Cadence & Gear Inches

[Pat Fleming]

Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road. You are also required to stay in
one gear and maintain a consistent cadence.

What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would you maintain?

[Boyd Speerschne]

"Pat Fleming" <nothing@nothing.com> wrote in news:Qc5Jb.37554$Do6.8575631
@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net:

> Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road. You are also required to stay in
> one gear and maintain a consistent cadence.
>
> What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would you maintain?

There are too many variables to answer this question.

The first two I can think of off of the top of my head:

1) Is there any wind? If so, how strong and from what direction?

2) What type of ride is this? The state time trial championship or a recovery ride to the
store and back?

- Boyd S.

[Dan Connelly]

Pat Fleming wrote:
> Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road. You are also required to stay in
> one gear and maintain a consistent cadence.
>
> What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would you maintain?
>

58/10 and 130 rpm :).

Seriously, one approach is to consider hour record data: http://ida.physik.uni- (http://ida.physik.uni-/)
siegen.de/menn/hourrec.htm

Cadence is remarkably consistent @ 103 rpm or so, with the notable exception of Grahame Obree @
93rpm. The gear is calculated then from the speed/cadence ratio.

As has been discussed here, optimal cadence increases with power output. Women's data would thus be
more applicable to most non-international-class male racers. I don't have cadence data for women,
however: http://ida.physik.uni-siegen.de/menn/hourrec_women.htm

So I'd scale back to 90 rpm or so.

For 12 m/sec (43.2 k/hr), and a 2.1 meter effective wheel circumference, this yields:

gear = 90/12/2.1 = 50/14

So that's what I'd use, if I could average 12 m/sec :).

Dan

[Pat Fleming]

OK. No wind, time trial.

"Boyd Speerschneider" <bspeerscNOSPAM@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9463E1FBE81EbspeerscNOSPAM@65.32.1.7...
> "Pat Fleming" <nothing@nothing.com> wrote in news:Qc5Jb.37554$Do6.8575631
> @news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net:
>
> > Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road. You
are
> > also required to stay in one gear and maintain a consistent cadence.
> >
> > What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would you maintain?
>
> There are too many variables to answer this question.
>
> The first two I can think of off of the top of my head:
>
> 1) Is there any wind? If so, how strong and from what direction?
>
> 2) What type of ride is this? The state time trial championship or a recovery ride to the store
> and back?
>
> - Boyd S.

[Tom Kunich]

"Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
news:7y5Jb.5640$JN7.5524@newssvr25.news.prodigy.com...
> Pat Fleming wrote:
> > Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road.
You are
> > also required to stay in one gear and maintain a consistent
cadence.
> >
> > What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would
you
> > maintain?
> >
>
> 58/10 and 130 rpm :).
>
> Seriously, one approach is to consider hour record data: http://ida.physik.uni- (http://ida.physik.uni-/)
> siegen.de/menn/hourrec.htm
>
> Cadence is remarkably consistent @ 103 rpm or so, with the notable exception of Grahame Obree @
> 93rpm. The gear is calculated then from the speed/cadence ratio.
>
> As has been discussed here, optimal cadence increases with power
output.
> Women's data would thus be more applicable to most
non-international-class
> male racers. I don't have cadence data for women, however: http://ida.physik.uni- (http://ida.physik.uni-/)
> siegen.de/menn/hourrec_women.htm
>
> So I'd scale back to 90 rpm or so.
>
> For 12 m/sec (43.2 k/hr), and a 2.1 meter effective wheel
circumference,
> this yields:
>
> gear = 90/12/2.1 = 50/14
>
> So that's what I'd use, if I could average 12 m/sec :).

And with this in mind I suggest what I have on my track bike - 48/14.

[Bruce]

Try the ride with a choice of gears. Find the gear you are comfortable with and set your fixed gear
to that one.

Or estimate your speed and cadence you prefer and compute your gear.

For me in January at 0C: 35 kph, 50-15, and what ever cadence that is.

Bruce

"Pat Fleming" <nothing@nothing.com> wrote in message
news:Qc5Jb.37554$Do6.8575631@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
> Assume that you will be on a 30 minute ride on a dead level road. You are also required to stay in
> one gear and maintain a consistent cadence.
>
> What gear (in gear inches) would you choose and what cadence would you maintain?
>

[Dan Connelly]

Bruce wrote:
> Try the ride with a choice of gears. Find the gear you are comfortable with and set your fixed
> gear to that one.
>
> Or estimate your speed and cadence you prefer and compute your gear.
>
> For me in January at 0C: 35 kph, 50-15, and what ever cadence that is.
>

60*(35/3.6)/((50/15)*2.1) = 83

[Bruce]

Thanks Dan. Now I'll add the units:

> 60*(35/3.6)/((50/15)*2.1) = 83

60 sec/min
3.6 kph/mps = kilo per hour / meters per second
4.1 meters per wheel revolution

then doing the math:
4/1.6 = 100/6
5/15 = 10/3
6/3 * 2.1 = 7 35*100/6/7 = 100 * 5/6
7/6 = .8333333 and finally, 2-place accuracy is more then enough. so we get 83 rpm.

Bruce

"Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
news:BurJb.5174$bl4.4756@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
> Bruce wrote:
> > Try the ride with a choice of gears. Find the gear you are comfortable with and set your fixed
> > gear to that one.
> >
> > Or estimate your speed and cadence you prefer and compute your gear.
> >
> > For me in January at 0C: 35 kph, 50-15, and what ever cadence that is.
> >
>
>
> 60*(35/3.6)/((50/15)*2.1) = 83