What's the highest cadence YOU can achieve on a low gear? I've maintained 120 rpm on a stationary bike, but maybe can go higher.

On one of my bikes, 120-130 is about it. A few others, I've been as high as 165-188. The last time I got on a stationary bike at PT, I got it up to 160 for ten seconds. (Ran out of breath after that.)

On the road and having accelerated up to it-150 but not for long. And that was 48/11 on the Tandem.

Maintain? For how long? I regularly pedal at 115, but have hit as high as 180, but only for a moment.

I always figure that once your cadence gets over 110, it's time to shift gears.

On the trainer, ive hit close to 180, but could only hold it for a few seconds

For me, sometimes I feel better at 110. Occasionally I will notice 115 or so for a few miles.

This a Whizzing match ? how high on the wall can you spray?

By now I get off and walk, rather than drive my heartrate way up trying to grind the granny gear
like it was a coffee grinder.

Earlier today I tried again and got to 145 but couldn't go higher because the trainer would shut off beyond that rpm .

fietsbob....

Whats wrong with getting your HR up? At least your legs don't get as sore pedaling faster on the smaller gears.

I run out of smoothness as I approach 110rpm seated. 95 to 100 seems to be my best zone on the road bike; on the mountain bike, it totally depends on the situation.

I really have no idea... I don't have a computer on my bike...

As fast as I feel comfortable at...no computers here either, and I don't think my watch has a second hand either...(just checked) Nope.

Aaron

Why do you want to spin that fast? Is that 53x11 not big enough for you?

My peddling stops being effective around 106-108. But there's a BF racer (Carpe Diem? from Connecticut?) who has a blog. My recollection is he was around 245 and ruing that he couldn't hit higher rates that he used to be able to achieve. His words in his blog seem quite believable, and I've read at least one other BF rider claim over 250 IIRC (fixed gear downhill), but I can't even fathom the possibility.

155 approximately, based on 42x16 @ 31mph.

I think that's a very wise decision!!
What's the use of spinning faster? You just destroy your knees and most of the riders can't make a correct pedal stroke at that RPM

Goal of increasing cadence isn't to spin faster for spinning faster's sake: it's to widen your power band. Also, my ancient knees much prefer spinning a too small gear over mashing a too big one. YMMV.

The Garmin GSC-10 cadence sensor I usually have on my bike won't read over 180 rpm. The longest I've ever sustained 180 rpm with the Garmin sensor is about 8 seconds.

I do have a PowerTap, and it has a built-in cadence sensor, but it seems to be a lot more accurate with longer-period cadence averaging than it is for short term peaks. The highest the PT cadence sensor has ever recorded for 1 sec is 231 rpm, but I'm not sure I believe it. 200-210 I could believe, based on how 180 rpm feels to me. 231 rpm is 50 rpm higher than 180, and I can't imagine being able to do that based on how hard it is for me to hit 180.

Why pedal that fast? Simple physics - power is equal to force times velocity, or torque times angular velocity for things that spin. One way to generate higher power is to pedal faster using the same force/torque.

Back in my racing days we were expected to be able to spin 180 consistently with occasional peaks up to around 200. IIRC the physiology of it, people with more fast twitch muscles should be able to hit a higher cadence and maintain that for a bit versus a person with more slow twitch. The mechanism is still not completely understood, but it does help explain why very similar people with similar training can have varied results.

Aaron

One of the British Sprint squad has been timed at 260rpm on rollers.

And no, I don't know how, or for how long, either. I suspect it was absolute peak leg speed and not held for any time

that's a two-stroke hummingbird on way too much caffeine...

Pedaling at a SLIGHTLY higher cadence to save your knees is easy -- shift down a gear.

Pedaling at some of the insane rpm's listed here is just to see what's possible. Personally, I hit 127 once on my bud's old roadie. Doubt I've topped 100 in the last 4-5 years. Not necessary.

Everyone has an ideal gear; the trick is finding it, and getting used to the immediate range around it, and forgetting about all these ethereal peaks and ranges of capability. It's about the RIDE.

K.I.S.S.

Reading through the replies hear, this thread is pretty educational.

I'm a newb to cycling, but given the amazing fact the guys like Chris Hoy can achieve wattage of over 2000, and I can't even get to 500 (I don't think), I figured the max cadence would be LARGE too.

260???? The doesn't sound so impressive. At least not as a world record.

4.3 revs per sec - not so impressive? We must live in different universes

I was thinking the exact thing.

Yeah, me too. Incidentally, I needed a short burst to 180 on today's ride to close a gap in the paceline. Nice to be able to do that when needed.