Originally Posted by
RChung
Hmmm. Both Graeme Obree and Vittoria Bussi set world hour records at much lower cadence. F1 race cars run at much higher rpm than my Prius, but my Prius is much more efficient. And in several studies cited, power is held constant and cadence is varied while measuring efficiency.
A quick Google suggests Obree used a cadence of 93 rpm on one of his record runs. Cosworth V8 F1 engines were running at 22,000 rpm in the mid 2000s. It was the only way to generate more power with the limited capacity. Certainly not very fuel efficient!
Personally I find a cadence of around 80-85 is my optimum when riding at tempo. 60 feels way too laboured unless riding at very low power and then it doesn’t matter anyway. I certainly wouldn’t want to be riding at 60 rpm @ 250W on the flat for several hours. Even on a long climb I prefer to be well over 70 rpm if practical. At the other end of the scale I don’t like riding above 95 rpm for any length of time and usually only do so to generate power well above FTP for short bursts. At lower power, spinning at 100+ rpm just seems like a waste of leg movement!