Originally Posted by Wogsterca

I think it also depends a lot on the rider, the wiry little 70 year old who has been riding since he was 15, and puts more miles on his bike in a year then most people drive, many of those miles in hills, can probably ride in any gear he wants, up a friggin' mountain. However most of us, who quit riding for a number of years, and are slaves to our cars, need to be a little more careful if we don't want to over stress body components like the pump that can't take too much over stress.

Now sometimes we become slaves to our technology, rather then making technology our slave. I don't have a Heart rate monitor and I don't have a cadence meter, I try to listen to the old bod though, if I feel like I am mashing, I probably am, so I choose a lighter gear, if I feel like I am spinning too fast for no gain then I probably am and will shift up a gear. If I have to constantly watch an HRM, or my cadence, then that takes all the fun out of it, and it becomes another chore..... If you have an HRM then when it's in the aerobic range, what does that feel like, as you go into the anerobic range, how does that feel different? If you have a cadence meter, be in tune to what the body feels like at 90RPM, if your cadence drops to say 75 what does that feel like, what about 90 or 105, once you get in tune with what the right heart rate and cadence feel like, you can leave the HRM at home when the batteries die, or forget to fix the cadence meter when it quits working.