Originally Posted by
gerv
I'm currently hanging out in the hilly city of
St John's NL as opposed to the very bike-friendly terrain of Des Moines.
How do you hilly city folks do it? Even though I am a reasonably fit 59 year old, I huff and puff up the hills. Some of them are hitting over 10% grade and I tend to walk those. Luckily I have a mtb here that is geared pretty low...but even then.
Despite that, I see a lot of cyclists tackling hills w/o electric assist... like they are going on flats.
Will I ever get used to these hills?
Hills are pretty easy once you reconcile yourself to the fact that they're inevitable, and, in Seattle, they are. I have mountain bike gears on my touring/commuting bike (LHT), and I'm not ashamed to to use the small chain ring and take it kind of easy on the uphill half of my daily rides. In the beginning, I charged up the hills as fast as I could in high gear, but it didn't take me very long to figure out that going a little easier is almost as fast, and a lot kinder to the knees and IT band. Also, it helps to remember that, in city traffic, it doesn't matter what you do personally; traffic, intersections and terrain are going to more or less ensure that your average speed is always about 10-15 mph, so you may as well relax and enjoy yourself....