whitemax

I'll use the 53/12 every so often and turn 56-57 rpms for a while to keep a little power in the legs and it gets me quite winded after 5-10 minutes. Haven't been riding the road any since it turned cold in N.C.; just a trainer ride every so often. What are others doing relative to a big gear trainer ride?

rpenmanparker 

A cadence like that isn't doing your knees any good. It would tear mine up. I always use the 39 ring on the trainer and a fairly big rear cog so that I can maintain 100 rpm plus or minus. But you can't compare setups without knowing the relative resistances of the trainers in question. Mine is a fixed resistance Nashbar fluid model. Must be pretty high resistance, because I cannot go any higher than about 39/19 or 39/17 on a good day and then only in intervals. Sure you can go to higher gear ratio to simulate climbing, but you should still keep up your cadence. Pushing big gears at low cadence, especially on a trainer with very poor flywheel momentum is very tough on the anatomy. Remember that what you consider a big gear on a trainer is completely different than on the road due to the unrealistic built in resistance. You have to work out (with a power meter or just trial and error) the comparable gear setup to give you a road like riding experience.

jkuper

50 on Kurt

rangerdavid

I use the sufferfest videos on the trainer, so I'm all over the place with cadence and gear selection, just like riding outside. I'm also in NC, in the mountains, where it's 17 degrees right now, so unless I drive down off the mountain and head east, I likely won't be riding outside anytime soon.


RD

Looigi

It depends entirely on what the resistance the trainer is set to or the minimum resistance the specific trainer is capable of without slipping, right? Turn it down and you can push a higher gear. Dial up the resistance and you won't be. In the end, it doesn't matter in the least. Cadence, level of effort, and duration are all that matters for training. However fast the rear wheel happens to be spinning or the gears being used to spin it are irrelevant.

roadrider63

Using a Kurt Kinetic Road I use whatever gear I need to be in to keep my cadence up around the 90 rpm point and my virtual power numbers around where the training program suggests. I just started using Trainerroad going through the base training program now. Can tell you that 1.5 hrs. on a trainer non stop even at low power/resistance is a long time for me. Liking the trainer road though but wanting to hurry up and get to more speed/power based workouts.....trying to be patient.

carpediemracing 

Low rpm isn't necessarily a bad thing. I do some big gear efforts, trying to hold my cadence down in the 60 rpm range. On the trainer it's hard - I seem to want to increase my cadence to closer to 70 rpm. On the road, on some of the steeper climbs around here, I'll be in the 45-60 rpm range for short stints. My knees aren't that good - I really can't do any actual weight lifting type stuff - but I'm okay with big gear work in moderation.

I found that my CycleOps trainers (Fluid, Fluid2) seem to be limited to about 1000w, give or take. After that there's tire slippage and the fact that I can't put down more power than that without really rocking the bike out of the saddle.

My big gear efforts usually end up in the 400-500w range, something that is not sustainable for more than a minute or so. To do that I'll be in a 53x11 or 12, seated, really emphasizing power around the whole pedal stroke. If I go a bit slower I can hold 300w for a bit longer, using a lower gear and lower cadence.

If you only push down then low rpms isn't good. If you are pulling back, pulling up, pulling over the top… you can do a low cadence effort and barely push down on the pedals. Pulling up, for example, doesn't stress the knees at all. Low cadence is good for practicing better and more complete pedaling so you aren't just pushing down.

I ride the trainer more often than I do outside. I've done about 80 trainer rides this year, 75 outside rides (which include all my racing). I average 90 minutes or so for each trainer ride and the long ones are 3-5+ hours.

whitemax

I use the Cyclops fluid and torque it down until it won't slip like the manual says to. Your post is somewhat contradictory.

whitemax

53/11....ouch, that's tough. I do make sure to make I pull up over the top as you said. Mashing down without doing so would over stress the knees I believe. I typically ride a higher cadence for most of my workouts on the trainer, but I do believe that low rpm has some merit relative to building power for climbing.

rpenmanparker 

Some trainers have no torque down adjustment to fix the bike wheel against the resistance unit spindle. They just rely on body weight to hold the wheel in place. Not being a masher, that works fine for me. Never have any slippage. Shrinkage, of course, is a whole different subject.

Carbonfiberboy 

The resistance unit on my rollers is old and now lets me turn 80 in the big ring, too bad. So I wait until April to do my 50 cadence work outside, 3X10X5 at tempo HR. Seated, no upper body motion at all, light hands on the bars is the deal. April's the right time for me anyway. If you have decent conditioning and pedal circles, 50 cadence work is no problem for the knees. I've done 2500' pass climbs at 50 cadence. That's good conditioning. Normally I climb at ~80.

KantoBoy

You're asking people who use different psi on their tire so you'll get different answers.

big chainring 

I rode with a 54/13 top gear on one of my bikes. 54's were a lot more common back in the day.

AndyK 

I also just stay in my 39/18-16 gears on the trainer - higher RPMs, low impact - until I can get back on the road.

cycledogg

53/11 unless I'm on the TT bike, then it's 55/11. I do bucket loads of intervals and grind theses gears for 30 minutes or so.