quanmunist

Hi fellow riders. I have a race coming up on March 8th in Newport Beach. The course ranges from 4-7% grade for 1.7 miles uphill, and 2.7 miles downhill with 0-5%grade. I was able to average 11 mph uphill, but my friend tells me that I should aim for 12-15 mph. I was riding with 77.4 gear inches on a fixed gear, 53/18 ratio with 170 mm cranks. I wasn't swerving side to side, but I was pushing the cranks very hard. In your experience, at what velocity do you guys climb (on average) on a 4-7% grade? Should I lower my gear inches just a tad bit? Maybe 52/18, 51/18?

If it helps, I'm 143 pounds and male...and taken.

Flatballer

You're racing on a fixed gear?

Carbon Unit

I don't get it either. Why a fixed gear bike? You will be faster if you have a range of gears available to you.

umd

What velocity? If that is really a race and not a "ride" then that a really slow. I just did a tt a few hours ago with a similar grade at about 18mph. You probably need an easier gear and someone else's legs.

Busta Quad

Couple of years ago Deadly Ned Overend averaged close to 24 mph on a hill climb TT that averaged close to 5%.

Oh, and he was 52 when he did it.

caloso

If all you have is an FG, my advice is to lower your gearing to about 70, and get a freewheel for the flipside or prepare to spin like an out of control blender on the way down.

Busta Quad

Just unclip and let'er spin.

Hocam

If you think you were pushing too hard, use an easier gear.

quanmunist

Thank you for your input. It is a fixed gear only race. I'm going to try to lower my GI and rerun it to see the results.

Busta Quad

You are going to lower your GastroIntestines? Now that's hard core.

grolby

In that case, don't worry too much, everyone else will also be really slow. Just the facts.

patentcad

You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off of the Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Slim (or Deadly Nedly).

Buy the way, what's your point? That Einstein fella was pretty smart too. Maybe we should all be so smart.

Busta Quad

My point, NumbNuts, is that Superman was 52.

Beaker

4-7% for 1.5miles? I'm going a heck of a lot faster up 4% than 7%, so it's difficult to talk about speeds without knowing if this is 1.5miles of 4% with a few pitches of 7% or something different.

Since you're on a fixie, I probably have nothing useful to add since I only ride with derailleurs, but it's worth noting that ToC climbers heading up Palomar at ~7% were pacing at 14-15mph.

buelito

I would recommend a 3:1 ratio chainring to cog and work on the hills in training. A lot. You are very efficient on a fixed-gear bike when you are climbing--you should be able to keep up or pass people on geared bikes at that angle-- the downhill, however, is another story-- here again you need to practice, as it is not easy to maintain 130+ rpm to get your downhill speed up. If the course were flat-- you probably would want to change your cog to a 16...
oh-- and good luck in your race!

train safe-

cjbruin

Santiago? How did you do?

Sinn

Just out of curiosity, how long have you been training? And how does your avg. power output now compare to your avg. power output when you first started?

DaveSSS 

Get a gear ratio that permits a seated cadence of 70-85 on the steepest sections. If the steeps are short, standing will allow the use of 2 cogs smaller. I've never had to stand in a 39/25 yet, but I have stood in a 39/23.

Busta Quad

You might want to consider that you are asking a guy who climbs more than a million vertical ft. each year...

umd

No, southern Nevada stage race. I got 7th, took about 11:25 for nearly 4 miles. I'll have more exact numbers when I download my data. First was about 38 seconds faster. But I wasn't going all out, I was focusing on the rr later in the day, which was about 5000 feet rolling in 56 miles. I won it btw

My FTP right now is about 300w. I believe it was probably about 280 when I got my powermeter BUT I was falling off a peak, it was probably over 300 last year and I weighed 5 pounds less

grolby

I will never get tired of this place.

Sinn

Good numbers. They impress me, in any case. I would LOVE to have output like that. How long have you been seriously training?

rooftest

I was going to ask "What race in Newport Beach?" but nevermind. Racing fixies on the street is like going up to Laguna Seca and having a U-haul truck race. What's the point?

I assume that the climb you mentioned is Newport Coast. Just keep climbing it, and find what works best for you.

kudude

have you upgraded yet, or do we get to start calling you a cat4 sandbagger?

Never had to mash in a 39/25? You need to find some steeper hills, man.

umd

Today's RR gave me enough points to upgrade, so I'm not a sandbagger until Monday. But you may call me a one for another 23 days.