The 20 MPH Gear

I've been working hard on getting a lot of time on the saddle this season, biking about 50 - 60 miles a week on average. If you've read my blog before (I know, it's been a long time), you may have read about my cycling a bit. Due to a running sprain earlier this year (Tendonitis, ouch!), 34 or 35 miles in one ride is about all my left foot can handle. Needless to say, century rides are pretty much out for me this year.

This post has a point so bear (bare?) with me. Ahem!

So I've been slowly pushing my cycling speed faster and faster, based on a few goals. One is that I'd like to get my miles up to 70+ per week, but that requires time. The other goal, based on the premise of time, is to get my cruising speed up. In my 3rd season of riding, I'm getting close to a cruising speed (on level smooth ground) of about 20 mph. Not bad for an old guy now into his 40's, who could barely ride 8 miles at 15mph in his first couple of "road biking" adventures 3 years ago. Including falling over a couple of times while clipped into my pedals (story for another day).

The thing that has become abundantly clear to me is that there is a certain gear I MUST be in to get anywhere close to cruising at 20 mph. One sprocket higher and I can maybe max out at 17 mph. The sprockets on the rear wheel of a bike are counter-intuitive, small gears require more work and make you go faster; large gears require less work to pedal, but your speed is limited. If you've EVER ridden a bike up a steep hill, you know what I mean: shift all the way up to a higher sprocket until you can pedal up the hill.

Then there's cadence. Cadence is the revolutions per minute you pedal to get your bike to go forward. If you're at a cadence of 100 (rpms) in one sprocket, you'll go one speed. 100 cadence on a different sprocket, a different speed. Make sense?

So no matter how hard I try in this one certain gear, I CAN NOT get my cadence (generally between 80 - 90) high enough to reach 20mph. I've tried, believe me. It's amazing too that just shifting that one gear down, and 20 can be reached. Of course, I can totally feel it in my quads and glutes in that lower (smaller) gear, but that's the whole point of a workout, right? I can tell you too that it makes a difference in how many calories you burn. a) Cruising at 16 mph for an hour burns about 750 calories; at 20 mph, almost 1100 calories. b) you ride for less time. c) cruising along at 20 is WAAYYY more fun than 16 mph.

It's all about efficiency.

The best thing about my bike is that the gear shifter manufacturer has a molding line that lines up perfectly with my gear indicator when in that gear, reminding me where I need to be. It's like they were trying to tell me something.

What does this have to do with anything? After a recent ride, it got me thinking. So we're all stuck on the higher sprocket, thinking that some how some way we can stay in the easier gear and just pedal our little hearts out to reach the speed we're looking for. We want to go 20 mph, using the wrong gear and cheating ourselves. But shifting to that lower sprocket and you immediately feel it in your muscles. It's not comfortable, for sure. It's a lot of work at first, frankly. You feel it in your legs, in your diaphragm, and you want to nap after your ride (I do anyway). And when it does become comfortable in that gear, you should probably shift again...

So where is the 20 mph gear you should be using? Are you using it? Or are you pedaling like crazy never seeing more than 17?