Originally Posted by
TimothyH
Spinning 110 RPM for an hour is just a drill. I don't need to do it but like any other drill it helps develop other useful skills and habits.
For example, riding at high cadence for an extended period has helped me spin faster on long steady 2% or 3% grades. I'm just able to turn my legs over faster, that's all.
Another example is riding a fixed gear bike with fast road riders. Keeping up with reasonably fast guys on $6k carbon Di2 bikes when I'm on a 48x15 or 48x16 fixed-gear requires some spinning. A paceline on a flat course can force bursts as high as 130 RPM and steady riding at 110.
Again, an hour at 110 RPM is just a drill, that's all. I do it early in the season and typically on a fixed gear bike. Rollers make drills like this very convenient. I'd imagine a trainer would as well but I don't have a trainer, just rollers.
-Tim-
Yeah. I guess I don't get the drills things either. Drills and "rollers make you smooth" just screams "1980s" made-up cycling nostalgia.
I mean, spinning faster on 2-3% grades? That's a function of gearing and power. Either you're producing more power in the same gear, or you just get an easier gear. Why would you pedal faster on such a specific topographical feature, but not on the other 95% of terrain you cover?
Limiting yourself to a single-speed gear for group rides? Eh, if that's fun. I don't see how that would possibly make you a better rider, though, save for maybe some completely random situation in which your cable breaks or battery dies and you're in a specific gear, but again, that's not something most would choose to do and I don't see any physiological benefit to it.
Just old-school stuff.