height, saddle fore aft, cleat position can cause knee pain, not crank length Mr Act Knowledgeable
@@nguyenho9591 I was rather meaning, if your knees are happy, then: 👍👍👍👍. No need to pop in with that tone. I would have thought a shorter crank will subdlty change the biomechanics of some of the things you just listed?
crank length is important relative to cadence because smaller cranks spin faster but may deliver less power. if you put together a very light singlespeed road bike with a 160 crank then your gear can spin faster more comfortably giving you a higher topend speed.
Thanks very much for that wonderful video
I recently got on a bicycle machine to see where I stand as a complete noob to the sport of cycling, and my average cadence was around the 105-110 RPM. But in a full sprint I managed to exceed 120 at 125 RPM. I love cycling so I'm not surprised but one thing I need to work on is improving my cardiovascular health to sustain a sprint for longer durations however I'm a climber at heart so it'll probably be best to focus on more muscular health to climb steep terrains.
It doesn't look like anybody has fixed the "sciency bit," so I'll have a go. The output that you care about is ultimately power (which is measured in watts). Power is work per unit time. Now work is force x distance, where for a bike force is how hard you push the pedal at a right angle to the crank, and distance is how far your pedal moves. Pushing harder through one nice, round pedal stroke does proportionally more work. Alert readers will already notice that crank length will come in here; if you push a longer crank with the same force as a shorter one, you've done more work, because you pushed through a longer distance.
To move back to power, we need to figure out how much work is done per second. If you pedal with the same force, then doing it more often - pedaling at a faster cadence, that is - does more work per second and generates more power. That's bascially why sprinters tend to go at a high cadence - they've pretty much maximized how hard they can push the pedal with their quads (the work per pedal stroke), so they pedal as many times as possible in a second to maximize power. This also means that you can generate the same power by pedalling hard at a lower cadence, or easier at a higher cadence.
In the real world, of course, there are lots of tradeoffs, in terms of which muscle fibers you use pushing harder at a lower cadence, or easier at a higher cadence, to generate the same power. If you are using a big gear and mashing hard, you are gonna have to use fast-twitch (both type IIX and IIA), which fatigue quickly. On the other hand, spinning really fast makes it hard to coordinate your muscular contraction to push at right angles to the cranks (and any pushing that isn't perpendicular to the cranks, i.e. pedaling circles, is just wasted effort). You can train that coordination, but there are diminishing returns once you get your cadence high enough to only use slow-twitch fibers to generate the power you need.
Torque, by the way, is a way of normalizing all the possible forces and leverages in something like a crank into a twisting force. You can think of it as force out of the crank after all the leverage from pedals through crankarms has happened. So a larger force through a short crank could generate the same torque as a smaller force through a longer crank.
I sure wish GCN had somebody on staff who actually listened during their first-year physics class!
Are your cadence numbers appropriate for older riders? I am 70 and usually ride between 10 and 25 miles, 4 to 5 times a week. Duration is between 1 and 2 hours. I pedal at whatever cadence feels comfortable for the situation and gear. I don't mind giving this idea a try, I just don't want to break the motor!
High Cadence… I will get tired easily
Low Cadence - Chill ride 😃
I do 2-4 MTB rides a month, that's a great way to get a cadence variability workout.
Right on! Notice the TDF riders are all going at almost exactly 90 rpm? That's the point the legs follow the crank around rather than mashing down only. Mashing down uses the fast twitch muscles, builds up lactic acid, and rider has to slow down to recover.
Following the crank around uses slow twitch fibers, the aerobic fibers that supply oxygen and nutrients directly to the muscles. Rider can go forever, as long as he stays below anaerobic threshold. And when he does have to go into anaerobic, his legs will expel lactic acid at 90 rpm, and recover quickly. Learning how to recruit slow twitch fibers also eases the pain in all out efforts, such as sprints or chases. So spin, guys, ramp up the cardio system. Improve VO2 max.
just the video i needed
I can see how this would work for shorter riders at around 150lbs/68kgs, but if you're already very tall/heavy (over 6'5"/195cm, over 220lbs/99kgs) the bike cranks already feel tiny (like riding a kiddie big wheel), and whipping your legs around is more difficult at 100+rpm. It feels like you're doing the "flashdance" on your pedals 😂. I'm already bouncing out of my seat on each stroke before I even reach 100rpm!
As I get older I have moved from a cruncher to a spinner. Not sure why, but feels much better on my legs and I recover much quicker between rides. Now 63, been riding 2 - 3000 miles/ yr for about 30 years.
It's kinder to your knees
Excellent, useful video.
I am in love with that red and yellow Orbea
the best is being able to spin on a high gear, you have to hit the weight room more often
Coming back and watching after seeing the zone 2 training videos, and I have 1 takeaway from all of these: I find it funny that most cyclists believe that only 1 variety of training will result in gains in ALL specialties. Im an experienced personal trainer of over 13 years, and you NEED to change it up constantly. Theres science that backs that up. We're all looking for the 1 thing that helps us all, but truth is that there's no such thing. Thats why pro riders do interval training consistently. And, believe it or not, most high level athletes in all disciplines do the same.
High cadence >100 Low Cadence
Nice Vid, focus in high cadence now :) Saalbach-Hinterglem is a nice MTB spot. Ride the Hackelberg-Trail - awesome Trail, nice to ride and you can have break at the half ot the trail - Hackelberg Alm! Do it!
Spinning fast is ineffective and exhausting for me. Perhaps I can work on it a bit, but I still think pushing a moderately hard gear at a moderate pace is more effective and efficient for me.
Cyclists will gravitate towards a natural cadence and this will be most efficient for them than forcing themselves to ride at a higher cadence. But high cadence efforts are good for training.
@@discbrakefan I think, there should be separation. To have a higher cadence as comfortable, you should train it, which means you should force yourself for it. Just like resistance exercises, you need to learn form, not how your body wants to do it.
I started this year grinding bigger gears but me legs just got gradually more tired and heavy feeling as the months went by, so I'm back to spinning.
Mixed feelings about this. I tend to spin in the mid/upper 90’s most of my rides but what I have noticed my tolerance for pushing a big gear for absolute speed, or sustaining a climb up anything steeper than 5+ degrees for more than a minute is uncomfortable more so than when I was riding mid 80’s and bigger gears. Yeah, I can go longer, but I don’t feel “power” like I used to.
Grind. I never shift out of my highest gear except the first and last 100 feet of my rides. I never brake or stop either.
For me it is tricky (60) doing high cadence in steep climbs. My heart goes up the roof. So, I tend to go for lower cadence in order to keep my heart rate controlled. Somehow lower cadence/bigger power works better in that respect for me.
I‘m used to higher cadences from the MTB where you want to be smooth and don‘t have big torque jumps on the back wheel that can make it slip. However I did a bit of low cadence work for climbing on the road bike because if I come across a 20% bit with that, I‘m in trouble.
Not saying you guys are wrong but spinning has never been my thing. I think I'm more of a diesel and I always ride very big gears at very low cadence. Sounds counterintuitive but I generally pull away from all the spinners on steep climbs. One thing I've never heard mentioned is it does take a certain amount of energy just to make a revolution. In my logic more rpms = more energy used. Could be just because I really dislike spinning though?
You're more of a Jan Ullrich type of rider than a Lance Armstrong
I always pedal at about 70-80 rpm when I am in the draft. Otherwise, I spin between 85-95, unless I need to catch a group or struggling during a sprint, where I top 100.
High intensity training has helped me increase my benefits from each ride,
Which bike exactly is Manon riding? 😀 love it
Hanks red & yellow frame makes me hungry for McDonalds french fries.
Dylan Johnson has a good YT video on this will a brief break down of the science.
Whenever I do a ride according to strava I am around 85-95 in a ride. When I first started riding I used to climb around 115-120 but as I have got better and older I cannot do that kind of cadence now sends my heart rate through the roof I will ride around 100-106
Now time to practice my cadence 😁
Do it! It's worth it :)
I got heck from my bike mechanic because based on what he sees my cadence is too low and my grinding is doing a number on my lower bracket and the wear and tear of the component parts. Now with this, it explains the other benefits so off I go to practice!
I started grinding instead of spinning at the start of this year and i snapped my chain for the first time ever.
Over time & training, my cadence is at 110-115 RPM. Spin to win.
I recently calculated my preferred cadence to be 40-60rpms and I don't really care to increase it.
I think this video is a little more conclusive than it should be. There's huge individual variability to muscle fiber type. I'm a powerlifter and therefore have a greater ratio of slow twitch fiber. Riding at a lower cadence and exerting more force subjectively feels easier for me. Though I recognize that to increase power beyond a certain point cadence must increase as well, this is context dependent
I'll just throw out that if you like to spin at 100-120+ rpms, it's worth investigating shorter cranks as well. It's smoother and more efficient to spin in smaller circles. 5-10mm doesn't sound like much but around the entire circumference x 100 times it adds up to a good amount of less actual travel. The loss of theoretical torque at the cranks due to leverage matters little since you're getting your overall torque more by using smaller gears at higher rpms anyways. I ride 165s at 5'11", and would change to even smaller cranks if I could.
Is that a new bike Manon? It looks amazing!
Na szosie mam 90 do 100 obrotów, jest to naturalna moja kadencja, nie muszę jej pilnować. Na tym samym rowerze jadąc w terenie mam 65; 70 obrotów i to jest też naturalna. Czuję to po nogach. Próbując jechać jak na drodze zupełnie czuje jak bym kręcił 120 na asfalcie. Tak będzie lepiej w dobie google translatora ;)
I've been spinning 100-105 since the 1980's, it was not popular at all back then. Every spring to get a more fluid spin I do 5 to 8 reps of 10-15 second super spins 130-160 rpm. Gets my legs spinning more effortlessly for the summer.
I think it wasn't popular back then because bikes didn't have the range of gears we have now, and no compact chainsets. My first proper road bike i got in 1995 had 52/42 and 8 speed 12-21 whereas now i have 50/34 and 10 speed 12 -27 so i would have been grinding a lot of the time in the past.
As many in the comments also address. I think the who crank arm length and cadence correlation is missed. I went from 175mm to 185mm and my avg. speed increased by 3 kmh. And much better power transfer.
Never focused on cadence in particular, I've had success just by feeling what seems the most efficient. Which is around the 85-90rpm mark with the longer cranks.
It would be really interesting if you did some sciency-testing with different crank arm lengths, cadences with different size riders.
I race cars and busses when I’m on my daily commute my resting cadence has improved from this naturally
Well, Onoda won the Inter high with his high Cadence and well with his Love Hime song.