Bouncing on the saddle and overspinning at high cadence

[beetle]

Thanks everyone for your replies and advice which seems to follow a common thread. It's good to hear that if I'm persistent I should improve. I think I will get my fit checked at my next service, I'm pretty sure it's right as the LBS did it just 4 months ago but no harm in getting it looked at just in case.

[equus123]

3 things to add outside of what everybody has said about saddle height:

1) if you're new than you probably haven't developed high cadence pedalling techinque yet. it takes time and time is the only way to build it! practice practice practice. before you know it your avg cadence will increase from week to week on your rides.

2) one thing that works for me to smooth out my pedalling at higher cadence is to focus on keeping my heels down a little bit from wherever they were. it's a natural tendency to pedal "toe down" as your cadence increases. if i focus in keeping my heels down so my feet are flatter (note: by flatter i mean relative to the "toe down" position, not actually level) than what my feet do automatically, it's much more smooth and i actually have a higher power output via my powertap.

3) what also works for me in keeping a smooth rhythm if i'm riding tempo or doing an interval, i focus on the top half of the pedal stroke. i think it's Lemond(?) that says to think about scraping something off of the bottom of your shoe and pull your foot back at the bottom of the pedal stroke. for me it's the opposite that works better. i focus on pulling across the top as if i could pull my foot directly from the 9 o'clock to the 3 o'clock position. it makes more sense to think of it this way anyway because when people do one-legged drills - where's the dead spot? at the top! so why not focus on pulling your leg/foot across the top and this easily eliminates that problem and gives you a fluid pedal stroke.

[sgtiger]

I don't know if this will help, but in a martial arts class I took many, many years ago, we would practice kicks very slowly so that we could concentrate on proper form before beginning to put power into the kick. This lets us develop the corresponding muscles and form muscle memory. Our instructor insisted we learn proper technique from the get go since it's a lot harder to try to unlearn bad habits that form from not learning it in the first place.

Keeping this in mind I did a training ride where I was pedaling at a low rpm because like you I was having similar issues of my pedal stoke not feeling even and my form falling apart at higher cadences (and I knew it wasn't fit issues). I did okay at 72 rpm, but any faster and I felt bouncy. I pedaled at a slow enough cadence(~55rpm for me) where I could pay attention to my form and how much pressure I was applying throughout the pedal stroke. I practiced this for a while 'til I felt confident that I had the form down. I really feel this has helped me greatly. I've been able to spin at a higher and higher cadence since without really thinking about it. On my last ride I averaged at 82rpm (max 97) without feeling like I was over spinning. Even DH, who is a seasoned cyclist, commented that my form looked very good. So IMHO it has worked for me.

I wanted to add, as others have mentioned, make sure it isn't a fit issue first. It's worth the expense of having a professional fit done.

Good luck and have fun!

~sg

[beetle]

so for my practice and drills should I stay in the gear/cadence that I'm overspinning/bouncing and try to smooth it out OR should I gear up to build up my muscle strength and where the pedalling feeling smoother and gear down as my pedalling improves

[Kimmyt]

I've noticed the correlation between heels-down (correct) pedalling technique and stability in the saddle at higher rpms.

I have no idea to figure out how fast I'm spinning (do comps tell you that?) but know when i'm going 'fast' versus spinning 'slow'. This morning I noticed the bouncing thing on my commute. It was cold, and I wanted to go fast. When I shifted into another gear though, it felt too much like mashing. So I dropped my heels a bit, particularly during the upstroke, and immediately noticed a difference. I'll have to work on doing this technique naturally, but at least I've had a bit of a lightbulb!

K.

[withm]

I have no idea to figure out how fast I'm spinning (do comps tell you that?) but know when i'm going 'fast' versus spinning 'slow'. This morning I noticed the bouncing thing on my commute. It was cold, and I wanted to go fast. When I shifted into another gear though, it felt too much like mashing. So I dropped my heels a bit, particularly during the upstroke, and immediately noticed a difference. I'll have to work on doing this technique naturally, but at least I've had a bit of a lightbulb!

K.

I made a little Excel cheat sheet that I taped to my stem. It looks like this but with black borders around each. I set my computer to elapsed time mode, so that it shows me a readout in seconds. I start counting the pedal revolutions when the seconds are on "1" and count for 10 seconds, or when the readout is at 10 seconds. When I am working on cadence, I will do this several times just to get the feel for whatever cadence I am running, then periodically check to see that I'm still running what I think I'm running. Of course you need to be in a place where you can ride for 10 seconds without worrrying about stops, traffic, pedestrians, etc. You don't want to be glued to the computer readout - just glance back and check it. And if you get distracted, just start again when conditions are right.

Here's what it looks like. But the actual table has lines and borders for easy reading.and I can't seem to duplicate that here.

12 72
13 78
14 84
15 90
16 96

And sure, I could just do the math in my head, but I found that having the thing taped to the stem reminds me to work on cadence periodically. Without the reminder, I'd probably never think to check it. My next computer will do this for me.

Martha

[equus123]

I made a little Excel cheat sheet that I taped to my stem. It looks like this but with black borders around each. I set my computer to elapsed time mode, so that it shows me a readout in seconds. I start counting the pedal revolutions when the seconds are on "1" and count for 10 seconds, or when the readout is at 10 seconds. When I am working on cadence, I will do this several times just to get the feel for whatever cadence I am running, then periodically check to see that I'm still running what I think I'm running. Of course you need to be in a place where you can ride for 10 seconds without worrrying about stops, traffic, pedestrians, etc. You don't want to be glued to the computer readout - just glance back and check it. And if you get distracted, just start again when conditions are right.

Here's what it looks like. But the actual table has lines and borders for easy reading.and I can't seem to duplicate that here.

12 72
13 78
14 84
15 90
16 96

And sure, I could just do the math in my head, but I found that having the thing taped to the stem reminds me to work on cadence periodically. Without the reminder, I'd probably never think to check it. My next computer will do this for me.

Martha

ahhh very clever

[equus123]

so for my practice and drills should I stay in the gear/cadence that I'm overspinning/bouncing and try to smooth it out OR should I gear up to build up my muscle strength and where the pedalling feeling smoother and gear down as my pedalling improves

don't get too technical with it. do whatever you want! (remember: this is supposed to be fun ) in the end i don't think it matters much because either way - you're improving your efficiency at pedalling at higher cadences.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

so for my practice and drills should I stay in the gear/cadence that I'm overspinning/bouncing and try to smooth it out OR should I gear up to build up my muscle strength and where the pedalling feeling smoother and gear down as my pedalling improves

I did the latter because it just seemed more natural. I think you naturally tend to gain cadence speed as you ride more.