What if you can't spin?

GG2G is winding people up, Object, as you can quite clearly see.

I know. I just like ranting and work is pissing me off. Can you say displacement thearapy?

Nimhbus, I have never wound people up. My sense of these things is as an american's would be, because I spent all of my teens there.

I don't think that if I want to do things in a certain way, with or against advice is a wind up to anyone. I take or leave what people say. I'm sure you do the same. I'm sure everybody here does the same.

I don't "troll", or any of that sh*t. Because I just haven't got the time or the inclination.

Anyway, was anybody's time really wasted? At the end we got a really excellent reply to why spinning can be done (by courant). And that can now be included in any answer to similar questions in the future.

Is that the end of it now?

If you say something controversial I am sure you can start it up again, this is the internet, where arguments never die.

If you say something controversial I am sure you can start it up again, this is the internet, where argument never die.

Yes they do.

Tommy, were you at easties yesterday, or you heading west tonight?

Ttid

I can't spin (never could, never will).

This thread's length seems to suggest otherwise... ;-)

i ride 48/15, as im currently living in the country as commute 12 mile each way (24 mile round trip) about 4 times a week, i think its a perfect gear ration as i can keep ME RITT'UM as i cruise past expensive dolled up geared roadies or atleast keep up with them.

i ride 48/15, as im currently living in the country as commute 12 mile each way (24 mile round trip) about 4 times a week, i think its a perfect gear ration as i can keep ME RITT'UM as i cruise past expensive dolled up geared roadies or atleast keep up with them.

Hater... ;-)

naturally......

Tommy, were you at easties yesterday, or you heading west tonight?

Not at east drinks last night, I thought I lost my wallet and was running around trying to find it. I doubt I'll be heading off to west drinks tonight. Late start today means late finish I am afraid. Plus I live in the most anti social location so can't be bothered with west side.

Hopefully around next week at some drinks or other.:)

I live in the most anti social location so can't be bothered with west side.

Outed...

One more thing while I think about it:

BringMeMyFix, I wish I could spin, then I could get into the anaerobic workload that burns fat

That's not partcularly accurate either... To burn fat, you need to do work. Work is power (independent of cadence) multiplied by time. If you're working anaerobically, yes you're putting down more power, all other things being equal. However this ignores the time side of the equation in two ways. Chances are you haven't got much anaerobic endurance because this requires quite a lot of training and base aerobic fitness to develop (and actually is generally done at lower cadence - think hill sessions etc.). So, if you try to train anaerobically, you're most likely to blow-up way too soon and end up cutting your session short, both in terms of time and power output. Net result is that you won't have done as much work as trying to keep things nicely aerobic and steady for a longer period of time. The secondary effect is that a hard anaerobic session is likely to cane your legs for a day or two, leaving you unable to put much work in on those days; if you'd have kept things easy, you could basically put decent training miles every day and the cummulative effect is massive.

On the whole personal freedom debate, I'm absolutely behind people making whatever decisions they like in the face of peer pressure or received wisdom - I'm not particularly conventional myself, either! However, it's always useful to know the facts when making or revaluating decision :-)

Courant

Damn. Impressive. Not joking either.

Polite too.

If I didn't have to get up some of the hilliest parts of London ( Highgate Hill ) on my daily commute and lived out East, for example, where its pretty flat coming in, I would go up from my 48x18 to 48x17 or something. Sometimes I am definitely spinning too fast on the flat roads. But I like to get up the hills quickly too and I think having a lower gear has definitely improved my cvo2 fitness levels very much.

GrandeAnse,

Sorry, got to this thread a bit late but here are some comments, FWIW.

I'm a roadie, and my cadence "comfort zone" is 95-100rpm, where I can sit quite happily for a number of hours. Only had my fixed for a couple of weeks, but 48/18 feels absolutely spot on for me for everything from daily commuting to 60+mile rides - 95rpm equate to ~20mph. I really can't imagine anyone would want anything bigger for regular riding, unless they were nailing it on a short commute, or TT or something. (I also have 48/16 which I'm using on fast short training rides).

Anyway, spinning is not limited by lung function. Absolutely no way. (I also have a roadie friend with asthma and spinning is not a problem for him). However, it does place more stress on your your cardiovascular system, instead of your legs, that's why it's favoured by endurance cyclists and people with dodgy knees! It's interesting that you're finding cardiovascular fitness a limiter when you spin and you say you have strong legs. And you're right in saying that this will stop you going fast and mashing is going to knack your knees, it's definitely something to work on improving. Can I suggest some other points?

First, the obvious one, is that you should improve your cardiovascular fitness. You probably know how to do this already, but long, low intensity rides built up gradually is the way to go.

Second, another obvious one, is that if you want to spin, you have to train you neuromuscular system to spin, it doesn't just happen - the muscles have to learn how to fire together with the correct timing, at the required speed. If you lack fitness, then this will mean you going really slow so you can keep your heart rate under check in order to maintain a higher cadence for long enough for your body to adapt. I can quite imagine that, in your current state, spinning is burning a lot of energy and is very inefficient (hence the cardio vascular load) because your muscles are wasting a lot of effort by not working together well. You will probably find that, as your neuromuscular system adapts, this wasted effort will diminish and you'll magically appear fitter, aside from any improvements in cardio-vascular fitness or strength.

Third, relating to the last point, is your muscle strength. Turning a pedal a full revolution is a complex movement that recruits quite a range of muscles, large and small, if you're going to do it smoothly (the key to high cadence pedalling), not just your prime movers. I'm willing to bet that you have some large imbalances going on: despite strength in, say, the quads, it could very well be that your hip flexors/gluteals are quite underdeveloped. This is really common, especially if you have bad posture or are overweight. As a result, you don't actually have the musculature to pull off high cadence cycling. You body "fakes" pedaling smoothly at low cadence by relying on the prime movers to provide the push/pull over a fraction of the full rotation, and then the pedal "carries" your leg over the rest. This isn't possible at high cadence, the lack of full muscle recruitment becomes sharply apparent. The solution: more high cadence pedalling, again done in such a way that you can sustain it from a cardio-vascular perpective for sufficient time. Another complementary training method: pilates, which will train a lot of those smaller muscles and iron out imbalances.

Everyone can spin at 100rpm, it's just training. If you're sick of being overtaken, do something about it ;-)

Hope this helps!

Courant

racist

I can't create a new thread for this, but I just felt good today. Because in the short time I've been back in the saddle, my fitness is beginning to improve. My commute from Lillie Road to Old Street was at first, 45 minutes, and after a month, it was 35. This morning, without pushing myself, it was 29 minutes. I haven't gone for the 15 tooth cog yet; I'm going to try working up to a slightly better fitness first.

I ride a bicycle.

I become the bike.

like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAOHhV1EFe4

No, I mean I suit it.

My bike wants it, sir.