Took the M300 out for a short ride, really just to test the CATEYE speedometer it came with. Put new batteries in it, down loaded the manuel for using it. Set up was very easy, had a hand held GPS with me to check it against. Both matched perfect as far as speed went, ( only thing I really was checking ). Well the bike seem to spin out at around 28 or 29 MPH. I was going down hill, and went faster, but could really only peddle to around 29 MPH. Bike has 42 x 11 gearing with 26 x 1.6 tires, does that calculate about right ? Just wondering, Richard

Yeah, I had the same issue when I rode my mountain bike. I ran out of gears going fast. That never happens on the road bike. I attribute much of it to smaller tires.

From https://www.machars.net/bikecalc.htm

Bicycle gear size and cadence/speed calculator

Wheel size: + tyre dia.

• Gears
• Speed
• Cadence
• MoD*

cadence at speed (mph)
gear
mph -- 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
42 x 11 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 100 103

I had to use a speed converter to go from kph to mph but with my 26er MTB fitted with 29er wheels and a compact road crank I average on a good day 19mph, flat road over 10-15km forgot to convert that bit.
At the recent tour race here after 150km "again" they were doing 47mph over the finish line every day over 6 days, pretty crazy hey.

I only tried going down the hill once, and could be wrong where I ran out of gears. But the only other bike that ever had a speedometer had 700c tires on it, and seems like that was where it would run out also. Never have been a speed rider anyway, and probably just about all the bikes I have owned have MTB gearing, and 26" wheels due to my riding style. I was just wondering Thanks, Richard

Thanks, I tried Goggling for an online calculator before I posted the question, tried your link and my anti-virus warned me against opening that page ? So just going off your post table, must have been around 88 cadence. Thanks again, Richard ( will have to google that to see where I fall in, but it sounds weak ! LOL )

There was a thread going average speed, and my numbers were low compared to most guys on here. But I have a lot of hills also. Watched a few Tours on TV and there average speeds are CRAZY fast ! Richard

Wow, that is only average cadence numbers, I was paying more attention to the GPS and the Speedometer rather than where I stopped peddling, and that is the first hill by my house, and out of habit could have stopped peddling around there anyway. It is a short little step hill with some dangerous Railroad tracks at the bottom, then a huge step hill climb after, always hit one and one to get up it. And I could have stopped short of my peak cadence level bracing myself to hit those tracks on a new bike without front suspension. Now that I know the Speedometer is right, will try it on a longer safe hill and see how fast that I can peddle. Thanks, Richard : )

Here is a safe calculator.

https://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html

Welcome back Richard.

"downhill" is a very broad term ... once you reach a certain grade of "downhill", your top speed has nothing to do with gears and everything with how aero you are. May be you simply aren't very aero
To compare: on my TT bike, I go 29 MPH on flats quite easily and when going down steep hills it goes to 45 MPH without even pedalling.

Thanks for the welcome back, missed posting with you. I might not have worded my question correctly, it seems that going down hill I can only keep up with the peddling to around 29 MPH, before just coasting I start going faster. That's with : 42 x 11 gearing, 26" wheels, and 175 crank arm. You might remember the only speedometer I ever had was the Bell Wireless on the TRAILWAYS, with 700c wheels, and have no clue what the gearing was. The new CATEYE is accurate though, checked it against a very good GPS at varied speeds. But maybe I could have keep peddling faster, but started preparing for those Railroad tracks at the bottom, first time I was going to hit it over 30 MPH with no front suspension. Going to give it another try on a hill where I do not have to worry about that. Was not testing myself on the flats, using the down hill to try and find max speed peddling availably. LOL Richard

Wow that is an AWESOME chart, it went right to the favorite places... That would have put my cadence at right around 104 or 105 just peddling down hill. That seems more realistic. Thank You, Richard : )

I've heard that cadence is something that's very hard to train.
People have a certain maximum cadence apparently.

You are welcome, I looked around a lot for gearing calculators and that is the one I liked best and have used a lot.

I have two bikes I ride the majority of the time one is a converted mtn bike that’s now more of a hybrid / commuter bike. It has lower overall gearing and I also have the speed run away from my max cadence about where you find yours does. Once I reach terminal velocity peddling I just enjoy the coast and tuck down.

My second bike is a touring bike that came with more of a road gear range and I did quite a bit changing ratios on that bike to get what I wanted. The large chain ring was a 52 tooth and I had plans on lowering it to a 48 until I was advised by some members here to try it a bit more and see if I didn’t find times I liked it. What I found is there are times I will ride the tall gear while going downhill and not try and make a super high cadence. Rather than coasting sometimes a slow cadence not forcing the speed up but just adding some resistance and a little speed on a long downhill or with a tail wind even will keep the legs warmed up for the next climb. I wouldn’t call it mashing at all and it’s not spinning also. Just a nice way to change up the pace.

That might be what I need to try, because all the hills around here. Will coast to sometimes over 40 MPH, then FIGHT my way up the next hill in 1 and 1 , and that was with my old bike which had 22 x 34 and only weighed just over 27 pounds. We have some very long steep hills here, so instead of letting my legs get cold, just keep them going warm for that next hill coming up. I wanted to comment on the other thread they have going on low gearing, even if I had anything lower than the 22 x 34, I would just make it maybe another 20' before pushing the bike kicked in. LOL Richard ( but a lower gear than that might come into play, if you were just needing it for a very very short steep hill off road though )

Interesting to discover that the gear/speed calculator and chart I posted is wrong. I checked it against three others (Sheldon Brown, Mike Sherman, and the old version of itself) and it doesn't match. Maybe I don't know how to use it, I used 1.5" for the tire diameter, if I use 0 it is closer to the others (still doesn't match, but closer). In any case sorry for the incorrect information, but I'm glad to discover it's wrong so I won't use it any more.

Jim

Jtaylor2
I’m not sure about that calculator but if the tire size is metric I would think you should put the metric width in. He could have a problem in his tables also. I have been really happy with the graphing on Mike Sherman’s so that’s the only one I use now. Hope he never takes that site down. Maybe I should see if he has a link to a local version I could put on my laptop.

xoxoxoxoxoxoLive
Nothing wrong with pushing. I have my smallest chain ring on my tour bike at 26t and the largest on my cassette is 36. I have tried lower but what I found for me is anything under 18 or 19 gear inch I’m spinning so fast to keep the bike upright I might as well be pushing. I read once someone tried to figure out what gear inch equivalence pushing a bike would be and they came up with 10GI if I remember right. On a longer ride like an all-day in the saddle touring day there is no good reason to burn your legs out on a long climb and then suffer the rest of the day. IMHO. I have often got off and pushed a while to loosen up and cover a little ground slowly so that I could be in better shape to cover more ground later. It’s hilly here also and as a kid on single speed bikes it wasn’t a matter of pushing up a hill we all did it was who could go the most before pushing.

I never even gave it a second thought, just was glad you were trying to be helpful ! Thanks, Richard

When I first got back into biking after a long break from it. ( Worked in a bike shop in my twenties, and thought commuting by bike was the only way of life. ) It was by garage selling one day with my wife, spotted a MOTIVE HIGHRIDGE at a yard sale, 15.00 dollars.
I was so out of shape, around 245 or more pounds, went on my first ride and was so tired after 1/2 a mile. But it sparked a flame in me that has not gone out, the old mechanic side of me started coming out, also must have changed out everything on that bike but the frame and the handle bars, ( which I did cut them by 2" ) to wide for my liken. That was in 2007 I think, had more invested in that bike that you could imagine. LOL Got down to around 175 to 180, and lived in a area that was not so hilly, and lived close to town so almost all trips to the store etc.. were always by bike. Then moved here around 3 years ago, and only God knows how many bikes later, I have lost count. Found myself getting discouraged because I couldn't make it up all the hills around here without having to get off and push sometimes, that just wasn't biking to me. Even went as far as buying an electric bike from Walmart, ( Laugh ), kids had fun with it till I returned it. But kept on anyway, there was one hill I was sure that was impossible to climb by bike, about a mile from bottom to top and steep. I had just picked up a Mint Condition 2008 Cannondale F4 light weight MTB, and like a kid with new running shoes thought this was going to help. Well I finally made it up that hill in 1 and 1 most of the way. The glory was short lived though, not to long after that. A group of riders ( 4 or 5 ) blew by me on a ride, all wearing the same color jerseys ect..They hit the bottom of that hill FAST, so I just stopped and waited to see them climb it, before I could get the camera out to shoot a video they had disappeared ! ( Laughing Here ) Not sure it even slowed them down !! But sure gave me a reality check. Richard

Maybe that's why I like trail riding so much, pushing is more acceptable ! LOL

Back to the original topic, took the bike out on it's first real ride without adjusting, playing with the speedometer etc..Went down that huge hill were I can always coast to at least 40 MPH or over, well peddle as fast as I possibly could. Kept the bike at 31.5 MPH, so that must be my MAX cadence on a down hill run, was only holding the bike back at that point. LOL Richard ( RPM 110 )