FLvector

Other rider's avg cadence shouldn't be important to your own. The pace and intensity with which they ride and their personal preferences will be different than your own.

I've found that spinning at a higher cadence is easier on the legs and more efficient, particularly on longer rides. I tend to stay between 85-100 rpm, maybe a bit less during a group ride. I'll often shift to the next harder gear as my cadence gets closer to 100 and the speed increases. I don't "redline" as you describe to my maximum unless I'm doing intervals of fast cadence work. When approaching a stop, I do often downshift to an easier gear so accelerating is easier.

Here's a typical solo ride.....

CafeVelo

Why wouldn't it? Taller riders have longer cranks and longer femurs, it's a lot more work to spin those quickly, and mechanically more advantageous than a shorter lever. A slightly lower cadence probably levels out to the fast spinning of a shorter rider.

Willbird

I also wonder if calorie deficit has anything to do with it, I have been on a calorie deficit for the most part the last 458 days. Riding at max heart rate over rollers for example it just seems like I can make more speed at 100-110 than at say 80-90, 20+ is tough for me to sustain for long, but I seem to be able to sustain it longer at 110 than at 80.

I only recently in the last 6 mos even had a live display way to measure cadence, but in my 3 incarnations as a cyclist over 30 years time I always read the bike magazines, and they all preached "spin spin spin don't grind" so I have always tried to.

I'm 5'8" BTW.

woodcraft

Looks like I'm averaging 76-78 RPM.

A flat ride around here is over 3,500'

fstshrk

Flats, 90-105 rpm. Climbing 80 to 90 rpm.

GatsbyGlen

At the beginning of the year, spring, my average cadence was around 65, with an average speed of 14 and average climb speed of 12. Today I'm at 85, with an average speed of 16 and an climb speed of 14. According the Stravistix, about 50% of the time on my last 4 rides I've been between 85 and 95. So, while it's probably nothing compared to most here, it's a boost for me as I feel I'm increasing speed and so I just want to ride more. However, I came across an interesting article over at Bikeradar about training in HR Zone 2 to increase speed ... hmm, that's a completely different topic. I'm never in that zone

a1penguin

I try to average 80 RPM on my flat 16 mile commute averaging 16.5-17 mph. So that means I probably am at 85 at speed. It feels weird to be pedaling at 100 RPM so I need to work on rides where I select a lower gear and aim for higher cadence to get my legs accustomed to riding at higher cadence.

You don't need a computer. Just counting seconds and noticing pedal revolutions as you ride will give you a good estimate of cadence.

alexaschwanden

When I ride I shift early 70-75rpm, but when I race, I double shift and drop the hammer,300watts. Small motor with turbo.

OldTryGuy

A long time ago, 65yo now, I had a cadence Cat Eye and was making sure I kept 90/110 and sometimes faster, just felt good. NOW, no visual for cadence so just ride what feels good.

I'm not riding or racing for a living so it really doesn't matter to me what the experts say.

Homebrew01

You need to dial it up to 400 watts !

NathanC

Flats I tend to keep 103-104.

lyrictenor1

*drope the hamer

lyrictenor1

Normally 100-115 rpm. If taking it easy, 90-100.
Flats in headwind 88-100 rpm
Climbs, mostly from 80-100 rpm, but will do short bouts of 60-75 rpm to change muscle groups for a bit.

merlinextraligh

The explanation I've heard given for this is that we tend to maintain a self selected torque, or force on the pedals.

So, just tooling around, a given torque results in lower cadence.

To maintain that same torque at a higher power output you have to up the cadence.

So personally, I may ride in the 70's when I'm just riding around. 80's doing a longer interval, or sustained endurance ride, 90's on shorter intervals, and 100 or more in a crit.

At a low power output, trying to maintain a cadence of 90 plus, just doesn't feel right because the force on the pedals is so low.

RChung

Not quite that simple. Different people use different combinations of torque and cadence for the same ride. The same person uses different combinations of torque and cadence for different parts of the same ride.

Here's the cadence and torque for the same rider in three different types of races:


Here's the torque and cadence for a guy on two different parts of the same ride. The upper left panel shows his overall torque and cadence; the upper right shows the elevation profile for the ride, with the climbing parts marked in red and the flat and downhill parts in black. Therefore, the bottom left, in black, shows torque and cadence for the flat and downhill parts. The bottom right, in red, shows torque and cadence for the climbing parts.

Seattle Forrest

Yeah, just use a sundial. And you don't need GPS to know where you went, hang a map on the wall and throw paint at it like Jackson Pollock.

andr0id

My average cadence is consistently 88 +/- 2 for every ride.

That doesn't mean I ride at 88 for the whole ride.
I pedal around 88-90 on flats, faster on downhills (110 or higher) and slower uphill (65-75), but it always comes out the same at the end.

sam_cyclist

Yeah, exactly. There is so much misinformation being passed around on this forum.

Stucky

^This!

All of those factors and more come into play. What some "study" says is irrelevant...unless the study was conducted on YOU, and in the environment in which you ride. There are just so many variables, it's just the height of insanity for someone to say that everyone should ride at around the same cadence.

Just like internal combustion engines- if someone were to ask "What RPM should my engine be running at?"- Well, no one could accurately answer that question without knowing such things as: What kind of engine (gas or diesel); bore and stroke; number of cylinders; inline or V configuration? Weight of vehicle; desired speed; gear ratio of rear-end, etc. A Kawasaki Ninja 250 can be happy at 9000RPM.....a 7.3 diesel doing 65MPH would be happy and most efficient at 2000 RPM.

BoSoxYacht

Nearly every solo ride is at 86 RPMs, fast group rides are around 94 rpms.

RollCNY

Not including starting and stopping, my cadence varies from 30 to 160, and my "average" cadence is directly proportional to my "average" speed.

RChung

I just looked at my rides over the last month and my average crank torque appears to be ~20-23 Nm.