Originally Posted by
Bigbus
With regard to learning to pedal faster in a lower gear--You can't teach an old dog new tricks! I'm pushing 70years and can still do 240 situps, bench press 160X9 and ride 10+ miles/day. I burn out really fast when I try speed pedaling whereas when I'm climbing a hill and working the pedals hard, I never seem to reach bottom. Just me. But with that considered, higher gearing just makes sense. I have a 13T off an old MTB so when the weather turns nicer I'll see if I can swap it out with the 14T currently on it and go from there. Love it when you guys do all the math for me...
I was 63 when I determined it was better for me to spin a lower gear faster. Not a lot faster, but "the next lower gear" faster. Probably a 14T to 16T. It's been quite awhile.
How much OVER 10 miles/day do you ride? If not much, you're basically doing a quick workout, since you must be doing 20-30 MPH. For you, that probably works.
Try riding 30-40 miles/day by mashing.
Nobody knows what
your ACTUAL cadence is. OR if you have a double or triple up front and YOU don't seem that willing to provide that info.
What is the cadence you use and what cadence do you call "Speed Pedaling"? Maybe something in between will be the best of both worlds.
That's a problem when you only have a 6 speed on the back. Your steps between gears is too large to be most efficient. IF you had a cog between your "mashing" & "speed pedaling", you may be in a happy place?
Keep in mind, if you go to a smaller smallest cog, you widen the steps BETWEEN gears and may find you lack a gear you really used a lot more than you thought on the non downhill portions of your ride.
That's why my 2 bikes are 3X9 with close spaced cassettes. 12-27 on one and 13-25 on the other.
I simply have a better chance of having a "near perfect" gear a greater % of the time.