shardy53

Should I stay in the seat and shift down and pedal at a moderate pace, or should I keep it in a higher gear and stand while pedaling? What about real steep hills? I must be doing something wrong because after a month I still get tired and out of breath when climbing long steep hills. Other people I know say that they climb hills easily with their road bikes. I must be doing something wrong.

Steve

jazzy_cyclist

Do they also tell you that they drop Lance Armstrong on their club rides?

I don't mean to disillusion you, but as I have heard Greg LeMonde quoted, "it never gets easier; you just get faster". Being a good climber can take years and a lot of training. If it only took everyone a month, don't you think we'd all be riding in the Tour De France?

Just keep at it and you will improve.

hi565

use the search function luke...

shardy53

Thanks for the advice. I just noticed the other thread about hills so this one is a bit redundant I suppose. Somehow I remember zooming up hills when I was a kid with my old 1962 Rollfast single speed bike. Now I have this twenty pound bike with all these gears and I think that I am going to burst by the time I get to the top of a hill sometimes. It just goes to show you that you can't buy your way into good fittness.

Steve

Inverted

Nose-first.


Uhm....I climb longer hills down in the drops, using almost entirely the top of my theighs to bring my pedals around (i.e. no pushing down), and I stand and mash for the final part/as I'm cresting. But then again....I'm weird. And chances are I weigh significantly less than you (135 lbs on a good day), and long legs afford me me the power flexibility with leverage to look like an absolute idiot when I'm climbing.

Try it my way if you understand what I'm talking about. It feels really natural to me, and allows for some serious acceleration. But like I said, I am a scrawny idiot, so take that for what it's worth.

lmans66

Depends on the hill.....I know when I go up a good grade for 1/2 mile to a mile....I start off going strong, end up doing 11-13 mph for quite awhile, let up, get down to 7-9 at times. Once you let up, you are doomed!.... I try to keep it above 10 mph and I can do that but it drains me. But going downhill at 30-35 keeps me going.

I usually do rides in the neighborhood of 25-35 miles. Just finished one today that had a slow grade to it for about 4 miles. I come home tired but I keep improving.

60cycle

sit and spin... stand to relieve pressure and engage different muscle groups... sit and sip.

repeat until coasting.

edzo

the best way to climb hills is to use
as pure a 360 pedal stroke as you can
muster at 70-110 rpm (depends on lot of factors)

till you feel the burn in the legs

then alternate standing/sitting when you have
to mash the gears at lower cadence.

climbing is best with a perfect spin,
scraping the mud, and pulling up. if you
can do this training and find a perfect spin,
then you can apply this to a hill climb in spots
where it is most difficult and you can truck
right along. you don't need to be perfect for
more than a few minutes, then go back
to mashing or whatever...

think of it as a reserve mode to dip into

also, be efficient climbing. next time you climb
standing up, focus on keeping
your bean motionless moving forward. no shoulder
movement side toside, no head swaying. if something
has to sway, make it the bike. less calories are used swaying
an 18 lb bike vs a 150 lb rider.
try as best to maintain a perfectly straight line moving forward,

saves lots of power.

all this stuff, if you don't do it already, it a pain to
focus on every ride at first, but get the skills and
hills become only a matter of 'lets find more hills ! '

Cypress

At the base, find a gear that you'll be using primarily. Every now and then, drop two gears and stand up for a while, then sit back down and go back to your primary gear.

jschen

+1 for what 60cycle and Cypress said.

sirthx

I'm a 185lb 6'5" guy and climbing used to completely suck for me. Now I do ok switching between sitting (which quite honestly I'm not that good at on climbs) and standing. As Edzo pointed out above, keeping as straight and still as possible while standing. I definitely spend more time out of sadle than my buddies, but I can use my weight as an advantage mashing a pretty big gear while standing. Again I think keeping still as possible is key. Good balance so you're not supporting yourself too much w/ your arms.

toshi

Interesting... when I climb steep grades out of the saddle I like to toss the bars back and forth (i'm on the hoods) between my right and left hands, alternating with each pedal stroke. Sure, this expends extra energy, but I seem to get more power this way. I'll have to try climbing with the bike perfectly still.

Retro Grouch 

Sometimes our memories are a little bit selective also. The older the man the faster he ran as a boy.

banerjek

The sit 'n spin method described by others works great. If you're tired and out of breath when reaching the top, you're either riding too hard or you're out of shape.

Climbing hills is made harder/easier by body type. If you don't have a climber's build, you'll have a heck of a time keeping up with those who do (but you'll probably have an advantage over them on the flats.)

oboeguy

"Many people think there's a secret to climbing. And there is: extremely high conditioning, low body fat and weight, and knowing how to pace yourself, especially on long climbs."

- Greg Lemond

cooker

Do you mean "drop", or "shift up" two gears?

cooker

Another tip for a really steep hill is to zig zag if you can...it makes for a longer but not as steep ride.

bccycleguy

Spinning a low gear at a high cadence moves Lactic acid out of your muscles faster than mashing a high gear. So your muscles will tire more slowly.

I have found that on a trainer with the same speed, load and cadence, that I have the lowest Heart rate when on the hoods, about 5-6% lower HR over sitting up/standing and a bit lower than in the drops. So I try to spin on the drops when climbing hills, but a bit of variety in position to use different muscle groups helps too.

furiousferret

This is probably the hardest thing to post, when I watch the pros they all climb differently, and obviously it works well enough for them to make it pro. Just ride alot, build up the cardiovascular, lose weight, and try different things until you're comfortable.

patentcad

This is great. Here come the 'climbing tips and tricks' suggestions.

How about pick the right spot in the gene pool? That seems to work.

rufvelo

I'd agree only if the objective is simply to get up the hill. Otherwise I'll disagree - this technique is even more inefficient than you'd imagine.

SDRider

I like to get out of the saddle and give it my all. This method is great for blowing up after a mile or two but hey, I look great for that mile or so!

Seriously though, I usually just put it in low and spin slowly up the hill. For short steep climbs (we're talking a mile or so) I will usually alternate between out of the saddle a couple gears up from my lowest gear and sitting and spinning in the lowest gear.

rufvelo

I alternate between standing and saddle time, spending way more time standing. Just how I do it, I wouldn't recommend it for all. Key is finding your rhythm, especially not chasing anyone. I also climb often in the big ring, mine though is usually a 48t.

Vwone

For me the best way for me to climb hills is to watch my heart rate monitor. I started riding last summer and when it come hills I would thrash up them and hoped I would make it. I would sit for a while and normally stand toward the end. Here is what I have learned over the last year.
1st I try to make sure my HR does not go over 85% of max. If I go over that, I best be close to the top.
2nd I try to keep my cadence as high as possible while sitting. But while standing I normally have a very low cadence and I am using my weight to help pedal.
3rd If I am standing and I need to get my HR down, I just really slow my cadence for just a couple of strokes. Really all I am doing here is watching that HR and getting under my 85%.
4th I used the zig zag method this weekend climbing Howard's Gap road in SC. As soon as my HR would hit 90% and the hill was so steep that I was already at my slowest cadence, I would zig zag a few times to get my HR under the 85% and then I would start going straight up again.
This is what has helped me and I really felt kind of lost when it came to climbing until I got my HRM. Dean

JamesV

Seated, hands close together on the top of the bars, "pulling" towards you with each stroke, just like Monsieur Thevenet here



For a long grind it's the most efficient way.