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Turning Those Pedals — Or, Cadence

11.19.2013 by Ray Niekamp // 2 Comments

Long-time readers of Bike Noob might recall that I used to have a bike computer that measured cadence. When it broke, I didn’t replace it with another cadence unit — I decided I didn’t really need that information.

One thing I found out when I did ride with that unit was that I naturally cruised at a cadence of between 82-85 rpm. Most of the cycling literature I had read indicated that you want to be up around 90 rpm. I did do a cadence workout once a week where I struggled to stay above 90 for a 15-mile ride. I believe that effort did help me, but I also think that because I was working hard on those rides, I was a little bit fitter than I am today.

But as I discovered that I was falling into a biking rut, which I mentioned briefly last month, I decided that one way to break out of it was to vary my workouts — not ride at the same speed under the same conditions all the time. And sure enough, once I started doing that, I also started to pay attention to how fast I was turning the pedals.

I realized that I had let my previous cadence efforts go by the wayside. I started doing some fartlek training again, and made sure that on the fast sections, that I upped my cadence. I don’t have anything to measure it by, and I distrust my efforts to count the number of revolutions in a 10-second section, then multiply by six — I just don’t think that’s accurate, at least when I do it.

Then, when out on a longer weekend ride, I shifted down one gear into something a tidge easier. That also allowed me to increase my cadence, and get used to spinning without necessarily working harder. And I discovered that I like the higher revs. I’m in comfort zone now that must be the result of my earlier cadence workouts. It’s almost certainly closer to 90 that 80 now.

One benefit of increased cadence is that if you have to shift to a harder gear, it’s easier to spin the pedals, because you’ve been training at higher rpm’s anyway. I’ll never be speed demon, but it’s nice to know that when I do have to accelerate, I can do it without having to gasp for breath a mile down the road.

So I think I’ll continue to make cadence a regular part of my biking routine. Not measuring it to any degree of accuracy, but just paying attention to how fast I’m spinning at certain points in my ride. My rides will be easier, my pace will be just as good, if not better, and I’ll be building endurance.

How about you? Does cadence have any role in your riding or training?

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Categories // training Tags // cadence, training

Counting cadence

04.05.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

 

Here it is at the end of a recent ride.  16 mph avg speed, avg cadence 79 rpm, for 18.04 miles.
Here it is at the end of a recent ride. 16 mph avg speed, avg cadence 79 rpm, for 18.04 miles.

For my birthday last month, my son gave me a new cyclocomputer, a Cateye V2C.  It’s loaded with bells and whistles, and I’m still trying to figure out all the different functions.  But it also has one very important function I haven’t used up to now: cadence.

Since restarting biking in 2007, I’ve read that cyclists should strive to maintain 90 rpm as their cadence.  About the only time I ever attempted to gauge cadence was by setting the timer on my old unit, and when it hit a round number with a zero at the end, start counting rpms as I pedaled.  Count for six seconds, multiply by ten, and you have your cadence.

A fairly crude method, but it familiarized me with the fact that 90 rpms requires some quick pedaling.  Once I installed the new computer last weekend, I learned that first hand.  Just taking the bike around the block a few times to test the unit, I learned that I wasn’t pedaling any faster than 77 rpms.

I like the new unit’s physical setup — even tho it seems rather bulky.  On my last cyclocomputer, there was a cadence function, but the magnets were positioned too far from the sensors, and even when I shimmed them, I couldn’t get a reliable reading.  This one uses two large sensors.

puter2The big square thing is the speed sensor — the arm off to the left is the cadence sensor.

Now, I’ve had the chance to test it out on some road rides.  It’s true — to reach that magic 90 number, I have to pedal a lot faster than I’ve been used to.  I tended to settle into what I consider a comfortable pace, which turns out to be in the low 80s — 82 or so.  If I’m trying to maintain a pace of 90 rpm, I have to shift down and pedal faster.

But that’s fine.  I understand it will take awhile to get used to a faster cadence, and to the gears needed to keep the faster cadence comfortable.  Next, I’ll dig into all those functions on the gizmo.  Like an alarm bell that tells you when you’re out of your target cadence zone.  For me, that will be between 80-100 rpm.

One benefit of the higher cadence I’ve already noticed is that I travel at about the same speeds I did when mashing the large chainring — but my quadricep muscles still feel fresh after a ride.  That really came in handy on today’s club ride, where we faced a brutal and chilly northwest wind all the way back.

Does cadence play a role in your training?  Any tips on maintaining your target cadence zone?  Or is this cadence thing all overrated?

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Categories // Accessories, training Tags // cadence, training

My new toy

06.10.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

Every so often, something happens that reminds me I’m still a Bike Noob.

This time, it involved my cyclocomputer. At the Real Ale Ride, we were packing up to go home. I unclipped the computer from its mount, and slipped it into the back pocket of my jersey. After the bikes were securely strapped onto their carrier, it occurred to me that I could put on the spare t-shirt I had brought to the ride, so I shucked off the jersey and changed into the t-shirt.

That evening, when I looked for the computer to add its data to my ride stats (I’m a dweeb), I couldn’t find it anywhere. I finally concluded that it had fallen out of my pocket to the ground when I took off the jersey. I wasn’t too broken hearted about it. It was a good first cyclocomputer, but now I had an excuse to go shopping. (Which for men is an entirely different experience than for women. They buy clothes. We buy toys. Toys are more fun.)

Anyway, it had been suggested that I look for something that measures cadence. The winner:

The Cateye Strada Cadence.

It’s the Strada Cadence by Cateye. It just looked like a quality unit. It’s wired, which my previous computer was not, so I had to contend with that when I installed it — and it took a couple tries before I got it right. But this afternoon, I got to take it on its maiden voyage.

I did my favorite 15-mile after work ride: My house to the Veloway, three laps, then home. Map My Ride puts the distance at 14.9 miles. The old Ascent consistently called it around 14.6. Today, the Cateye had it at 14.74. Pretty close.

But there’s one hitch. The cadence sensor isn’t working. The crank on my Allez stands out pretty far from the chainstay, and I don’t think the magnet on the crank is close enough to the sensor on the chainstay for it to register. I suppose it’ll just take some experimentation on my part.

The magnet on the crank (held in place by the zip tie) is supposed to pass over the “sensor line” on the sensor mounted on the chainstay — but there’s a wide gap between the two.

Another problem is that the inside of the crank arm has a concave indentation. That forces me to mount the magnet right on the edge of the arm, to get it as close to the sensor as possible. It’s still not close enough.

Other riders have made this work, and I will, too. But if you have any experience with this particular model, let me know how you solved the problem.

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Categories // Accessories Tags // cadence, Cateye, computer, Cyclocomputer

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