Tons of Torque, Not Enough "Voom"

Welcome aboard.

Best advice for someone just starting is to "just ride your bike". Literally, this is simply what you need to do at this point in your cycling journey - nothing else.

Search eBay's Road Bikes $0-$500. Just ran a quick search and there's tons of bikes, new and used, in your price range. Good starter bikes with up to 30 speeds...

I fully agree with the above. Does your bike have gears? or is it single?

Right now you need to be in the easy gears, just keep moving.

When I started last year, I was trying to move up a gear all the time,
that don't work, shift down, go farther faster. It is not about your speed
at the moment, it is about the average for the day. Fifty miles at 12mph
beats 5 miles at 25mph.

Oh it has plenty of gears (21 to be exact). The smallest gear on the front is useless. I might as well pedal in the air.

The second one I used when I started, but that's sort of become useless as well as I built up my endurance.

I primarily ride ont he biggest gear in front and the smallest in back, except when doing hills and then I may switch to three or four in the back. I told the guy at my local bike shop about that, and he recommended a commuter bike replacement (and another $500).

I can keep a pace of 15-16mph on a nice flat road, but anything faster than that and I'm just topping out at the fastest I can move my legs.

A cog count would be nice, this sounds like a strange bike?

A pic maybe?

I have a mountain bike that is low geared, but I can do thirty
five plus without a big problem, not for long though.

Finally found it....

It's a Specialized Carmel 26"

Reason why I call it "Big Ugly" can be found here... http://www.safetycycle.com/10-specialized-carmel-26-3-blue.html

The gear I ride with has 42 teeth. It's more of a road bike, which is what I wanted when I started. Now that I'm 100lbs lighter, I want something a bit more "interesting" and where I can use the muscles I have in my legs for power.

Not sure what is going on, but a 60 cadence should give you
about 20mph in top gear. That is a fairly easy pace. 90 will be
about 30mph. Fairly quick pace. I can do 100 for a short burst.

Are you sure your rear derailleur is in top gear?

You need to check your cadence.

A 700 size bike will give you more speed.

My bike has a 42X13 top gear with 26" tires and
I can maintain 20+ without any problem on the flat
and even crank over 30 for a short time. My averages
are just over 15 most of the time.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by brianwohlgemuth [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Newbie (265lbs), rode a bit last year (when I was 365!) after my gastric bypass surgery and am now looking to really turn it on this spring.

I bought a bike last year (I call it "Big Ugly", light blue with light gray tires....ugly but it's a horse and was on clearance for $300). Anyhow, I find myself riding in the hardest gear and wanting to push more but I can't get the velocity out of my legs. Once I start pedaling at that rate where I can finally feel that i'm putting in something, it's a very minimal gain.

I have a feeling that if I regear the big, it may help but I priced it out and going to a 48 tooth front gear was $100 and even the guy didn't think it would be a real help to my problem (his advice, pedal faster).

I know his advice is probably right to some point, but it seem I should be able to find some sort of gear setup/bike that would solve this "problem". It's not a major issue, I just never use the front derailer (ever) and feel that I'm going to be holding people behind because I can only hit 16mph on a nice flat surface.

If there's a under $500 bike out there that would do it, I'm all ears. Or does anyone have another idea?

Gee, first post here, and it's replying to someone with only 3 posts...... The guy is actually right.

Your best investment is a bicycle computer with cadence, cadence is the number of revolutions per minute of the cranks. Most experts will tell you that the human power band when cycling is between 80 and 95RPM. If you pedal much slower, then your "lugging" the engine, if you pedal much faster, you use up all your steam, too quickly. There is a reason that bicycles have gears, and it's only partly related to speed. The idea is to keep within the power band, for the given speed. You want to be pedalling at almost the same rate at 6MPH as at 15MPH, and this is what gears are for. In fact the usual recommendation is to ignore speed at first. Here are the steps, if your bicycle has 3 in the front and 9 in the back, select a medium gear, like 2x5, now get on and see if you can pedal at, 80RPM, if you think your going too slow, try 85RPM, when you get to 95RPM, shift up one gear and reduce your pedalling speed to 80 again, repeat, if you can't get to 95 in a particular gear, it's high enough. By the same token if you find your less then 80RPM, then shift down 1 gear. Essentially you will eventually find yourself climbing hills in a low gear, you may be only going 5MPH, in 1x2, but you will still find yourself pedalling at 80RPM, this is what you actually want.

If you find yourself flying along at 95RPM in your highest gear, on the flats, that's when it's time for a new bike....[IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif[/IMG]

Paul

Any recommendations for a cadence computer? I did a quick search and want to make sure I get the right device.

Right now I use MotionX GPS on my iPhone to track my rides, but it sounds like I've been doing that all wrong. :-)

Brain, if that is really who you are??, [IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/ROTF.gif[/IMG] Do a post in the equipment
section and I am sure you will get a lot of answers about the computers.

I use a Bell from Walmart, no cadence, I do that with the stop watch
part of the computer. I do a ten second count, I ride enough now I
can judge it fairly close.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by brianwohlgemuth [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Any recommendations for a cadence computer? I did a quick search and want to make sure I get the right device.

Right now I use MotionX GPS on my iPhone to track my rides, but it sounds like I've been doing that all wrong. :-)

Does your iPhone have a clock with a seconds indicator? What you do is when the clock shows an even number, count the number of times you foot goes around for six seconds, it should be between 8 and 9 and a half. If it's less then 8 then you need to pedal faster. Use a lower gear to allow you to pedal fast enough. As for bike computers, they are all pretty similar, I use the cheapest wired one, with cadence. I think I paid $20 for it....

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by tonyzackery [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Welcome aboard.

Best advice for someone just starting is to "just ride your bike". Literally, this is simply what you need to do at this point in your cycling journey - nothing else.

Search eBay's Road Bikes $0-$500. Just ran a quick search and there's tons of bikes, new and used, in your price range. Good starter bikes with up to 30 speeds...

Brian this is the best advice for you to follow.

Enjoy your time out riding.

FWIW I am a fitness recreational rider who has never worried about cadence. I have always kept a log on a calender in my garage which I enter time and mileage. I keep a good steady tempo and have no idea what my cadance is. Somedays I go out and ride and I feel like I just won the tour and others I feel like I just climbed Everest.

Hello All,

Got my bike back yesterday, and the wind finally calmed enough today for me to get out and do some counting. I took the previous advice and started counting my pedaling over a six second timeframe. I did this about eight times each during sprints and cruising to make sure I got an accurate count. I counted the number of times my knees came up and then divided by two to get the revolutions in that six second period, then multiplied by 12 to get RPM. So, here's what I got....

Highest gear (3rd on front, 7th in back)
Cruise - knees came up between 10-13 times in 6 seconds = = ~50-65 RPM. GPS MPH = 12-14mph
Sprint - 17-20 times in 6 seconds = ~85-100RPM. GPS MPH = 11-18mph (headwind towards the end of the ride)

I did climb my "hill" into my addition tonight in a lower gear (3x4) and was able to get up at ~8MPH.

I did take a quick ride on a Specialized Crosstrail and it was a completely different bike. I'm going to ask to see if I can take a loaner and try to see if it's going to be a faster bike overall. If you have some input on different bikes (would like to keep it under $600, my riding is almost exclusively on country roads and highways). I'm not looking to "win" but looking to keep up with the pack....

Thanks for the great advice everyone!
Brian

Now sure what time zone you are in?? [IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/drool.gif[/IMG] But around here we multiply by
ten to get a minute reading?? Trying to be funny so don't take it seriously!

Sounds like your cadence is a bit slow. Nice easy cruse should be around
sixty. Your strength and stamina will make the bike go faster, but it takes
time.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by brianwohlgemuth [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Hello All,

Got my bike back yesterday, and the wind finally calmed enough today for me to get out and do some counting. I took the previous advice and started counting my pedaling over a six second timeframe. I did this about eight times each during sprints and cruising to make sure I got an accurate count. I counted the number of times my knees came up and then divided by two to get the revolutions in that six second period, then multiplied by 12 to get RPM. So, here's what I got....

Highest gear (3rd on front, 7th in back)
Cruise - knees came up between 10-13 times in 6 seconds = = ~50-65 RPM. GPS MPH = 12-14mph
Sprint - 17-20 times in 6 seconds = ~85-100RPM. GPS MPH = 11-18mph (headwind towards the end of the ride)

I did climb my "hill" into my addition tonight in a lower gear (3x4) and was able to get up at ~8MPH.

I did take a quick ride on a Specialized Crosstrail and it was a completely different bike. I'm going to ask to see if I can take a loaner and try to see if it's going to be a faster bike overall. If you have some input on different bikes (would like to keep it under $600, my riding is almost exclusively on country roads and highways). I'm not looking to "win" but looking to keep up with the pack....

Thanks for the great advice everyone!
Brian

The proper calculation, as already mentioned, if knees come up 10 times, that would be 5 strokes, or 50RPM, 13 would be 6.5 strokes or 65RPM, looks like you did the calculation right, but you stated the multiplier incorrectly, it's 10 not 12. This is why 6 seconds are used, rather then 10, the multiplication is easier....[IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif[/IMG] Now here is what you do, do the same test, but use 3x4 or 3x5 instead of 3x7, you will find it easier to keep the legs moving faster, which can actually mean going faster. Your pedalling speed is on the low side, which is something to work on, you know what 17 is, you should aim for 16-19 as normal pedalling speed. Sprinting is into the 20's.

It actually sounds like you have mountain gearing, probably a 22/32/42 crank, lots of larger riders think they need a mountain bike, because it's all that will hold their weight, and it's a good starting point, because when your really out of shape, the low gearing can be helpful.

Often though, it becomes your FIRST bike, not your last bike, as you need to move to something more road oriented, after a while. I think you should move from mountain gearing to touring gearing (28/38/48) or road gearing (30/39/53 although a compact double 34/53 would also be an option). The key with a triple is that you need to think of your gears as being 3 ranges of 7 not 21 gears, 1 (small ring) is for climbing 2 (middle ring) is for flats, and 3 (big ring) is for downhill, when you see the next uphill and want to hit 30MPH so momentum can carry you most of the way up. When you find yourself climbing in the big ring, then it's an indicator that your gearing is too low.

Hey guys, just a quick update on me and what I'm thinking....

Quoted post said:

The key with a triple is that you need to think of your gears as being 3 ranges of 7 not 21 gears

And I have completely adopted that mentality. Made a big difference on endurance (did my first 15mi, half of it in the 20mph headwind we had yesterday here in Indiana) and I think with a normal day I could easily make 25mi or more. Makes shifting/thinking a hell of a lot easier. Still finding myself climbing hills on the second ring and cruising on the third. Cadence on the third ring is a solid 60-65RPM. Yes, more spinning instead of pushing....

And yes, I'm multiplying by ten with my six second counts. If you look at the math I did before, that's how I did it. :-)

So I'm still in the hunt for a new bike. I rode a Raleigh Cadent FT0 today, and once I got it dialed in it seems like a pretty good bike. I am still contemplating drop bars or not...I don't have too many back issues and found myself wanting to get physically lower when I was sprinting on the test ride (also surprisingly, my sprints on this bike were more effective as far as calorie burn then on Big Ugly....odd and may just be a one time thing...I wear a BodyMedia FIT armband to measure my caloric burn). I have also tried Trek and a Specialized Crosstrail, both similar in setup and feel.

So, what's everyone's favorite bike these days? :-)

And another update...probably closing out this thread.

Got a Trek 7200 last week. Sold "Big Ugly" in just two days.

Now, the difference. I have a set of "goalposts" on my long route. Hit all of them today. This bike is much lighter and allows me to push harder to get those higher speeds and cadences. Noticed a huge difference in how I ride on this bike and how it shows up on my armband that measures my caloric burn.

So thank you everyone for the great info. This new bike seems to be a much better fit for what I want to do. :-)

Way to go. Ride like the wind!