Health benefits are best when......

[limey]

What is the best thing to do to get the best, for health benefits, of cycling?......big gear v's smaller gear @ your age?

For a given speed, is it better to pedal slower in a bigger gear (thereby saving wear and tear on the knee joints) v's higher rpm in a lower gear (better for cardio vascular and reducing pain in the knee joints) as you get older?

IMHO twiddling is better but luckily my legs are still supple even if my back has given up the ghost!......I'm 60 with lower back arthritis...

When I was racing it was 'dI-rigeur' for a 52 + 42 front end plus whatever you could get at the back.......and in those days a 5 speed block was normal and if you had a 6 speed block you were really a 'cutting edge' dude!.....so your spread of gears was limited.

For me, nowadays, it's great to see Fromie twiddling his way to the top.....but when I was a kid you just 'had to bite the handlebars' and grunge it up that hill.....to have little gears made you a sissy!

[al_yrpal]

Hasn't everyone got their perfect Cadence? Overstressing your joints in a high gear on hills causes wear (arthritis) and thats something to avoid when you age, it can be very painful.

Al

[mjr]

For a given speed, is it better to pedal slower in a bigger gear (thereby saving wear and tear on the knee joints) v's higher rpm in a lower gear (better for cardio vascular and reducing pain in the knee joints) as you get older?

IMHO twiddling is better but luckily my legs are still supple even if my back has given up the ghost!......I'm 60 with lower back arthritis...

I agree with you, not that I always follow my own advice

When I was racing it was 'dI-rigeur' for a 52 + 42 front end plus whatever you could get at the back.......and in those days a 5 speed block was normal and if you had a 6 speed block you were really a 'cutting edge' dude!.....so your spread of gears was limited.

I think it was the 52-42 which was limiting the spread than the 5 or 6 speed blocks. Rears were usually 14-28 but I'm sure 14-34 was available and I think 12 or 13 as the smallest may have been too - now road bikes often still don't have any bigger rear teeth (MTBs do) but prefer to have a few smaller sprockets and smaller steps. With a 1970s 52-36 front, bottom gear would have been around 36 inches - on a certain modern road bike it's 33 inches. Most of the increased range seems to have been put at the top end: 103 inches on the old but 121 on the new.

[scoot]

Hi,

I'd say both spinning and grunting are good as long as you don't overdo either. It also depends on what you want from your exercise. A good spin will help burn calories and not stress muscles but if you want huge thighs you have to push smaller gears. Someone with medical knowledge may well disagree

When I was young I had 3 speeds or a fixed gear and mostly got anywhere I wanted. Now I'm in my sixties I am probably no slower (I never was fast) but more due to the equipment, the range of gears and my increasing stubbornness rather than fitness. I do like a challenge

When faced with a big hill I vary from spinning until I run out of breath and then up a gear or two stood on the pedals until the lactic acid burns then spin again. repeat until hill done.

We are all different and handle these things to how best suits us.

Cheers,

Paul