Spinning and staying in saddle
 

I noticed that when I try to spin my legs fast on my rides (no clue on cadence because I don't have a computer... yet) that it feels like I'm almost hopping out of my saddle. Is this usual, indicative of a problem, or.......

Yeah, you don't want that to happen, but smoothing it out is just a matter of practice and experience most likely.

Keep at it by spending more time at that leg speed just below bouncing speed, get used to it, and slowly add in more leg speed while focusing on staying smooth and in contact with the pedals all the way round the stroke.

Investing in a cadence sensor will help, but is not necessary.

You need a pretty smooth pedal stroke to comfortably keep a high cadence.

The key is pedaling in circles, rather than jerky downstrokes and then ignoring the other 180°. Try unwieghting your leg or pulling up on the upstroke. It feels weird, but any movement feels weird until it enters muscle memory.

Your seat may also be too low.

Bouncing around on your saddle isn't a great idea for your balls or your knees or anything really.

Yeah, you're spinning too fast for your pedaling style. Just change up a gear.

You can reduce bouncing by practicing smoother pedal strokes, or possibly changing seat post height.

http://www.bikeforums.net/tandem-cyc...ng-saddle.html

I'll have to try and raise the seat a little. I figure working on my stroke is harder, but I get at least an hour a day on my bike (at least on weekends), so that is something to think about.

I think I'm not used to the lightness of spinning, so I'm bringing my legs up like I'm going to knee someone hard enough to knock them out. If that makes any sense. On lower gears, I don't have the problem, and I believe my normal cadence is most likely around sixty by my rough count.

Sounds like you're in too low of a gear. When there's little to no resistance on the cranks because you're pedaling faster than the bike is moving you'll start bouncing on the saddle.

You can just count, with a watch or such, for 15 seconds (times 4).

<---- see my display pic

if you want to learn to spin downhill get a fixed gear bike with front and rear brakes. keep pressure on the pedals, don't let the crank force your leg around the stroke. scrub off excess speed with the brakes. after learning to spin fast downhill spinning at 100-120 rpm on more or less flat ride will not be that difficult. Of course you can learn to spin with a geared bike but this is a fast and fun short cut. BTW I think the average recreational rider's cadence is more like 80-85 rpm on relatively flat road and a racers around 90-95 rpm. These are just ball park with exceptions for many riders. But 60 rpm is low unless some serious climbing.

Do some one leg drills.

I wouldn't mess with the seatpost height, presuming it was set correctly in the first place.

Bouncing in the saddle at high RPM is not anyone's method of setting initial seat height, and I don't see why it should be a point of later adjustment. I don't believe the tiny range of adjustment that you might make while still being within the parameters of standard seat height setting protocol (i.e. knee angle) is going to stop or cause bouncing, which is a technique issue, not a fit issue.

If it were way out of spec (too low), okay, set it properly, but stopping bounce is not a proper method for setting set height. Set seat height based on leg extension/knee angle. Riders with proper seat height can still bounce at high RPM if their technique isn't good.

I would guess that you are spinning at a lot more than 60 RPM if you are bouncing out of the saddle unless you are in a really easy gear. I recommend a computer with cadence. Whether you are training or riding for recreation, keeping the cadence up really saves the knees. In southern Wisconsin we have some rolling hills, so I start a ride spinning at about 60 RPM. After a warm-up, I increase my cadence to between 80 and 90. On climbs I adjust my gearing and try not to let my cadence drop below 70. Keeping the cadence up saves on the legs and gives a better cardio workout.

Fixies force your leg through the pedal stroke. They don't teach you to spin.

I would think you'd learn to spin by having to keep your foot ahead of the pedal stroke all the way.

I can bounce on the saddle too, like you described. I think the cause is that I'm in a gear a little too hard to spin in so to assist my legs I pull on my handlebars which raises my butt up. It also unweights the front which is not good either. I'm not a fast spinner so going down a gear and trying to spin fast enough is hard for me.

If you allow the pedal to bully you around the stroke, sure. But if you stay on top of your pedal stroke, it will help you smooth your stroke out, and help increase foot speed over time.

I agree. Fixed gear riding gives you direct feedback on how smooth you are pedaling. Some riders with the fastest cadences in the world are track riders. Purvis has a video on YouTube where they clock his cadence at something above 220 rpm.

Fixed gear riding is the best way to learn how to spin smoothly. Either you learn how to spin smoothly or your butt gets pummeled into hamburger.

Yes, yes, and yes.

:thumb: The key is "staying ahead of the pedals". When I can't stay ahead going downhill I scrub off speed. Last summer I jumped in with the race team while riding a fixed gear for a 6-7 mile flat section. We were going 25-26 mph and I was riding 70 gear inches. I was spinning 120-130 rpm and it wasn't the cranks moving my legs over for me. I had as much pressure on the pedals I could put out. If I had planed to do this I would have had my 80 gi clog on.

If you can't or don't want to go the fixed gear route, another alternative is a good, long, and shallow climb that maintains it's gradient. It'll provide the back pressure on the pedal stroke required in order for your to learn what it feels like to push/drag/pull/kick around an entire circle. You can also shift saddle position to get a feel for how that places emphasis on different muscle groups...

Once you have a feel for the full circle go find a nice mindless course and ride it in a gear below what you'd normally pick and use RPM to make up for the speed...aiming for say a 110+ cadence. Actively think about quieting your upper body. Position yourself so that most of your weight is supported by the saddle and drop into the bars, regardless of whether you're on the hoods, tops or in the hooks or drops.

Literally let your elbows hang, hands light on the bars, it's a good visualization for keeping your shoulders relaxed...and don't allow any extraneous movement in your upper body. Don't quite dampen it but allow for no exaggeration.

Have your fit checked by someone who knows what they're doing.

Thanks for that nice advice. Actually I have trouble relaxing my shoulders, damn poor posture... Once I get a computer I will start tracking my cadence.

I raised my seat a few mms or so today and I seemed to be less bouncy.

So much still to improve with on my bike, luckily I get to ride my bike everyday.

What's happening is that you haven't learned to actively decelerate your downstroke leg when it reaches BDC. So when it hits BDC, it pushes your butt off the saddle. At a low cadence it doesn't have enough momentum to do this. You need to learn to convert the downward motion of the leg to a rearward motion at the bottom of the stroke: scraping the mud off the bottom of your shoe. A good way to learn to pedal smoothly is to try to pedal in an easy gear using only the shoe uppers. Imagine there's a cushion of air between the bottom of your foot and your insole. It gets easier with practice.

Now I'm waiting for this dude to pass me on this road with his feet a blur.