View Single Post
Old 04-06-09, 12:19 PM
  #4  
CycleKraft
Ride 365
 
CycleKraft's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 4
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Originally Posted by superdex
it's doable, and there aren't any restrictions. What you will deal with is traffic (my suggestion is get an EARLY start), but the ride I've done up there we received quite a bit of respect from cars, vans, 50ft busses, etc.

re: gearing. What hills do you climb now? 34/23 might work, or might kill you, depending on your legs It's a steeper climb coming up the Granby side, but nothing over 7% http://www.rmnp.com/RMNP-Areas-TrailRidge.HTML --I know I couldn't do 34/23, especially for 20+ miles of climbing. My knees would hate me. I went up with a 34/27 and kept the cadence at a reasonable level.
Thanks superdex. Good info!

An early start is a good plan, which I will follow. As far as how I climb now? Well...hills being relative, I ride a lot of "hills" but nothing as long or steep as Colorado mountains. Although 40+ years of age, I'm a strong climber. I've completed Ironman Wisconsin's course, which is rolling hills and a few out of the saddle climbs. I'm guessing I'll be better off if I get a 25 or 27t on the back end. I've had knee surgery and would probably have issues if I end up grinding low cadence for hours.

I'll take your advice on the 34t x 27. Thanks again for the great info!
CycleKraft is offline