Originally Posted by
noglider
I'm going to go against conventional wisdom. Sorry. Higher cadences do not reduce the amount of work you do. They increase it. The reason for higher cadence is to reduce risk of injury to your knees. So the trick is to find a cadence that is not too fast that it wastes energy but not so slow that you hurt your knees. My feeling is that for tough climbing, it's way, way below 90 rpm.
I tend to agree, there are lots of variables though. Watch the pros, they are often way below 80 rpm on the climbs unless making a big effort.
Personally depending on the hill I may employ any one of several techniques, but spinning like crazy usually isn't the one I choose, especially on long not so steep climbs (several miles or more at 6% or less).
These days most of my climbing on long grades is done when fully loaded with touring gear. For sustained climbs with 30# of baggage I find that a gear that allows 60-80 rpm about right.
Also I do not find resting on the way up a climb particularly helpful, but rather find it discouraging. I try to rest at the bottom or top if necessary and try hard to not take a break during a steepish climb. Rather than rest I switch techniques for a bit, maybe standing and mashing a bigger gear for a few minutes, or maybe spinning a lower gear for a short while, just to mix it up a bit.
Shorter steeper climbs I am more likely to spin a bit higher cadence.
Everyone is different and we all need to find what works for us, but I think the spinning thing tends to get oversold for climbing.