Fifty Plus (50+) - Snake the hills?

I don't know if anyone has tried this. A few weeks ago I got bored trying to keep a straight line up hills so I experimented with slow S patterns going up hills. On most roads it's a very slight S, but on MUP's it's a full S, from side to side.

I don't know if it's psychological or what, but I found it's "easier" to climb with slow S, or tacking, patterns.

Anyone else try this or do this? Do you think the effect is real or just psychological?

I use to do this when I was a kid on a single speed bike. You are spreading out the verticle and effectively reducing the % grade. As long as it is safe and you can keep you balance, why not? But if you are trying to get better at hill climbing, go straight.

Traversing hills makes them less steep, but you go farther. Therefore you are indeed working less hard.
In roadie culture it's considered "weak" so don't post this in the road forum.

On hiking trails it is called a "switchback"

It is simply using an inclined plane, one of the types of simple machines.

Before I got my "snake gears" that was the only way I could get up some 15-20% grades that were deep into 100 mile rides. No shame here.....

In Pittsburgh, Canton Avenue is a 38% grade. You know it's steep when they have spotters to catch you when you stall out. See this youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxWceFTkLRU). At the 2:00 minute mark, one of the riders is snaking across the grade. I'm amazed he could actually turn without falling at the end of each traverse.

Traversing hills makes them less steep, but you go farther. Therefore you are indeed working less hard.
In roadie culture it's considered "weak" so don't post this in the road forum.But you're doing the same total amount of work in that you're lifting the same weight the same vertical distance.

I also did this in my youth, seems like centuries ago. Now my first priority is to know where I'm riding before hand and avoid any steep hills. Barring that, I just dismount and walk. Lot easier on my legs, and I figure it's still better then what I was doing before riding...sitting on couch.

Hills suck. Don't matter how you get up 'em.

But I'm feeling bitter now. Had a club ride this AM, I can hang for ever on gentle grades, but once they hit the hills, I'm fired out like a mucopurulent snot rocket.

I recall my youth also...as a young paper boy with 75lbs of news paper any hill looked like a mountain and that's the only way to get up some. Better than walking I always say.:giver:

But you're doing the same total amount of work in that you're lifting the same weight the same vertical distance.

While this may be true in measured work units, climbing a very steep hill leaves you a lot more beat than climbing the same distance over a greater distance.

great vid, thanks! very impressive watching some of those guys

While this may be true in measured work units, climbing a very steep hill leaves you a lot more beat than climbing the same distance over a greater distance.

Yes and no. How beat someone feels at the end of a steep hill depends on gearing, fitness level and the effort made on the climb. The same us true for riding an identical rise over a longer distance. To ride a low enough gear at a slow enough pace means to suffer not, no matter how steep the hill.