Sports Calculator
Cycling Cadence Calculator
Calculate your pedalling cadence in revolutions per minute, either from your speed, gearing and wheel size, or directly from a counted number of pedal strokes. Returns gear inches, development in metres per revolution, and the training zone your cadence falls into.
Cycling Cadence Calculator
Pedal RPM from speed and gearing, or from a revolution count
Front
Rear sprocket
Modern road standard
Gearing: 87.7 gear inches (3.33:1 ratio)
Results
Enter your gearing or revolution count, then click Calculate Cadence
Understanding Cadence and Gearing
Cadence is how fast you turn the pedals, measured in revolutions per minute. It is determined entirely by two things: how fast you are travelling, and how far one pedal revolution carries you. That second figure comes from your gearing and wheel size combined.
The bridge between them is gear inches — your gearing expressed as the diameter of an equivalent direct-drive wheel. Multiply gear inches by π and you get the actual distance rolled per pedal stroke. At the same speed, a taller gear means fewer, harder pedal strokes; a lower gear means more, easier ones.
Cadence Formulas
Two routes to the same figure, depending on what you know:
1. Gear Inches
Your gearing expressed as an equivalent wheel diameter:
2. Distance per Pedal Revolution
Gear inches is a diameter, so π converts it into the distance actually rolled:
3. Cadence from Speed and Gearing
The constant 1056 is inches travelled per minute at 1 mph (63,360 ÷ 60):
4. Cadence from a Revolution Count
If you counted pedal strokes directly, no gearing information is needed:
What Cadence Tells You
Cadence is the lever that determines whether a given speed feels like a muscular or a cardiovascular effort:
- Cadence Trades Force for Heart Rate: Power is cadence multiplied by pedal force, so the same output can come from spinning fast and light or slow and heavy. Higher cadence spares the leg muscles at the cost of a higher heart rate — which is why it suits long rides.
- Gearing Is the Only Lever at Fixed Speed: If you want to spin faster at the same speed, you must change gear. Dropping from a 50 to a 34 chainring raises cadence by roughly 45% for the same speed and cog.
- Grinding Loads the Knees: Sustained pedalling below about 60 RPM means high force on every stroke, concentrating stress on the knee joint. If you find yourself grinding uphill, a wider-range cassette is usually the answer rather than pushing through.
Cadence Training Zones
Typical RPM ranges and what each is used for:
| Zone | RPM | Typical Use |
|---|---|---|
| Grinding | Under 60 | High force, strength work; hard on the knees |
| Recovery | 60 – 75 | Warm-ups, cool-downs, easy spinning |
| Endurance | 75 – 90 | Comfortable all-day riding |
| Tempo | 90 – 100 | The efficient range for most trained riders |
| Fast Spin | 100 – 120 | Racing, criteriums, pedalling smoothness drills |
| Sprint | 120+ | Short maximal bursts, track efforts |
Gear Inches and Cadence at 25 km/h
Common road gearing on a 700c × 25mm wheel (26.3"), with the cadence each produces at 25 km/h:
| Gear | Ratio | Gear Inches | m / rev | RPM @ 25 km/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34 × 28 (climbing) | 1.21 | 31.9 | 2.55 | 163.5 |
| 34 × 21 | 1.62 | 42.6 | 3.40 | 122.6 |
| 34 × 15 | 2.27 | 59.6 | 4.76 | 87.6 |
| 50 × 21 | 2.38 | 62.6 | 5.00 | 83.4 |
| 50 × 15 | 3.33 | 87.7 | 7.00 | 59.6 |
| 53 × 11 (sprint) | 4.82 | 126.7 | 10.11 | 41.2 |
Benefits of Using the Cycling Cadence Calculator
Example Calculations
Here are three scenarios worked out step-by-step:
Example Scenario 1 — From Speed & Gears
Speed: 25 km/h · Chainring: 50 · Cog: 15 · Wheel: 700c × 25mm (26.3").
Gear ratio = 50 ÷ 15 = 3.3333
Gear inches = 3.3333 × 26.3" = 87.67 gear inches
Distance per pedal revolution = 87.67 × π = 275.41 in = 6.995 m
Speed: 25 km/h ÷ 1.609344 = 15.5343 mph
Travel rate = 15.5343 × 1056 = 16,404.2 inches per minute
Cadence = 16,404.2 ÷ 275.41 = 59.6 RPM
Result: 59.6 RPM — a grinding cadence in a tall gear
Example Scenario 2 — From Revolutions
Pedal revolutions: 450 · Time: 5 minutes.
Formula: Cadence = Total Revolutions ÷ Time (minutes)
Cadence = 450 ÷ 5 = 90 RPM
No gearing information is needed for this method
Result: 90 RPM — the tempo zone favoured by trained cyclists
Example Scenario 3 — Climbing Gear
Speed: 12 km/h · Chainring: 34 · Cog: 28 · Wheel: 700c × 25mm.
Gear ratio = 34 ÷ 28 = 1.2143
Gear inches = 1.2143 × 26.3" = 31.94 gear inches
Distance per pedal revolution = 31.94 × π = 100.33 in = 2.548 m
Speed: 12 km/h = 7.4565 mph → 7,874.0 inches per minute
Cadence = 7,874.0 ÷ 100.33 = 78.5 RPM
Result: 78.5 RPM — a sustainable endurance cadence for climbing
Formula Accuracy Note
A common version of this formula circulating online divides by wheel diameter in addition to using gear inches — but gear inches already contains the wheel diameter, so doing that counts it twice and produces cadences roughly 26 times too small. The correct denominator is gear inches multiplied by π, which converts the equivalent wheel diameter into the distance actually rolled per pedal stroke. This calculator uses the corrected form, verified against the standard benchmark that a 53/11 gear on 700c wheels at 100 RPM produces about 60 km/h.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do you calculate cycling cadence?
- Work out how far one pedal revolution takes you, then divide your travel rate by it. Gear inches = (chainring ÷ cog) × wheel diameter, and multiplying gear inches by π gives the distance rolled per pedal turn. Cadence = (speed in mph × 1056) ÷ (gear inches × π).
- What are gear inches?
- Gear inches express your gearing as the diameter of an equivalent direct-drive wheel. A 50-tooth chainring with a 15-tooth cog on a 26.3-inch wheel gives (50 ÷ 15) × 26.3 = 87.7 gear inches. Higher numbers mean a taller gear that travels further per pedal stroke.
- Why does the formula multiply gear inches by π?
- Gear inches describe a diameter, but what matters is the distance the wheel rolls in one turn — its circumference. Multiplying the diameter by π converts it, so an 87.7 gear-inch setup rolls 275 inches, or about 7 metres, per pedal revolution.
- What is a good cycling cadence?
- Most trained cyclists settle between 80 and 100 RPM, with 90 often cited as the efficient middle. Recreational riders frequently pedal slower, around 60 to 75. There is no universally optimal figure — it depends on your muscle composition, fitness and the terrain.
- How do I count cadence without a sensor?
- Count how many times one knee rises over 30 seconds and double it, which gives revolutions per minute directly. Counting over a full minute is more accurate because a miscount of one or two strokes matters less across a longer window.
- Is a higher cadence better?
- Not automatically. Spinning faster shifts the load from your muscles to your cardiovascular system, which helps on long rides and delays muscular fatigue, but it raises heart rate and oxygen cost. Most riders are most efficient somewhere in the 80 to 100 range.
- How does changing gear affect cadence?
- At a constant speed, a smaller chainring or a larger cog raises cadence, and the reverse lowers it. Moving one tooth on the cassette typically changes cadence by a few RPM, while a chainring change from 50 to 34 raises it by roughly 45%.
- What wheel diameter should I enter?
- Use the effective diameter including the inflated tyre, not the rim size. A 700c rim with a 25mm tyre measures about 26.3 inches, and a 29-inch mountain bike wheel about 29. The presets cover common setups, or you can measure across your own wheel.
- Why do I pedal slower when climbing?
- Gradient raises the force needed at the pedals, and most riders naturally shift toward a lower cadence and higher force. Fitting a wider-range cassette lets you keep a comfortable cadence uphill instead of grinding, which is easier on the knees.
- Does cadence affect power output?
- Power is cadence multiplied by pedal torque, so the same power can be produced by spinning fast with light force or slowly with heavy force. Which is more efficient varies by rider, but very low cadences concentrate load on the knees while very high ones waste energy on leg movement itself.