Jet Travis:
I hope I'm not being misleading. "Improve" is certainly the operative word here. I've no illusions about my potential to turn into a robot
stoncrd:
Having been a tad naive when I already purchased a cheap bike 'pooter which doesn't do cadence, and being on an extremely restricted budget over the coming six months, the purchase of another can't really be justified at this point. I'm sorta stuck with what I've got, for now.
I've an 'upright' bike too, but I've found that I can still lean down a good way, and shift my bum back a tad, to counter those gusts a bit. And although I've not an accurate monitoring of cadence I can 'feel' it slowly but steadily improving, and I suspect that I'm not too far from that '80' point, most of the time anyway. I've the feeling that your finger is right on the pulse of my problems when you mention gear changes. Gear changing on a bike is way different to gear changing in a vehicle, that's for sure, and I'm not feeling 'comfortable' with that yet.
Increasing my speed isn't really a big issue to me, although if more speed comes, as it probably inevitably will, I won't be complaining. But if I can keep more consistently to that 20-25kph it'll be adequate for the riding I want to do later in the year.
twobikes:
My goal isn't so much to increase cadence as it is to develop the capacity to maintain it better than I am. I'm pretty confident that further increases to rotation speed will continue to come, but when I start venturing off for short tours the better I can maintain that the better and easier I'll be riding, I feel. And of course when I'm doing that rather than 'routes' in the vicinity of town I'll be confronting days when I'm riding into the wind for lengthy periods, and days when I'm doing lots of climbing. I don't really want those to turn into "Couldn't get very far" days
I'm very much appreciating the suggestions about better judging cadence, by the way, and will be trying them out when I'm next on the bike.
DnvrFox, (and others mentioning gears):
I'd welcome any suggestions about gear changing. the 'technical stuff' about the bike i have is:
Crankset - Shimano TX-71. 48-38-28T
Cassette- Shimano Megarange 7 speed. 14-16-18-20-22-24-34T
(Off-topic and tongue in cheek) Why the **** do gears get referred to in ******** fashion on bikes, with high gear on the crankset getting denoted as '1', but high gear on the rear cassette getting the highh number as a high gear should?
Some of the regular riders in a 'club ride' I joined in with the other weekend advised me to approach climbing in this fashion:
- Set the chain on a gear about the middle of the cassette.
- Use the crankset to change up and down.
I'm finding that a tad cumbersome. Much of the riding I'm doing on flatter or gently undulating roads is pretty much the other way around, with the crankset on 1 or 2 as warranted by the slope or wind, and working slight variations with the gears at the back. On a flat road with no wind I can work up to and then maintain my rotation in the highest gearing available, and feel pretty comfortable doing that for ages. But when I strike a climb or wind, and then have to change that front cog, I 'lose it' completely and have to really struggle to get back any semblance of comfortable riding, and that takes a toll rather rapidly. Takes a good while to get reasonably 'comfortable' again afterwards.
I'm left with the feeling that I must be 'doing something wrong' regarding gear changes, and having trouble getting my head around it. Prolly just my newness to riding, I suppose. I'm all ears for any comments thrown my way, and very appreciative of them