So. First road bike ride tomorrow. :)

True, but can anyone pedal smooth enough circles at 130rpm to not thrown the bike into a terminal wobble at 40mph+?

Like everything, pedalling smoothly at a high cadence takes practice.

But you can get pretty fast enough even at lower cadences –

100rpm = 32.63mph
110rpm = 35.89mph
120rpm = 39.15mph

80 is pretty slow, I’d say most people are closer to 90 anyway.

I’m going to agree to disagree with you on that point.

Here’s what 90’ish RPM looks like –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScOvLVqJABE

And a lot of riders I see out there – particularly newbies – tend to grind away at a big gear, 60-80rpm.

Wow, roadies sure know how to talk dirty eh?

Glad you had a good ride back mr poddy. 55 mins is pretty good.

Bit quicker on the way in this morning. I thought it was more downhill on the way home but apparently not now I’ve measured it. Just over 50mins on the way in.
I’m going to try and ride in 2/3 times a week.

I like the look of that in green. Almost bought one myself this week but decided it was a bit too bling-looking for locking up at work. Bought a Defy which is much the same spec but looks more discrete.

Anyway, enjoy it.

Although it has to be said I ran out of gears on virtually every downhill. It does feel a bit under geared at the top end.

Pedal faster! 😉

Seriously though, I found investing in a Cadence sensor (to go with my Garmin Edge 500) was worth the while to help me improve my cadence. I wasn’t exactly a grinder before, but was tending to average 78-80rpm over a ride. A few months on and in regularly in the 88-90rpm average over the length of a ride now, and am faster and feel better for it.

I’d say if it hasn’t got one already, fit an 11-28 cassette. You only get wide(ish) gaps right at the very bottom end of the gear ratio where it’s not important, but having a 34/28 bottom gear is much nicer for most newbies than the typical 34/25, and having an 11T on the back helps you keep pedalling over 40mph… Ok, I can spin quite well, but there’s a local descent near me I’ve done a few times that’s not steep enough to be faster tucking, so you’ve got to pedal, and I’ve done over 45mph on it a few times pushing 50/11.

Round my way unless you’re very fit a compact drivetrain has neither low enough or high enough gears for me. When I’m grinding up yet another mile long 20% climb my triple chainset 30/27 feels too high and downhill soon spin out my 52/12. I need a 10sp 11-27 cassette but the upgrade cost from 9sp on a road bike is huge!!

I did a 16 mile quick loop from my house last night and there was 1400ft of climbing. :sigh:

Im in same boat,new 1st road bike,green seems to be the hot color for bikes this year as my merida has,just waiting on pimping parts in post,got a few 50m sportives lined up in july…

Looks a bit like mine……

Yes i know…… The gear cable is too long and it`s not on the correct “gear” but this was taken 2 years ago and al has been sorted (soon after pic was taken)

😀

Very nice. You work in one of my local shops. What route do you take? If you want any commuting advice or loops, drop me a line. And you are also a Wilier dealer, so why Trek? 😉

And get a cadence meter, keep spinning at 90-100rpm. Speed will come.

Gone from a standard to compact set up and prefer the compact , often hit 40mph (downhill) whereupon my bottle usually runs out anyway.