Gearing Differences/Ratios?

[Bethany1]

I went to a bike trail and did 20 miles to get used to how the gears work on my Fargo and to get a better idea of cadence. I have a cadence sensor coming in on Thursday for the Fargo.

I figured a flat trail would give me a better idea than going up/down crappy 1+ mile hills like I've done all summer on my Madone so I headed to Lincoln. I have a relatively good idea of what 80-90 cadence feels like as I've worked on cadence with my trainer and over the summer on the flat areas of the road. It's an odd feeling to spin and feel like you aren't going anywhere.

I worked through the gears, found some comfortable ones and about 8 miles in when it hit me how cadence works and how you can rest your legs while still riding. You can ride at a high gear at 15mph but you are still "mashing" even if it doesn't feel like it. Or you can ride at 15mph in a low gear spinning away once your brain/legs/gears coordinate the movements.

My brain still wants to mash gears. You feel like you get there faster even if it wipes you out. Mashing up hills seemed to get me up faster which probably explains why I could only do about a 6 miles a day over the summer.

[jlnc]

I get the concept of spinning/mashing, but like you Bethany, I would prefer to mash. The only time I really feel comfortable spinning is going up hill.
I put a cadence sensor on my new road bike and I seem to be comfortable right around 80 rpm. Is this considered mashing? I see lots of articles, etc that say you should be around 90, but that feels so ...not sure of the right word..."unproductive" maybe? to me.

[laura*]

I put a cadence sensor on my new road bike and I seem to be comfortable right around 80 rpm. Is this considered mashing? I see lots of articles, etc that say you should be around 90, but that feels so ...not sure of the right word..."unproductive" maybe? to me.

Mashing is much lower, say 40 rpm. Thus 80 rpm is not mashing.

It can take a while to adapt to spinning fast. You have to train lots of muscles to work in a very choreographed way.

[jlnc]

Well, that's good to know! I'm not doing as bad as I thought then