Originally Posted by Al1943
I find cadence to be very useful when riding longs stretches into a headwind, or when I'm tired and something just doesn't feel right. At times like these if I check my cadence and find that I've dropped below 85 I'll downshift and raise the cadence to around 90. I'll usually start feeling better and my speed will stabilize or increase.
Same here. My daily 30 mile commute ride is flat but often windy. Like you when I sense that I expending too much energy for conditions I look down and see my cadence is in the low 80's. I shift and bring it back to 90+ and feel alot better. Monday it was 10 miles into a 15Kt wind with gusts to 20. Yesterday, Gale force winds flipped a tractor trailer full of canned goods on a local small bridge. I didn't ride.
Jude