Average Cadence
 

Just like my average speed thread, i want to know what people are getting on average cadences.

What i mean is, what would someone normally expect to get during a ride flat, hilly, descending, whatever, as long as i get some sort of result or number please.

I read from a thread 71 RPM was "really low" for a 90 Mile ride, which made me worry because i actually get mid/high 70's to lower 80s.

I like to ride hard with a cadence of 75-90

When I start climbing (I climb about 3-15 Miles, depending on my ride distance and the time I have, but i do a lot of climbing.) My cadence drops to about 65-75 when i climb on 6-7% gradients, using my 39 chainring and the 3rd biggest cog in my cassette. When It gets harder I use the two biggest cogs in the cassette, just to keep my cadence higher.

So is it bad to have average cadence in the 70's 80's, with a few miles of climbing?
What is a good/preferred cadence?

depends on whether your computer counts zeros in the average.

I generally average 94 on flats, 80 with a ~5% gradient. That's just me, i'm unaware of overall "averages."

Have you ever tried google or BF search? I'm thinking the answer is no.

I like to get up-to-date and current results. We improve so I want to know what's new. And sometimes, older threads don't have the aspect
which I am looking for.

The one that works for you for the situation you're in. Try different cadences. Practice riding a fast cadence, many riders pedal faster in races.

You're a smart kid. You should get some books on training and read them. You'll do better that way than asking questions like this from random idiots on the internets.

80 for me. Can't seem to change it. Don't know about climbs. Don't have them here in So Fla.

oh really?

then I suppose the findings in this study don't count since it was published in 2005.

here's a few more.

90-100, usually more towards 100

What are these? I'm trying to find out what people consider as a low/high avg cadence, and what they can usually obtain during a ride with
some factors affecting what they can acheive.

Maybe i'll look at these again, when I'm into Time Trialing...

Let me help you with that search function...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...verage+cadence

And

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...verage+cadence

Thanks! Didn't help, especially the 2nd link.

Oh flats, I run 110-115. Climbing, 90-100.

Must be a comprehension problem.......................

On flat ground I try to keep it at around 95+-5, my local area has a lot of hills and our average ride has over 2000' in climbing which is not a lot for some but more than others. Over 7000km last year my avg ended up being 83.

In the "What's you average speed" post, some one commented "What's average?" The same applies here. It sounds so simple, and yet, it is not.

In mathematics, there are 3 forms of "average." The mean, which is what most everyone thinks as "average," that is to total divided by the quantity. But there is also the mode, that is, the most frequently occurring value. Then there is the median. If you take and list all the values from top to bottom, it's the value in the middle.

When values fit a "normal" bell shaped distribution, all three of the values are the same. But for things like speed and cadence, the mean might not be the best measurement of average, since the values don't fit a normal distribution.

www.RideWithGPS.com produces a "Time in speed graph" that makes finding the modal value very easy. It shows you how many minutes of your ride you spent in each speed "bucket", that is 0 - 1 mph, 1+ - 2, etc. Below is the modal graph of speed from my metric ride today.

It shows my modal average speed to be 17-18 bucket. Call it 17.5. The mean speed is 61.3/3hr 35min 30 sec or 17.07

So you know what they say: "Figures lie, and liar's figure."

So, math class is over. Go figure.

Thanks! Now what gearing are you usually running?

When you refer to gearing, go by teeth....
One of my cassettes has a 3rd largest of 17....

Sorry. My 3rd Biggest cog has 21 teeth. Which is what i use to climb.

Yeah, because your average speed thread went over so well.

Again what is average? Each person will have a cadence set-point of sorts, a cadence at which they are comfortable pedaling at if they don't think about it. You can raise this set-point through training. But it's not a single number either, because many people prefer to climb at a lower cadence even when gearing to have a higher cadence is available. On top of that, it is somewhat dependent on effort. When cruising at an "easy" pace many people will have a lower cadence than when they are working hard. It's all about the relationship between power, torque (force) and cadence.

Anyway, I won't give you a number because it won't mean anything, but I will show you this, it may be more informative. And I see I am not the only one with this train of thought ;)

http://www.photoscene.com/kimandsteve/images/8867.png

This, I believe, is on of the most useful measurements of "average" cadence. Thanks UMD.

My coach doesn't like me doing less than 90 rpms on anything other than large hills. Even then he tells me to try and keep it about 70. Honestly it is pretty hard to keep your legs going that fast all the time I think. Then again, I only do solo ride for the most part. Group rides are alot easier on the legs.

My so called average cadence displayed on my garmin computer always ends up in the 70's, even though I hardly ever ride with a cadence in the 70's, because coasting and stopping (periods of little to no pedaling) lower the value displayed by the computer. I find my sweet spot of speed and endurance on flat-ish terrain to be in the 90's, my highest speeds are achieved while mashing in the 80's, and climbing completely destroys my cycling so I can't comment on that until I do more of it and figure it out.

Hey UMD - how did you get that graph?

It's from WKO