Originally Posted by
Grambo
Check the link below from Proof Theory and you will see the climbs at significant grades are SHORT (for the most part less than 1/2 mile .... not prolonged).
I was talking about the other person, of course.
As a reminder, you'd said that "Climbing 7 - 10 % grades for any kind of distance / mileage / time in a 42 x 15 setup would be extremely difficult even for a professional rider" which is not hard to contradict if you think about it. As Coluber42 pointed out, it's sustainable for long-ish periods of time if you're working below a certain threshold.
It terms of my palmares on fixed-gear climbing I do not have any but I have completed the Mt Washington Hill Climb (rated the most difficult hill climb race in the country) 3 times on a geared bike in the 90's. Two finishes were in the mid 1:40s and one in the high 1:30s. Not exactly times to brag about but all three times I did it on a 25lb + mountain bike with an old style suspension fork with no lock out (did not have the money at the time to change out the crank, RD and cassette on my Cannondale that would have been required to get the bike geared low enough). I was also an avid weight lifter at the time and weighed in the high 180s (not exactly a stellar climbing weight). Just finishing Mt Washington is an accomplishment and given my upper body weight at the time combined with the equipment I used I'm certainly not ashamed of my times.
How about your hill climbing prominence. Put up or shut up
I knew that bit would get me in trouble
, but I was mostly interested to know if (and how) personal experience had led you to believe that the claims earlier in the thread were impossible. I'd like to do Mt Washington someday. It seems that I can do up to about 20% on my 71" fixed-gear before stalling, and I find that kind of climbing enjoyable.
Sorry to contribute to the thread getting boring, but I think it's on the way to being played out anyway...