bwilliams

I have a Thudbuster and i am bigger than you and it works....i am in easley SC,ride the rabbit when i can i also ride down in Charleston a bunch,i love the Francis Marion forest,but its like riding on a trainer,you never coast its just spin spin spin down there.

Neil_B

I will be happy to help you out by taking some of that equipment. The prospect of open space in your residence should motivate you to ship said equipment to Pennsylvania.....

jyossarian

For hill climbing on mtb trails, get clipless pedals & shoes. Don't worry about falling while still clipped in cuz you definitely will.

DaveSC

I took Thursday and Friday off and started pushing myself. I started at about 4 miles and was dead tired but I think this had a lot to do with the hills that I was trying to get up. I worked my way up and up and on sunday was able to do 13.4 miles.

DaveSC

What I mean is that I wont throw money at something and just let it sit in the shop. When I spend money on something I feel the need to justify the purchase. It's pretty simple, not sure why you are taking opposition to it.

TrojanHorse

The obvious answer is "Yes". A $3,000 carbon fiber bike will definitely motivate me to go ride it. I have a newish fancy carbon fiber bike in the house and an old steel Bianchi in the house, guess which one got 3,000 miles last year and which one got 0 miles.

Of course, finding friends to ride with is even better motivation.

nitroRoo

I can relate to this thread. I used to love mountain biking when I was in my early 20's. I could show up to the trails, ride them all (often cranking out 20+ miles) and feel great. Now it's 10 years later and I'm about 235 lbs (I really should be more like 175). Just picked up a new to me bike yesterday - I haven't owned a mountain bike in about a year and haven't really done any real riding for about 4 years... Yesterday I chased my kids around a park for a few hours and I was out of breath so fast! Just a simple paved incline was kicking my butt! BUT, I feel better today than I did 2 days ago, and that's what matters! I can't wait to get off work and go for another spin. Hoping to go tackle some "mild" local trails this weekend.

IBOHUNT

70' gain per mile. That's a hilly ride.

DaveSC

Did 3.5 after work yesterday on the climb portion of our trail. 188' gain/mile. Did not walk up any hills. 29 mins / 590 kcals.

Arvadaman

DaveSC,

It takes some time to get used to getting into the right gear when climbing and mastering your shifting. Work on being in a gear where you are going at about 80rpm. Also, if you are wasting energy on "bobbing" then lock out your front suspension if you can.

Ludacon

Yup this much be the clydes forum lol.

Like everyone else, i empathize about the hills, but it could be worse (as a 350lbs+ guy on a singlespeed, trust me it really could be WAY worse) But just keep climbing, and make sure you stay within your limits. It is better to push yourself slightly less and ride the next day than to ride to hard and not be able to the next!

skilsaw

I find doing things with friends more motivating than just doing things.

digibud

There is a ton of research that shows the best way to improve cardio fitness is to push yourself (heart rate) really hard. Hills do that for most folks, particularly us clydes and athenas. You can do simlarly on the flats by "fartleking", that is going nearly all out for a short time (anywhere from 30 sec to 5 min) and the doing a short rest and repeat up to 10 times, after which you should be pretty well spent. That's not fun...it's just work, but it's a good way to a high level of fitness. If that's not your cup of tea, just find some hills or ride pretty darned hard. I'm right around 225 and use hills to work hard on...and now I enjoy the torture. Make them your friend and a part of your regular riding if you can. They pay dividends. Riding hard as hell on the flats also works.

DaveSC

I end up all the way down in 1/1 on some hills but I work the gearing down as it inclines and my legs start to go. Typically I start my big hill (20 - 30% grade) in 2/6 and just start dropping a gear as I slow down to keep my rpm's in the same range. I am staying on the saddle on a hard tail so I don't see much bobbing, do appreciate the tips.

The only hill I haven't beat yet is a road just outside the trail that runs 50% grade then up to 60% around the top. I end up going around which is 1/4 mile farther and put me out at the top of the hill. Coasting down this hill I hit 30mph according to my gps tracker.

DaveSC

You make a really good point.

cplager

A 20% grade is monster. The biggest hill in the US is something like 32% or 33%. I'm guessing your definition of grade is slightly different (standard is rise over run or tangent of the angle).

IBOHUNT

I'd need a link (strava, ridewithgps, mapmyride, or Garmin) to these 30-60% grades.

Pro's found themselves cross-training (walking) and doing the paper boy deal, (Peter Sagan was one) in Tirreno-Adriatico stage 6. 365 meters at 27%[h=1]https://velonews.competitor.com/2013/03/news/acquarone-tirreno-stage-6-went-too-far_277610[/h]

DaveSC

I was going by this chart:


I might be off a bit it's a guesstimate but it appears accurate according to this chart

DaveSC

Can't link to that ride because I left from my house which would expose my address but here is a screenshot of the altitude graph.

rumrunn6

one good way to motivate is to get something new like helmet, headsweat, gloves, tires, computer, rack, rear trunk etc

DaveSC

I mentioned that buying the equipment was a big motivator for me early in the thread but skilsaw gave me some crap about it. No biggie though as it does work.

Amazon is delivering my new hitch mount bike rack today so I can stop tearing up my vehicle carrying bikes inside it.

rumrunn6

re: new hitch mount bike rack

sweet! do I sense a modest road trip w bike to try it out?

contango 

Big nasty grades have their place too. If you fight to the top of a 20% grade you'll not only get a heckuva workout but you'll also probably have earned yourself a nice fast descent as a bonus

DaveSC

We have a few MTB trails around here and downtown there is a huge cycling area to take the kid so the bike rack will serve us well locally and possibly next time we take a trip.

DaveSC

Went for a ride on some actual MTB trails today, Much harder than the other stuff I have been riding, 1600 calories in 5.7mi due to all the elevation changes. 5.7mi offroad was much harder than 13 on pavement.