Fifty Plus (50+) - Is it sacrilege to walk the steeps?

Whenever I see discussions on super low gearing for steep hills (and even Sheldon Brown advocated some amazingly low combos) I revert to my images of spinning madly and barely moving inches upward. I find myself setting a lower limit on gearing because I can get off and walk faster. I originally dismounted on the steeps to avoid back strain. I'm better now but I still get off and walk past folks who are spinning crazily and going nowhere.

I will stop on a long hill to rest sometimes (hardly ever anymore, used to all the time), but I will not walk. Rest a bit, then get back on and continue.

If a rider is "spinning crazily", which I'll take to be 110 rpm, with a 24 tooth chainring and a 27 tooth cog, then you're going to have to walk eight minute miles to keep up. Who's looking like crazy legs?:innocent:

I have found that it is generally faster to have and use the low gears than it is to walk the steep grades. However, if you enjoy the ride more when you walk a bit, then that's what you should do. As long as you're having fun and being legal, safe and courteous, there really isn't a right way to do it, at least in my opinion.

Yes. It is sacrilege. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Maybe not crazily. I do occasionally walk past people on very steep hills. But I promise to try harder to stay in the saddle. (It's not that often anyway)

I subscribe to the 'rest stop' when necessary, remaining on the bike, (many scenarios here, but my favorite is twisting around, looking into the distance as if waiting for a less-fit riding partner) but if I were crossing the Rockies, I'd probably do a lot of walking.

Way back when I was a young fit bike racer, I'd have rather eaten worms than walk my bike up a hill. Now that I'm all grown up, I just do what needs doing.

If it is steep enough to have to walk I certainly won't be able to clip in and start back up. I haven't had to walk on the road but sometimes on my mtb it does happen. But that is probably due to my lack of any technical skills.

There is absolutely no shame in walking a bike up a hill. You won't see me doing it, but there's no shame in it. ;)

So far in my brief cycling life I haven't ridden a hill so steep that I felt the need to walk it. But, if I did; I would.

Our tandem has a low gear of 18.5 inch, that's about 24-35 with 26 in wheels. We can ride 4 mph up hill at a cadence of 70ish. I can walk 4 mph, but not on a hill pushing a bike, we rest when we need to and ride slow up the hills.
R

Now that I'm all grown up, I just do what needs doing.

My thoughts exactly. I don't care what anybody else thinks, If I need to walk up something, I do it. If I hit a spot of singletrack with bigger rocks then I feel comfortable riding across, I walk it. If I need to peddle furiously to go slowly up an incline, then I do it.

I have had to walk a few hills, especially when the grade is well over 20%. However, I do pull my shirt or jacket over my face so I cannot be recognized......................... OK, just kidding.

Whenever I see discussions on super low gearing for steep hills (and even Sheldon Brown advocated some amazingly low combos) I revert to my images of spinning madly and barely moving inches upward. I find myself setting a lower limit on gearing because I can get off and walk faster. I originally dismounted on the steeps to avoid back strain. I'm better now but I still get off and walk past folks who are spinning crazily and going nowhere.

Naperville and steeps? I guess it's all relative. An old timer once told me that he considered walking as his lowest gear. You're still propelling you and your bike with your legs.

Naperville and steeps? I guess it's all relative. An old timer once told me that he considered walking as his lowest gear. You're still propelling you and your bike with your legs.

There's one hill in this great corn sea that's almost 5% and nearly 75 yds long. So there.

Maybe my problem is having no hills to train on.

It's not sacrilege but you have to carry the bike.

;)

I walked the last few feet of Mt Diablo the first time I rode it in 1986. I vowed to never walk a road climb again, and I haven't.

When I was out of shape and coming back after 8 years of not cycling, I had to stop and rest on some steep long climbs to get my heart rate back down. I'm fitter and don't need to do that any more.

You must wear a "I'm a Wimp" jersey.

I only walk one spot, not because of the
hill, but it is the top of an over pass
and very very windy at times. Cross
winds.

I look on it as defeat if I have to walk a hill. I may be going slow and cadence may be down into the 50's on the really long steep ones but Walking is a no-no for me. Couple of reasons--

I have a leg problem and Getting off and walking will cause me some pain---just walking. To be pushing a bike aswell will be even worse.

The hills are there to be conquered and it is one of the few challenges left for me.

Mind you- If it is that steep-I can always not do the hill- or turn round and try another day. It's been a long time since a hill did defeat me but with lack of practice over the winter and a bit of aging coming in- I doubt I could do the 16%er right now but a few rides on the gentler 12% and I will be ready.

Main bike is a compact with 34/27 and the hill bike is a triple with 30/25. I am not a speed merchant either so I do manage to save some energy for the slopes. And where I live- we have plenty of slopes.

Hills take a different mindset. They take training and they take some effort. Put me on a long flat ride and I get bored. Hills do provide the variety and the workout I need to keep me riding.

I never walk up a hill. I try to never stop on a hill.

And I never spin fast on any grade. The reason why was made visible to me a few years ago, when I decided to ride my new fixed gear bike (70 inch gear) for a few miles, up a 7% grade to the top of Griffith Park, in Los Angeles. I was thinking I'd turn around after a few hundred yards, but I found I could just keep grinding away.

And although my cranks were turning slowly, I easily passed a group of young guys on mountain bikes who were in their lowest gears (probably around a 20 inch gear). The guys were spinning so fast, and had been for a mile or so, that they were wearing out.

So I try to strike a balance: no matter what the grade, I'll put myself in a gear that keeps my rpms down, and keeps my speed up.

Whenever I see discussions on super low gearing for steep hills (and even Sheldon Brown advocated some amazingly low combos) I revert to my images of spinning madly and barely moving inches upward. I find myself setting a lower limit on gearing because I can get off and walk faster. I originally dismounted on the steeps to avoid back strain. I'm better now but I still get off and walk past folks who are spinning crazily and going nowhere.

Well, the question isn't really if you can pass people spinning by walking but whether you yourself are more efficient walking than riding. This is an empirical question that you can get data for with a bike computer and heart rate monitor. If your heart rate is slower and your speed is faster walking than cycling then you are onto something ... give it a try and let us know what your find.

I've had to walk a bit three times over the last five years or so. The first was two years ago at Mountains of Misery, where it wasn't the steepness of the road. It was just that I was completely out of gas and my legs were cramping up after 103 miles finishing up a very steep mountain.

The other two were both very short, steep sections of some hilly "rollers" around here. In both cases my Garmin GPS was showing a 26%+ grade. Who knows how accurate that is, but believe me they are both very, very steep despite being quite short. I have a compact setup with a 34/28 low gear. I could have gotten up both of them with a lower gear, but I don't want to use that setup for the few times when I run out of gearing. I had to walk a half a block each time, at most. There's no way I could have gotten restarted after stopping on those.

Besides that I WILL make it up Bear Wallow Rd in Warrenton, VA this summer when I'm lighter and not wearing nine layers of winter clothing :)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/136337905

It's your life and your bike. I've actually fallen over on hills so steep that I couldn't get unclipped in time (and I'm not the only one who has on this particular climb - I've seen Cat 1 riders do the same). If you find more enjoyment walking instead of spinning, then walk. Don't let others live rent free in your head.

:giver:

Back problems in the past few years has impacted my ability to climb hills. I often need to stop and rest before continuing up the hill and sometimes I just need to walk. It's tough pushing a bike up a hill but it's less stress on my back and legs. I usually take the Madone on hilly rides as it's lighter than the other bikes.

I have this jersey and I've never met a hill I couldn't walk:)235933

Some suggested taking a 'rest' stop.

Some suggested 'tough it out'.

May I suggest a 'moving rest walk'. Just keep it moving.

I am too hard headed (Yes I am a Marine, sue me) to stop pedaling and walk. I'll mash a low gear and keep climbing or probably die. I am no ones gift to cycling or a strong man just able to keep grinding away since I was a kid on a sting-ray type 20" wheel bicycle in the 60's. YMMV

Bill

When I have been on bike tours carrying all my stuff and I fall below 3 mph, walking speed, on a hill I will sometimes get off and walk. Usually by that time I could use some time off the saddle anyway, so it all work out for the best! Out on a regular ride, I will stop & catch my breath, remind myself how much I like hills :rolleyes: then start up again.
Every April, we head up to the White Mtns for a weekend. There is a crazy steep, looong hill on a loop that I ride. I can never ride all the way up w/o stopping at least twice (usually 3 times, twice was my personal best) But I do try to get further up the hill each year before I stop. My front wheel will be weaving back & forth, I am just barely cranking the pedals, not going more than 2 mph and I will be breathing like a broken down race horse. One of these days tho! I'll make it. Ha.
Mountain biking - I find myself walking up those stupid short steep hills we have here in the NE all the time.

I hate to walk, mostly because carbon fiber road shoes with Look cleats are impossible to walk in.

Dude, you’re from Illinois, what hills are you thinking about?

I never walk when riding with my son - can't let that future Marine think he can best his old man :). Other times, walking is fine (just don't tell him that).

I have had to stop and walk briefly a time or two. I would not keep riding for long if I was moving slower than I could walk - in that case why not rest up with a walk?

In 2010, my first year back on a bike, I found myself walking up a lot of hills. The legs were fine but to borrow MissJean's excellent description, I was "breathing like a broken down racehorse".

I made it through last year without walking up a single hill.

Progress!!!!

Actually I've had to stop a few times on my bent. I'd prefer not to, because I can't get it started going uphill :(

For those of us that live in areas that have no hills and then have to go and ride in an area that has them, it becomes a problem if you aren't used to climbing. I ran into that during last years MS-150 on the very last hill (bumps in the road for most of you) and ended up walking the last block of the climb. I couldn't tell you what the grade was but the hill was almost half of a mile and there were 20+ mph headwinds and gusts that we were fighting the entire 50 miles of the return trip. The legs just needed a break.

I thought that I was cheating myself by not climbing the entire hill, but I felt much better after seeing many of the much younger riders doing the same thing and many of them walking more than I did. I was 64 then. I guess if I lived in a different part of the country where hills are a part of every ride, I would feel different, but ....

I have done the math I can push a bike up a hill at 2.5 mph in low gear i can get over 3 mph. So I rest! My heart rate drops quicker. I don't bang my legs on the pedals and i don't give drivers a easier target.

I think that's another "style vs. function" question.

Of course it's more stylish to ride all the way to the top of the hill. For that matter, it's more stylish to sprint up the hill faster than someone else.

Functionally, it's whatever gets it done.

Yes. It is sacrilege. You should be ashamed of yourself.


That's just complete male bovine doooooooooo.

After seven decades and just back to serious riding less than a year ago, I do whatever I need to do. Sometimes I haven't had the horsepower to keep pedaling, generally because I've misread the terrain and found myself in too high a gear with no momentum left to do anything about it. My first uphill walk was late last March when I geared all the way down on my brand new bike and found my self going so slowly my rusty skills had trouble balancing the thing! Having refreshed the skills a bit and with a thousand miles pedaled on the bike I'm having fewer walking experiences.

DaveT

I subscribe to the 'rest stop' when necessary, remaining on the bike, (many scenarios here, but my favorite is twisting around, looking into the distance as if waiting for a less-fit riding partner) but if I were crossing the Rockies, I'd probably do a lot of walking.
:lol:<<<knowing laugh

To paraphrase a line from Apocalypse Now.
Never get off the bike. Never get off the bike.

It all depends how steep it is:

5% no walking, 15% no walking, 25% it depends if it is on the road--may be, on the trail mountain biking no walking!

It is hard to stay on the bike over 30% but doable for some!

I have no choice because I have to like hills--that is all there is around here!

I hate to walk, mostly because carbon fiber road shoes with Look cleats are impossible to walk in.

Dude, you’re from Illinois, what hills are you thinking about?

Southwest Wisconsin on the back roads. After the 23rd or 24th long climb, a really nasty one can knock me out of the saddle. But I usually start in a large group and most have long since fallen away, ..and I'm trying to hang with a couple major horses who seem to want to charge every hill. I admire them but can't always hang with em.

And this is exactly why I switched to SPD mtb shoes/clips. I almost exclusively wear SPD sandles. Love them!

I have a 16" low gear on my Bike Friday folding bike. It is so low that I only needed the bailout gear on the monster 38% grade Broderick Street hill in San Francisco, which I could only make it halfway up, btw. I had to walk back down the hill after each of the 5 failed attempts.

Here's proof of how well that folding bike climbs. These are some of the steepest streets in San Francisco, with grades of 26%-31.5%. The last part of the video is the 38% grade where I finally had to admit defeat (caution heavy breathing!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbc5iG3M1q0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbc5iG3M1q0

I will (hopefully) be buying a mountain bike today, so I'll have some new challenges, especially if it's a technical steep climb.

Southwest Wisconsin on the back roads. After the 23rd or 24th long climb, a really nasty one can knock me out of the saddle. But I usually start in a large group and most have long since fallen away, ..and I'm trying to hang with a couple major horses who seem to want to charge every hill. I admire them but can't always hang with em.

And this is exactly why I switched to SPD mtb shoes/clips. I almost exclusively wear SPD sandles. Love them!

During my first year at the Horribly Hilly Hundreds, I rested a few hills. The roads near Blue Mound can be killers. What crankset and cassette are you using?

There is absolutely no shame in walking a bike up a hill. You won't see me doing it, but there's no shame in it. ;)

I knew a rider once who derided me for walking one particular hill. "You walk dogs," he snorted, "not bikes." :rolleyes:

During my first year at the Horribly Hilly Hundreds, I rested a few hills. The roads near Blue Mound can be killers. What crankset and cassette are you using?

Last year's trip I rode a new (for me) Trek CF with 53-39 and 11-23, so it was really bad. I hadn't changed it yet because I was thinking I'd stay with the Dura-Ace theme on the bike until I realized exactly how expensive THAT would be. Now I alternate between a Lemond w/ triple (30-27 low -which I've never used) and the Trek with a new compact (34/25 low). Am building a cruiser this year with racks and Grand Bois 32's and am thinking compact again (34-27 low).

Last year's trip I rode a new (for me) Trek CF with 53-39 and 11-23, so it was really bad. I hadn't changed it yet because I was thinking I'd stay with the Dura-Ace theme on the bike until I realized exactly how expensive THAT would be. Now I alternate between a Lemond w/ triple (30-27 low -which I've never used) and the Trek with a new compact (34/25 low). Am building a cruiser this year with racks and Grand Bois 32's and am thinking compact again (34-27 low).

The newer Shimano Ultegra rear derailleur will accept a 1X- 32t cassette. See: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/669790-Sram-Apex-11-32-10-speed-cassette-Shimano-shifters-amp-rear-derailleur-fear-no-hill?

The new 10-speed Tiagra 12-30 cassette is nice too.

I have a 16" low gear on my Bike Friday folding bike. It is so low that I only needed the bailout gear on the monster 38% grade Broderick Street hill in San Francisco, which I could only make it halfway up, btw. I had to walk back down the hill after each of the 5 failed attempts.

Here's proof of how well that folding bike climbs. These are some of the steepest streets in San Francisco, with grades of 26%-31.5%. The last part of the video is the 38% grade where I finally had to admit defeat (caution heavy breathing!).


I will (hopefully) be buying a mountain bike today, so I'll have some new challenges, especially if it's a technical steep climb.

Your video is superb--those hill climbing makes you feel alive--thank you for sharing.

You're welcome. :) Hill climbing is my favorite type of riding. I'm pretty much addicted to it, and I need my weekly climbing fix for maximum happiness in life.

Now if I could only get rid of this last stubborn 20 pounds, hill climbing would get easier too! :bang:

I knew a rider once who derided me for walking one particular hill. "You walk dogs," he snorted, "not bikes." :rolleyes:

That's easy to deal with. I simply don't ride with people like that.

You guys who say you have never gotten off your bike to walk a hill have clearly never ridden a Mountain Bike in the Mountains. I've often wondered why they don't include "pushability" in Moutain Bike reviews. :)