Originally Posted by scottydoesntkno

IMO and in my LBS's opinion... Cadence is highly, highly overrated. First off, true, you want a high cadence but knowing what it is, doesn't matter. You can spin as fast as you want, a higher cadence will increase your cardio, your workout and everything but it isn't vital to know exactly what your cadence is. For one thing, the higher your cadence (or the more you spin at the least resistance), the higher your heart rate will be. The higher the heart rate, the more calories you'll burn. Don't bother counting your cadence or limiting it at a number. Instead, if you want to lose weight, get a heart rate monitor, I have a decent reebok one with a strap that goes around your chest and wirelessly transmits to a watch (maybe it was $50 at most which is still cheaper than a cyclocomputer with a cadence monitor).. and spin at a cadence that is comfortable to you and just focus on keeping your heart rate elevated.

There are more posts somewhere about how high you should keep your heart rate to ideally lose weight etc, so search for those, but the idea behind weight loss will be, spin as fast as you can, comfortably, which generally if you know what gear it is you can't keep up with (start bouncing in the saddle), drop it a gear or two and just keep up the pace for as long as you can. Just don't take an elevated heart rate as a sign that your cadence is fine, you could elevate your HR even on gears that make flats tough, you want the easiest to spin gear, because you'll start toning, dropping the fat, and won't build muscles that you don't need (which would also ironically result in more weight gain).

Lastly, not to harp on them, but they are also just one more little thing added to a bike that might screw stuff up. Just stick to a cheapo heart rate monitor, find an ok cyclocumputer and follow a given speed at the least resistance you can handle and keep your HR up... and drink tons of water or whatever it takes to keep you going.