wonderflex

Hello, I'm getting back into the world of bikes and had a few questions.

To start off as a bit of back story, thirteen years ago I use to ride a down-trodden "Walmart Special" mountain-bike on my 20 miles round trip to work. The grip-shift for the rear derailleur was as broken as my bank account and I was only able to to change between the three front gears, and usually stayed in the hardest one. It was hard work, but I was thin (155lbs, 6' tall), young (20), and foolish (college drop-out). Every day felt like an adventure until the fateful morning where my handlebars busted off while riding down a hill in the outskirts of Seattle. From that day on I never fully returned to riding. Flash forward to today I've bulked up a quite a bit for rugby (215lbs, still 6' tall), grew older (33), and hopefully wiser (back in college again).

Recently my wife decided that she wanted to get a commuter bike to add in some additional exercise on her way to work While at the bike shop my two year-old fell in love with a Burley trailer and I decided to I might as well pick up a bike for myself and make it a family affair. Riding that bike home for first time brought back so many good memories and put a smile on face wide enough to make those along the bike path think I was a creeper of sorts.

With this proper bike and some excitement to go along with it I started doing some research on some of the issues/questions I've come up with since riding and was hoping for some help.

My new bike is a stock Trek FX 2. This is my first ever bike with this type of tires and frame. The mountain bike before had very knobby tires, bigger shocks than my redneck neighbors truck and was just about as heavy. Prior to that I had a BMX bike in middle school. So far I've been on five rides (one five mile, two seven miles and two one miles).

On that first five mile ride I noticed that my legs were burning quite a bit more than I expected or remembered. I figured part of it could be due to the fact that I hadn't rode a bike in over a decade, but it seemed odd with the amount of running and heavy leg use I get from Rugby. I checked out my watch and it said that I had been riding at 11 mph. I had been riding in my second hardest gear. After that I started doing research and came to realize that I should instead by focusing on having a faster cadence at an easier gear to ensure I'm using my aerobic system instead of my anaerobic system.

Q1: I don't have a thingy (technical term) on my bike that measures my cadence. If I know my tire specs, the teeth on the chainring, teeth on my cassette, which of those two I'm riding in for 99% of my ride, and my MPH for the trip, can I calculate an average cadence? Assuming I have my tire size right, and I'm guessing on the crank length (don't know where to find it), here is what I figured out using GearCalculator:

(see first attachment)

Q2: What is the correct way to refer to gears? I know that saying I've been riding almost exclusively in gears two and five won't mean anything. Do I say 38x18, 55.5 inches, ratio of 2.11 or something else?

The MPH and gear selection for that GearCalculator comes from my third ride on the bike that I did on the way home from work today. Here are the details for that ride:

(see second and third attachment)

Miles 0-1 are a maze of roundabouts and sidewalks around the hospital area that I work at. Miles 1-3 are flat. Mile 4 starts at a large intersection with a very long wait followed by a slight incline along the river. Mile 5 has less of an incline, but does include a bridge over the river. Mile 6 has a slight incline again, and winds along the other side of the river. Mile seven winds downhill a bit but is really close to the river with slick mud and loose rocks on the pavement and then climbs back up. On the ride to and from work today I've been too scared to take this area with any speed for fear that the wheels will slide out.

Q3: Assuming the gears+mph is an acceptable way to calculate cadence, is 93 an okay cadence for a beginner?

Q4: During the mile that had my fastest average time I noticed that I started bouncing around in my seat as I pedaled so I slowed down my rpms. What causes this and what do I need to do differently to prevent it in the future?

Q5: When I switch to the gears 38 and 15 I start to feel my legs burning instantly and my cadence slows up quite a bit. Does that mean I should stick to the 38 and 18 for now or push it and wait for my body to get stronger with time?

Q6: When should I shift gears? The only times I ever change out of that 38 and 18 is when I hit those very short changes in incline. I go down (up?) to 38 and 24 for the one hill and then up (down?) to 38 and 13 on the hill down. Also, what gear should I change into when coming up to a stop light. The 38 by 18 feels very sluggish when taking off.

Q7: I've never road a bike with these non-mountain bike tires. Is my fear of sliding out justified? As I rode down the hill by the river visions of ESPN-highlight level crashes came to mind.

Q8: My bike's ulock came with a frame mount. The shop my wife picked up her bike at said she shouldn't mount her's but didn't give a reason. Is there a reason I shouldn't mount it?

Q9: When riding to work today I put my dress clothes in a backpack. What is the best way to transport clothes? Backpack, rear basket, panniers, something else?

Q10: Not a question, but rather an invitation for general advice. I love to learn.

Thank you in advance for any help and apologies for any spelling, grammar or terminology errors.

RonH

Good choice for a first bike.

The thingy you're asking about is a bike computer. You can get one at the bike shop or online. One that measures cadence (which is only a count of how many times you turned the crank/pedals per minute) will cost ~$25 and up.

You can simply say 38x15 or say gear 1 (or 2 or 3 , etc) in the rear, small chainring. Gear 1 is the gear (cog) closest to the bike. The numbers increase as the chain moves out away from the bike.

Wet railroad tracks and wet leaves can be a cyclists nightmare. Cross RR trails at a 90 degree angle (perpendicular). Ride cautiously thru wet leaves, or gravel, or sand.

Cadence isn't calculated, it's measured. With a bike computer that has the cadence feature it simply counts every revolution of the crank arm and averages it out to a revolution/minute number. You can count it yourself until you get a bike computer. 93 is good but if you're legs are burning them drop back to 75-80.

The bouncing around is simply caused by pedaling too fast. You're still a beginner and with practice you can get this under control.

You're still new and your leg muscles are just developing. Ride in a comfortable gear. As you get stronger you can play around with the gears.

Before you get to the stop change to the 38x24 or some easy gear to start off in.

You'll get used to the slicker tires. You won't slide out unless you hit wet leaves, etc.

Some people say its hard to get the lock in or out of the mount. Do what feels right to you.

Read thru the Commuting forum to learn all the hows and whys of transporting your stuff. When I was a bike commuter I had a rear rack with panniers on each side.


Just keep reading thru the different forums and have fun.

Homebrew01

If you have some kind of clock, you can count how many times your right foot goes around in 15 seconds then multiply by 4.

Even without a clock you can estimate by counting "1 Mississippi, 2 Missisippi, 3 Mississippi...." And see if your foot matches the count, or a lot faster. I pedal about 90 rpm most of the time. so my right leg does 1.5 revolutions per "Mississippi"

ahanulec

Lots of questions. I'll make an effort on a few.

Determining your cadence with these formulas is fine. The usual target for most people is 90 rpm, but varies person to person. On the flats I'm usually around 85 but like to spin at 110 on hills. Find what is comfortable and sustainable for you. That 93 number is a great start, go up or down based on what's comfortable.

A slow cadence will stress your legs while a faster will challenge your cardio fitness. The benefit to the later is that your heart can recover faster than your leg muscles.

Your references to the gear selection is fine. That's how I would speak of different gears. FWIW, the front gears are chain rings and the tears are sprockets.

When I find myself bouncing in the saddle It's typically from bad pedalling form. If my legs are strictly pushing down at the front of the stroke i bounce. The pedal stroke starts at the top where you should be pushing forward, then pushing down at the front and dragging you foot back through the bottom and even pulling your foot up during the back of the revolution. This is what some people call pedalling or spinning in circles.

Don't fear washing the bike out in corners. The amount of grip in decent tires is pretty good. I'm heavier than you riding narrower road tires without issue. I've had many bad weather experiences too.

wonderflex

Thank you for the reply. On the bouncing issue are you saying I should be pedaling in a more circular motion and less of a straight down piston fashion? I do feel like I come down pretty hard and have difficulty getting a smooth circle.

rm -rf

Cadence
I used a 20 second count, x 3 to get cadence. This only gives you an idea of your flat ground, steady state cadence, but it's still useful. I have a cadence sensor on my Garmin, so it's recorded during my rides. See below for an example during a fairly easy paced ride. My cadence on flat roads varies from the low 80s to about 100. On an easy ride, it's around 80 to 85, and I'm not pushing hard on the pedals. Going faster, mid 90s are best for maintaining the harder pace. On extremely steep climbs, I'm going 3 mph at 30 rpm (that's just one pedal stroke a second), standing up and carefully balancing.

I've had a cadence display for almost 10 years, and still get somewhat surprised at times, when I think I'm at a fast cadence and it says "86" or "82".

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Gearing and speed
Your flat bar Trek will be a little slower than a road bike, mainly due to sitting more upright, in the wind. Your 15.8 mph average looks very good.

Riders learn to shift down a couple of clicks when rolling up to a stop, to take off easier.

Your Trek has 48/38/28 front, and 11-32 in the back. A good, wide range gearing.

Flat to easy climbs:
I'd be using the 38 chainring and just about all the cogs in the back, as needed. I like to shift the back to get the "just right" cadence, not pushing hard at a slow cadence or spinning way too fast. Back shifts are fast and easy.
With a tailwind, slight downhill, or pushing hard, I'd try the 48 chainring, it's only about 2 rear shifts harder than the 38.

Uphill:
Before the hill starts, I shift to the small 28 chainring, then 2 or 3 smaller cogs in the back, to get my cadence back to a normal range. Just shifting the front would speed it up quite a bit. Then as the hill gets steeper, I don't need to shift the front, just the rear cogs. It's hard to shift the front during the climb.
On really steep climbs, you'll run out of gears. Most riders would stand up to get more power, but that's hard to maintain.

Downhill:
I probably wouldn't bother shifting the front to the big 48 ring unless the downhill was pretty long, or I wanted to go full blast down the hill.

See the chart below with your gears at typical flat road cadences to see how they all compare.

I normally don't know which gear I'm in, but I, uh, "usually" know which front chainring I'm in. I just shift the rear cogs up or down as needed to keep a reasonable pedal pressure and cadence. (And fairly often, find I've shifted too far, and go back one gear...)

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Smooth tread
Road tires are fine with no tread. The rubber grips the tiny imperfections in the road. Narrow tires aren't very good on loose surfaces, of course. And no tires have good traction on slippery surfaces like wet steel, wet painted markings, wet leaves, or oily wet patches -- all "wet" related.

Your Bontrager H2 35c tires would be fine on roads or on packed crushed stone bike trails. Don't overinflate: I weight about 170 pounds, and would try 60-65 psi front, and 75-80 psi rear.

Your downhill with dirt washing onto the road, etc: I'd be slowing way down there, too. You can try braking the rear pretty hard and see if it slips at all, just to get more experience with your tires there.

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Bouncing
Bouncing in the saddle is a timing problem. This really shows up on "fixed gear" bikes, that can't coast--when the wheel is turning, the chain turns the cranks too. And with no shifting, the rider has to pedal fast on downhills! If the rider is still pushing down when the crank hits bottom and starts back up, he'll be bouncing in the saddle.

It's a similar thing with geared bikes. And a good saddle height might help, too. A starting point is to put your heel on the pedal and see if your leg is straight without having to stretch to reach the pedal. Then you'll have a good bend when you ride on the ball of your foot.

I suggest to new riders that they try shifting one easier gear than they normally use. That's good practice for spinning at a higher cadence and only needing light pressure on the pedals. From there, it's just getting riding hours, so your body gets used to pedaling and builds the cycling specific muscles.

Try spinning the easier gears for your speed. You just want light pressure on the pedals. I sometimes do drills of "spinning in circles" with the feeling of scraping mud off your shoes at the bottom of the stroke, and unweighting the upward leg, but I normally don't consciously do this.

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Attached:
An example of my cadence. Even on a very flat road, it varies due to slight grades or wind, etc.
Speeds for gear combinations. Blue is the 48 chainring, black is 38, red is 28.

dabac

Exactly how much benefit there is from pedalling in circles is somewhat debated. Most power is in the downstroke regardless.
But a key thing to reduce bouncing is to get the upward bound leg "out of the way" fast and smooth.
A good way to practice that is to pedal one-legged, for which you need pedals with some sort of foot retention system.

wonderflex

Thanks Rm-rf and Ron H for the tips. It looks like my next purchase will be some sort of cadence meter.

gsa103

Save your money. Cadence isn't that important.
As long as you're above 60 rpm, you're generally good. Everyone has a natural cadence they spin best at. When you get to very low cadence (<50 rpm), you put a lot of stress on your knees. It sounds like you're already well above that point.

The main thing you want to do is get comfortable shifting gears. I use my gear shifters like video game levers, and they're still running fine with minimal maintenance and thousands of miles.

MRT2

I don't know about that. After years of riding, I naturally pedal at around 85 to 90 rpm on flat ground, somewhat lower on hills. You can do the same with repetition. But until you get to that point, just calculate your own. If you are wearing a watch, just count the each time your right foot gets to the top of the pedal stroke for 15 seconds, then multiply by 4. Do it 3 or 4 times during the ride.

MRT2

I don't know about that. A cadence of 60 on flat ground seems pretty low.

rm -rf

Yeah, your exact cadence isn't all that critical. Just work on spinning with light pedal pressure when you are cruising on flatter roads. Counting your pedal strokes for 15 or 20 seconds occasionally will let you know what 80 or 90 rpm ranges feel like.

scott967

First, I wouldn't get carried away with thinking too much about it.

My personal experience is that running gives you good aerobic endurance, but does nothing for your cycling legs.

My general observation is beginning riders find a cadence around 60 works best (in terms of effort to maintain speed). That is because untrained riders can't develop much power. However, as you train and are able to deliver more power, it turns out you are more efficient with higher cadence up to around 100 or so. So that's why you are often encouraged to increase cadence, but as you experience, on untrained legs it is hard work. (A second factor may be that junior racing limits the gears you are allowed, so you have to pedal fast to go fast and you might just get in the habit.)

As far as tires go, I mainly just look out for loose sand or fine gravel that seems to build up outside of car tire tracks in intersections when I'm taking a turn. Or sometimes small twigs if there's over-hanging branches.

scott s.
.

wonderflex

Thanks everybody. I skipped on getting the computer and will just stick with my phone apps. It's better than nothing.

Viich

OP - don't worry too much about trying to push the harder gear. It can be hard on the knees if you take it too far.

If you're interested though, get either a handlebar mount for your phone or a cycle computer (neither are very very expensive), so you can see your speed. You'll see that at the same speed on level road, it'll sometimes feel easier to go the same speed at a higher cadence in a 'slower' gear.

unterhausen

I'm working on increasing my cadence. That's really hard to do without a cadence meter, at least that was my experience. My natural cadence is about 75, but now that I have been practicing, I find that things get a lot easier at 95 rpm or so. Anything below 80 is going to put significantly more strain on your lower body and muscles (at the same power). The best way to see this is to ride an electronic trainer with erg mode, where slower cadence means higher resistance.

I have a Wahoo cadence meter that attaches to my shoelace. I didn't want one that read a magnet on the crank. The real advantage for me with the Wahoo is that I can talk to it with my phone, which is how I control my trainer. I'm really uninterested in speed most of the time, cadence and heart rate are two things that are pretty valuable to me.

BobbyG

Great Answers!

rgconner

Consciously "lifting up" on the backstroke will smooth out that cadence.


I use a cadence meter to know what the number is, but I naturally hit 75 to 80 on flats.

Using music is another way to know your cadence.

bgraham111

I've always found that if I start to bounce in the saddle, I just need to slow down OR shift to a higher gear. Usually shift to a higher gear. I'll admit, I shift a lot. Some people do not, and that will work for some people. It's just something you can try out.

John_V 

You can download a free metronome app for your phone and set it to beat at whatever cadence you want to ride at. I wouldn't worry too much if you can't keep up a high cadence without wearing yourself out. Find a cadence that's right for you that can maintain a speed you're comfortable with and stay with it. Not everyone is capable of maintaining a high cadence.

wonderflex

I ended up getting the bontrager phone mount because my bike came with the Blender mount stem.

I'm using the "Bike Computer" app on Android that shows my MPH and I just try to maintain 90 on that comfortable gear.

Today we took a family ride where I towed the Burley. My wife was only able go 9.9 mph so I put it into a gear that the calculator showed would match that speed at 90 rpm (38x28) and tried to keep my speed even. Worked out great.

philbob57

I was taught that the gear is too high (i.e. hard to pedal) if my legs give out before my lungs do and too low if my lungs give out before my legs. I've always aimed for a gear and cadence that maximizes my speed without over-stressing my legs or lungs.

That magic gear changes a lot over time. It's lower at the start of the season, higher at the end, as my conditioning improves.

Hiro11

I vary cadence throughout a ride. I typically feel best pulling in a relatively high cadence. When I pull off, I shift into a bigger gear and slow down my cadence to let my lungs recover a bit. I go up and down throughout the ride depending on how I feel. You don't need to think about it so much. Just try to avoid grinding huge gears. Also, measure your saddle height, I'll bet it's too low.

tornado60

I'll address the U lock thing first. They told her not to mount it because the mount is often very easy to remove. In many cases someone only needs a screw driver to unsrew it. The U lock it's self however would need to be cut off; probably with some sort of grinder.

I never bought a cycle computer that handled cadence. I just count approximately how many times my leg goes around per second for several. For me 90 is usually good.

My personal rule on gears is simple. If it is too easy to pedal (I'm bouncing up and down with each stroke) Shift to a higher number gear. If it is too hard (my legs are burning getting tired) shift to a lower number gear. I ride a lot of the same places. By now I pretty much know what gear I want where.

tornado60

I'll address the U lock thing first. They told her not to mount it because the mount is often very easy to remove. In many cases someone only needs a screw driver to unscrew it. The U lock it's self however would need to be cut off; probably with some sort of grinder.

I never bought a cycle computer that handled cadence. I just count approximately how many times my leg goes around per second for several. For me 90 is usually good. I don't worry so much about cadence as I do the next part anyway.

My personal rule on gears is simple. If it is too easy to pedal (I'm bouncing up and down with each stroke) Shift to a higher number gear. If it is too hard (my legs are burning getting tired) shift to a lower number gear.

As for sliding out. It never seems to me that the width of my tire matters anywhere near as much as how I ride. I find that slides happen more because I ride over a slick area balanced to one side or the other than because of my tires. If I stay centered I don't usually have a problem. That said the skiniest tire I ride in the winter is my 26 x 1 3/8. I don't ride if there is a lot of ice. Cross grates, railroad tracks, and other gaps perpendicular. I'm generally on 26 x 1 3/8 tires. Although, I do have a mountain bike too.

One last thing. I always where a helmet. I don't know if one has ever saved my brain. Except to say I'm still a functional adult. I do know 2 that have saved my scalp; and possibly face from some serious road rash and cuts.