VERY slow Cadence/rpm

[davidmcarthur32]

If I am not mistaken cadence and rpm are the same thing? A little preamble before I ask my question: I am seventy two years of age and although I have always been interested in being fit, too much drinking and smoking (neither of which I do now) didn't help in this regard. I did a lot of cycling (touring) in my thirties, and in my forties and fifties I used a bike as my means of getting around - I hate cars with a passion.

Now to the point, . . . ..

I stopped cycling at around sixty years of age, nine months ago I began to use an exercise bike at home. I was only taking note of the timer on computer until recently when I educated myself on the other computer readings. Horror of horrors, my rpm is 35 at best.
As I stated above that I did a lot of touring in my thirties, I am not a racer, and have no wish to be. A low rpm would go with touring, but - even at 72 years of age - 35 rpm is quite shockingly low.
Question: Am I clinically dead, or is my computer wrong?

[Cyril Haearn]

Welcome on board, I think you are very alive
Maybe your computer is wrong, can you change gears?
I do 15 mph at 100 rpm on my 49" fixed, so sometimes I go down to the thirties, down to zero come to think of it when starting + stopping

[Marcus Aurelius]

If I am not mistaken cadence and rpm are the same thing? A little preamble before I ask my question: I am seventy two years of age and although I have always been interested in being fit, too much drinking and smoking (neither of which I do now) didn't help in this regard. I did a lot of cycling (touring) in my thirties, and in my forties and fifties I used a bike as my means of getting around - I hate cars with a passion.

Now to the point, . . . ..

I stopped cycling at around sixty years of age, nine months ago I began to use an exercise bike at home. I was only taking note of the timer on computer until recently when I educated myself on the other computer readings. Horror of horrors, my rpm is 35 at best.
As I stated above that I did a lot of touring in my thirties, I am not a racer, and have no wish to be. A low rpm would go with touring, but - even at 72 years of age - 35 rpm is quite shockingly low.
Question: Am I clinically dead, or is my computer wrong?

That is quite a low Cadence. But don’t worry about it too much. High cadences are mostly about fuel use / oxygen efficiency, and without suitable power to make it work properly, a relatively high Cadence ( say 90 rpms for argument’s sake) is pointless, as you’ll end up expending the energy to get your legs whizzing round, but you won’t get the benefits of lower oxygen demand / lower glycogen depletion rates. The key to it, is to make sure that the fast twitch muscle fibres are dominant, and contracting forcefully enough, and with suitable frequency to cause the body to engage the desirable fuelling mode. It takes a while to train yourself to be pedalling at a suitable Cadence and power to ensure this happens, if you’re not racing, or doing long endurance rides, it’s really not that important.

[sukuinage]

Easy way to see if your readings are wrong: 35 rpm is not far off 2 seconds for each rotation of the pedal or 1 second for each time you push one foot down. Looking at a ticking clock will give an idea.
35 rpm is pretty slow but, as the previous post says, you need to see know what you are doing the exercise for: cardio, strength etc. I go for "Any exercise is good"

[cotswolds]

35 at best is slow, but as other have said, it doesn't matter if you're achieving what you want.

If you doubt the computer, it's easy enough to check with a kitchen timer, just count your pedal strokes for a minute.
It's possible the sensor is missing some strokes, which may make a nonsense of other figures.

[davidmcarthur32]

Thanks to Marcus, Sukuinage, and Cotswolds.
When I discovered my rpm, I thought back to two stand out incidents in years gone by, 1/ Deepest Cornwall with a fully ladened bike (two panniers on front wheel and two on back, and a one man tent etc). Hells bells, a young female with an equally heavilly ladened bike flew past me - after saying hello of course. 2/ Years later, on an exercise ride I was out of my seat and pushing as hard as I could on level to falling ground. A seated guy breezed past me, and within seconds was out of sight. I guess I am not - and never have been - an athlete despite having a resting heart rate of around 50/52.
It is all about cardio/vascular systems I think, and lung capacity (and perhaps twitching muscles), whatever ........
Reference counting pedal strokes for a minute, I have done that and my rpm was as miserable as computer stated. I still love bikes, and ever will.

[simonhill]

We are still talking about an excercise bike I assume. Is it a cheap one? I've tried sitting on ones like that in charity shops and often found them very difficult to pedal. I would struggle with a higher cadence (rpm).

There should be some sort of damper that you can undo to make pedalling easier.

Ideally, can you get hold of a real bike to pedal in the real world. Then you can do a bit of counting as you pedal along. If not, just sitting in a chair mimicking pedalling should give you an idea of how fast (or slow) your comfortable rate is. Mine is about 60 to 70, why rush.

[davidmcarthur32]

To Simonhill, Good exercise bike with good reviews and recommendations - JTX Cyclo 6. Nothing wrong with the bike, I accept that I am a low key cyclist. Mark Cavendish can sleep easy in his bed.
After nine months of using the bike (every day) and reaching a peak of 55 minutes each day, I have now concluded that thirty to thirty five minutes each day at a higher tempo is best

[simonineaston]

D'you know what - and I mean no offence to the OP and to keen commentators - but I've never given cadence a second thought! I've begun to cycle again after a long-ish break, and I must be pretty unfit in big scheme of things - sedentary job, too much food & drink etc.. Lockdown has given me chance to start to get out more and I'm so enjoying short rides - 10-15 miles at the mo', but as for cadence - what's all that about? Should I be taking more notice? Am I missing out on something important?

[simonhill]

Simon, I only check my cadence when a bit bored. Set speedo (computer) to time and count for a minute. Surprising how often I get distracted before I reach 60 seconds.

OP, if you are happy, then fair enough. Out of interest have you ever adjusted the machine's "infinity resistance" , ie how hard it is to pedal?

[Jdsk]

... but as for cadence - what's all that about? Should I be taking more notice? Am I missing out on something important?

Possibly. Doing what feels natural isn't generally a bad plan. But for many cyclists it would be better to use less force and higher cadence. And that can take some time to learn.

If I could find my copy of Bicycling Science I'd check if that's got a good explanation!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bicycling-Science-Press-Gordon-Wilson/dp/0262538407

Edited: Found it. It's only got an introductory level approach to this specific issue. Still obligatory reading of course.

Jonathan

[simonineaston]

At over thirty of the chancellor's excellent drinking vouchers, I'll give that a misss, ta - but thank-you for drawing it to my attention

[ossie]

Just don't do your knees in with too much resistance. If you can 'spin' a bit faster it might be easier on the joints. (Apologies if mentioned already)

[foxyrider]

D'you know what - and I mean no offence to the OP and to keen commentators - but I've never given cadence a second thought! I've begun to cycle again after a long-ish break, and I must be pretty unfit in big scheme of things - sedentary job, too much food & drink etc.. Lockdown has given me chance to start to get out more and I'm so enjoying short rides - 10-15 miles at the mo', but as for cadence - what's all that about? Should I be taking more notice? Am I missing out on something important?

You aren't alone, whilst i'm reasonably fit and have been known to civer long distances and yep. even compete, apart from a brief experiment in 1989/90, i've always ridden on gut feeling, no power meter, no cadence and the hrm is only of vague interest after a ride My comfortable cadence is @ 90rpm, i had the 52x12 wanging round at that earlier today quite comfortably, purring along nicely at @ 40kph, the same rpm a couple of sprockets lower was comfortable for 25kph into the wind.

We are all different, all the numbers we can record and ride to might be useful at elite level racing but for us mere mortals, riding at a pace/cadence which we are comfortable with is all that counts

[simonineaston]

Hmmm, interesting. I've never counted myself as an athlete, 'specially now... ! however, I did, more often than not, find myself in the first three of the school cross-country runs without even really trying, by virtue of a combination of low weight, stringy muscles and stamina. If I ever did any sport, it was rock-climbing. I guess the light weight & stamina carried my through my entire cycling life, when I've just unconsciously slipped into using very low power and not minding how long it took to get there. "There" would have been 70 miles a day, back when I did most of my cycle touring, which has now slipped to 15 miles, on a bare cycle...