chadhcantebury

I purchased a fuji roubaix one week ago and have been riding about six miles a day since. after the first few days of initial discomfort and getting the fit dialed in I am still having a problem with a dead spot at the top of my pedal stroke. It feels like as my foot is coming around to start the down stroke there is slack and then I hit the force of the downstroke. think of it like driving the gokarts at the track when you are coasting in at the end and the annoying kid slams into you from behind.

A little back ground on myself. 5'8" 260#. I was on a local team in high school 20 years ago and havent ridden again until last week. I was always a gear masher and struggled up hills but could burn up a sprint if i could hang with the little guys till the end. I think i still may be a gear masher as the higher cadences ive been trying dont feel right to me.

Any help on set up or pedal stroke will be most appreciated.

TrojanHorse

How fast are you going?
What kind of cadence are you pedaling?
What kind of pedals are you using?

It almost sounds like you're pedaling at a very low resistence a little slower than you would be to maintain that speed... if that makes sense. Its hard to say over the internet. I've always been told to scrape mud off my shoes at the bottom of the pedal stroke to get through that dead spot but honestly, I can't say I've ever noticed it.

You are required to post a picture of your bike btw... I'm sure it was in the user agreement when you signed up.

Welcome!

chadhcantebury

I'm only averaging around 14-15 mph right now and I don't know what my cadence is. I have shimano shoes and the pedals were picked out by the guy at performance bike. I' m getting some tune up work and a basic bike fit tomorrow, hopefully that will help. As for a picture I am having difficulty getting them to load.

chadhcantebury

Going for my bike fitting at 1 pm today.me at my current weight 260#

adrien

Let us know what the fitter says.

My gut on what you're feeling:
- seat may be low, or nose-down, causing the biomechanics of your stroke to have a dead spot
- you aren't used to clipless, and so don't pull up as part of the stroke, or you pull up and puch down but the transition is clunky
- too low on the cadence
- loose cleat, pedal, spindle or BB

Fitter should spot it pretty quickly.

TrojanHorse

I successfully replicated your dead spot pedal stroke yesterday when i was extremely tired and I think it's a side effect of "pedaling squares" instead of pedaling circles. Focus on keeping your feet moving in nice smooth circles and see if that doesn't help.

vesteroid

ride more...seriously this is not meant to be short, but in the early stages of coming back to riding everything feels weird (did to me at least). It took me three months to get my cadence above 90 with any regularity. I still struggle with circles.

get 500 miles on the bike, and then start to see if you dont feel like some of the things have worked themselves out, or at least are starting to improve.

chadhcantebury

two big seat position changes. raised my seat nearly two inches and moved it back around a half inch. i also had them install a cadence meter. no charge on the bike fit and only 20$ to install the meter which cost 40$. the performance bike in castleton in. rocks. I have had exemplary service everytime I have gone in.

going for a ride tonight at white river. we'll see if the fitting gets rid of the dead spot.

TrojanHorse

Wow, moving your saddle 2 inches is a HUGE MOVE! You are going to hate it. (just because you're not used to it). I hope that works for you.

vesteroid

wow, I moved mine 10 MM once and thought I was going to crack lol...2" wow

chadhcantebury

the fit guy at performance bike told me to ride the same distance I have been riding for a couple days until i get used to the changes he made. here are the stats from my best before ride.

3.67 total miles
16:11 total time
13.61 avg mph

after the ftting

3.73 total miles
15:34 total time
14.38 avg mph

finshed the ride with very good legs, before my legs were always shot. as t my limit cardio wise before i alway felt i could more cardio wise. general impression of new fit is that it makes my hands hurt worse my legs hurt lessand much better cardio workout.

chadhcantebury

oh yeah cadence was between 69 rpm and 80 rpm

TrojanHorse

If your seat was that low, it was probably much harder on your legs - your impressions make sense. If you're riding on flat roads, you should probably try to keep your cadence higher - say 80-90. It's easier on your knees. Your cadence will go down on hills naturally but even there I try to keep my cadence higher than about 70 if I can.

delmalpz

Trojan: I find your advice interesting, but somehow counter-intuitive (to a total newbie). How can using your knees MORE (80-90 revolutions) be easier on them than using them less? I'm obviously not saying that you're not right (because I believe you are)...I'm just saying, can you explain to me why it's so? I may have to get a cadence meter, too, like Chad did.

OiS

I'll back up Trojan here, it is because at a higher cadence your legs are spinning faster and therefore your knees are moving faster, but they need to apply less force/pressure at a higher cadence than going to a higher gear, pedalling slower and pushing your knees harder. This all assumes you are pushing yourself either way, not out for a casual ride, although even so, you should look to have a gear that is less pressure/higher pedalling speed.

CraigB

As OiS says, it isn't simply a matter of the speed at which a rider is rotating the crank that makes high cadences gentler on the knees. It's the force that you're applying to the pedals to maintain a given speed. Besides requiring more work of your leg muscles, pushing higher gears at a low cadence puts additional strain on your ligaments and tendons as well, which is what leads to the knee problems. The idea is to go as fast as you can for the least amount of effort. Spinning gets you there, at least once your C-V system adapts to the workload.

chadhcantebury

It is going to take me a while to work up to 90 rp sustained. it is hard for me to stay between 70 - 80 rpm right now.

vesteroid

here is how I improved

Every day when I start my ride, as I am doing my warm up, I put in 3 1 minute intervals of high rpm work. I started at 100 and did that until I could do the 100 and feel more or less normal...now I am at 120 and its almost normal. I was in a class one day on crits, and they were doing an exercise on break aways / sprints, and I actually hit 140 during the sprint...I was shocked when I looked at my data after the ride.

It does get easier, but you have to work at it. On my long rides my averages have gone up from low 70's to high 80's now.

DTSCDS

I am in agreeance with the rest that have said it's probably a combination of not enough miles yet and "mashing" the pedals instead of "spinning."

By mashing hard you are not making a nice smooth circle (someone used the term "square" earlier). There is big force down but not around. So, as your leg pushes down it gets to the bottom but you are not keeping the force to keep the pedal moving forward at the top. Then, when you start to push down again you have some 'slack' to take up. There's your 'bump'.

Like Trojanhorse said, when you get to the bottom of your stroke, imagine that you are trying to scrape mud off the down foot. That motion will get your pedal around more smoothly. Truthfully, this problem will most likely take care of itself as you get more used to riding.

If you are using "clipless" pedals spending time now working on developing a good "round" stroke will pay big dividends later.

BTW--thanks for supplying the photo of your bike. It looks like it should do fine. If it does not fit your needs feel free to ship it to me--I like blue!

delmalpz

Thanks, OiS and CraigB, for your responses to my question. Chad, I hope you don't mind...I didn't mean to hi-jack your thread!

CraigB

Keep in mind too that everyone is unique and slightly different in physiology from one another. There's nothing that says 90 rpm is the magic number for everyone. The general rule of thumb though is that you're better off maintaining a given speed at a combination of lower gear/higher cadence than higher gear/lower cadence.

Bill Kapaun

What is the length of your crank? It should be on the inside of the arm.
If it's 175MM or more, that might be part of the problem.

I have a bad knee that doesn't have full range of motion.
Length > cadence
175 > 60
170 > 80
165 > 85
160 > 82

chadhcantebury

crank length is 170. I rode with a fun group last thursday and finished the 17 miles with no problem. On tuesday I am oing to go out with a faster group and peddle like hell until I get dropped. On the bike fit side my legs felt great and I did a lot of coasting while in the group. My only complaint is that my lower back hurt alot. I dont know if that is due to bike fit or poor posture while riding.

ChargerDawg

Keep working with the seat (front, back up down) until you get it right for you. 1/4 inch at a time.

I find the further forward my seat is, the more the knees will hurt, moving the seat back, is easier on the knees but tougher on the back.

You may wish to try a higher stem to put you in a more upright position to ease the back pain.