I ride a fixed in the winter. Going DOWN HILL will improve your leg speed! It lets you learn to relax any tension that could make you bounce. Remember, you can not stop peddling on a fixed, its not like riding your geared bike and not shifting. I used to max out at 120rpm now its more like 145plus. That said, I think you can improve your cadance using any or all of the above suggestions. Good luck

If I could ride like Lance by upping my cadance, then I wouldn't complain (I would, however tried to have won some of the other major european stage races, got a new doctor, stayed living in France, allowed for weekly drugs testing and spoken out against doping everytime it reared its head in the sport)

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions here and give you an update.

I am trying this method because it will give me something else to think about on an essentially boring daily ride. I also needed a new computer mount for my MTB (it was wireless and weighed a lot more than a wired version - so had to go. My MTB is the only WWed bike I own. The road bike is a workhorse) and thought I would kill two birds with one stone.

I don't have rollers. I do have a turbo trainer, with a design that attaches to the front fork with the wheel removed with a QR and the bike's BB sits in a cradle. I ride very smoothly when using it, as the contact roller is small and if you drive hard the tyre contacts the static parts each side of the roller itself. This in turn causes the tyre to melt and burn and stink.

At the moment I have decided that with a candance of 80 - 100 anyway, I would concentrate at riding a set cadance of 90 for my 2 x 16km rides to and from work. If my cadence hits 95 I shift to a bigger gear and bring it back down to 90, if it falls to 85 I do the same the other way. I will increase the target by 5 rpm (next week 95, the following 100) until I find it very difficult. So far the feeling is good. I am riding slightly larger gears than usual and speed is marginally up. Pedalling in circles is promoted by this method, because it is the quickest way to make small changes in the cadance as you ride. What do you think?

Last time I compared a mtb 26" with slicks 1" with a road bike 700c with road tyres 23mm, the difference was approx 8%.

Could can't directly translate road bike cadence with mtb cadence both on the road.

53 x 11 with 700c tyres differs greatly to 44 x 11 with 26 x 1 tyres

Hope you follow. If not I can explain in more detail.

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"Ride it like you've just stolen it!"

Irrespective of whether you are more suited to mashing or spinning, learning to spin efficiently makes you a better rider. It helps to switch over from one cadence to another when your "grunt" muscles get fatigued for example, and few will deny the benefits of spinning up a climb. Yes a fixed wheel helps, because if you don't get it up, you get dropped. Rollers are great - just pedal "round the clock" instead of "squares". A trainer is not the same - difficult to fall off, but the rollers demand balance and concentration.

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GO HARD OR GO HOME