High RPMs...
 

On my fixie today (32 miles 13.5 MPH avg, 1200 feet of climbing) I was going down a hill, chasing another rider when I hit 28.5 MPH in a 39-15 = 141 RPMs. After about 20 seconds of this, I had the most servere cramp I have ever had... but I was not rocking, etc... I can spin the RPMs.

How fast should the "normal" rider be able to spin? Will slowly increasing my time at high RPM help with this?

I don't really have anything to back this up, but I like to think that they higher rpms you can spin the better. Not that you should always be spinning those high rpms, but just in case you need it, you can pull them out.

I can spin about 115-120 for a short time maybe 15-20 seconds. The more you work on it the better you will get at it, just like anything else. You could do cadence intervals or whatever they are called. That kinda stuff has helped me.

I don't know about the cramp. Maybe too high of a cadence too soon? Maybe you need to start at slightly lower cadences and work your way up.

practicing high RPMs on a non-fixie will help

and it is hard to do on a fixie when you want to, based
on the usual fact you cannot rest your leg muscles in the
correct sequenced order on a fixie like you can on a freewheel.
using power in various ways assists lactic acid take-up
end elimination. on a fixie you are forced into a loop which
is hard to break. but practice can develop lactic-acid tolerance

usual needs are to be able to use slow rpms, then dive into high
rpms and maintain them for a while, then dive back into
slow rpms in order to prevent cramps (YMMV)

much easier when you have a tall gear to dump into for
a few minutes at will

so basically drink more water add some salt and do more downhills
on the fixie. take some tums before the ride to help fill the calcium
channels in the muscles for fast firing goodness

At 141 rpm's I'd be bouncing all over the place.:D I need to work on my spin.
At yesterday's Cool Breeze ride I was riding 46/18 most of the way and did hit up to around 28 mph downhill at which point I was constantly trying to resist pedalling and applying my front brake. As a matter of fact, I think my left hand was mored tired from the constant squeezing of the brake lever than my legs were after the ride...:p Perhaps my next project bike will be a front disc fixie...:D

Show off. :( So your legs never get tired. Some of us get tired. :p

140 RPM isn't too bad. I was discussing cadence with tprevost during stage two of the Tour de Sugar Shorts when she asked how anyone could pedal at 120 RPM without bouncing all over the place. So I geared down two gears (I had been cruising at a low speed and about 60 RPM) and took off for a while to demonstrate that 120 RPM was very doable. After a bit of out of the saddle sprinting to get my speed up, I noticed I had overshot 120 RPM and was at about 135 RPM. While seated, pushed on to 140 RPM and held it for a little while before backing off. Probably could do higher.

That said, I probably would be very uncomfortable on a fixie going downhill. It's one thing to maintain a high cadence under load. But I can't do it without resistance. For example, on a trainer on a really low gear, I have trouble pedaling smoothly at a really high cadence. On a relatively easy but not absurdly easy gear, I can get the cadence pretty high.

In my experience 141 rpms is the maximal theoreticlly obtainable rpm. Every ride on my powertap data forsome reason comes back with a 141 max. I think that's as high as it registers for some reason.

To answer your question 141 is good, but won't make you an elit track rider. And doing spin interavals will make it easier to spin very high rpms. but for practical purposes, if you can smoothly spin 141, that good enogh for most purposes.

The one thing that the fixie has done great for me is to not be afraid of holding 90 - 100 RPMs during a ride, although I still default to about 80 RPMs most of the time. (BTW 80 RPM = 16.5 MPH, 90 RPM is 18.5 MPH, 100 RPMs is 20.5 MPH, 110 RPMs is approx 22 MPH, etc in a 39-15). There are very few times when I bounce do to RPMs on a fixie... the gear is too high. On the downhill when I started fixie I would bounce about 110 - 115 (like before), with no resistance (I can be relativly smooth at 120 RPM before with load (ie. race). Once I get over 120 is is just a matter of letting my weight "plant" in the seat... and smooth circles!

Non race, I have no intentions of spining over 100 RPMs, but sprinting is another story! I love the fixie... going up hills I was just clobering the geared counterparts... they were still trying to find a gear as I passed them up - As long as the hill is not "too" steep... no Baldy on a fixie! :lol: I will have to do some spinup excersizes on a freewheel bike! I can understand how a fixed gear is not ideal for that!

Mandy