Originally Posted by
skidder
I still find a lower cadence (in the 75-80 RPM range) to be more comfortable on a long ride. If I try pedaling into the 90s RPM range and I just start breathing faster and get exhausted. If I'm running out of gas I just shift down a gear or two and keep the same slower cadence, seems to work for me. YMMV.
That makes sense. You’ll be using about 0.3W/kg more at 90 rpm than at 70 rpm at a given speed. If you read the article I linked earlier in this thread, you’ll see that as part of the discussion on the four big buckets of cadence situations. One typical situation would be you use higher rpm to accelerate and then shift to allow a slightly lower cadence for speed maintenance, since the cardio load is a bit less at a given speed.
Otto