Okay, so last night I was out for a ride (see here: https://app.strava.com/activities/48250011 ) mostly to continue getting used to the new bike. At one point in the ride there is a bit of a climb and then a nice downhill section. When I got about 2/3 of the way down the hill I stopped trying to moderate my speed and decided to accellerate - mostly to see what I could do. At the peak of it my legs were spinning pretty fast and I was starting to bounce a bit, which had me concerned about losing control at speed, so my first thought was to take it down a notch - only, the bike said 'no' (well, I guess it was really momentum speaking at that point) so I committed and just spun it out. It was okay as the road was familiar and I had plenty of room to roll it out.

My question is this: Are there any tips for how to improve the smoothness of my spin when the cadence is high (ie. more than 120 rpm) so that controlling the bike is easier? Is it just practice? Is the right answer simply 'Fool, slow down!'?

Practice.
Rollers help.

Once you lose the rhythm on a descent, it's pretty damn hard to get it back.

More high cadence practice.

Gear down and purposely ride around with a high cadence. (Or use a road bike).

I try to spin at 100+ to work on my spinning on my road bike.

try to pedal in circles or at the very least, think about the upstroke as much as the downstroke. also, if you're seatpost is too low, it's pretty much impossible not to bob.

In my experience i try to go faster on a downhill which puts me a little ahead of the pedal

i imagine the top of my chain being loose (backpedaling/coasting) vs taught (pushing)

i try to pedal in such a way that would keep the chain tight thruought the whole pedalstroke and it seems to work out for me

just work on your form on a pedalstroke at all speeds and it should all fall into place

Trial by fire downhill technique.

I think the best way to get the rhythm back is to power into it.

Relax

1 Ankling. Bend your ankles so your foot is pointed upward before the top of the the rotation, down past that. I've been able to smooth my spin a lot doing this. My legs don't seem to move nearly as much up and down doing that.

2 Spend some time on a fixie

Thanks for the responses. I knew that spending time riding at a higher RPM would help, I was mostly worried about developing bad form while doing so but it sounds like you are saying the form improves with practice and I don't really have much to worry about.

Tighten your core muscles. When you're first starting to learn how to spin really fast it helps to ride a hill you're intimately familiar with.

That way you know the point when you're really past the comfort threshold. You want to be able to moderate your speed until you're at a good distance from the bottom of the hill where you can bleed off your speed/cadence. I like to ramp it up and right as I get close to exceeding my comfort zone I tighten my core, exhale smoothly and quickly and can usually accelerate just a little bit more.

Also, raising your bars may help. On my prior bike I had a lot more bar drop and could always spin faster on the tops than in the drops. I raised my bars 2 inches or so and now I can spin faster in the drops. Hip flexors do a big part of helping your leg move around quickly and have an ideal firing point that comes with a lot more upright posture than a lot of people expect.



Alternatively, go Keirin style. Tie one end of a rope around the headtube of your bike, tie the other end around the bumper of a car. Have a loved one drive the car with specific intervals at speeds consistent with your training cadences. You'll be spinning in no time!

Another point. If your saddle is too low you won't be able to spin correctly. If your bars are too low you won't be able to spin correctly.

Your hips rotators can't rotate fully.

Saddle fore/aft can make a difference too.

So in addition to practice, get a bike fitting. Looking at the numbers my rpm was about 160 or so when I started getting shaky. What do 'normal' numbers look like? ie. what can a rider typically spin at comfortably/smoothly?

ITT:

Get a proper fit.
Practice spinning higher cadence.

That's... about it, really.

That's about right. My hips start to bounce all over the place much past 170.

There are also different ways of spinning as speeds go up and whether you are powering the pedals or going downhill. A lot will come from experience taking those hills. For example, I ride just under 70gi and going downhill at 30+ mph my feet are just unweighted and following the pedals.

What he said.

Practice and proper saddle height are the keys.

Yeah please don't do this.

The guys who mentioned bike fit are pretty much right.

This.

Like not the fit calculator fit, that's good at basic stuff. If you're serious shell out some money for a fitment at your LBS.

My fitter had my track bike's saddle slightly lower than my road bike to aid with spinning at higher rpm.

Does anyone think that doing things like practicing riding with one leg or working on not pedalling in squares is relevant here? I seem to recall this being all the rage back when I was a roadie.

I feel that if you want to do it, you need to do it on an SS/roadie

Doing it on a fixed gear is kinda cheating imo. The drivetrain will push you over the top where the pedal stroke is weakest.

I do agree that it helps though.

+1.

It can help, but most of the time with those sort of 'drills' you need someone watching you unless you're really body-aware.

I tried ankle movement after i read the first comment and before i read this and all i got to show for it was massively sore lower shins after a 3 mile ride . I concur.

professional bike fits are a thing now, huh

haha. I feel like every third thread around here has this as one of the 'answers' to the OP's question/complaint/observation/etc.