I can sympathise. I had a bad crash coming down a steep hill on a 200K randonnee on Vancouver Island in 2007. For months after that crash, every steepish hill had me stopped by the side of the road and walking my bicycle down, or wearing out my brake pads on the way down.

I also struggle with my confidence climbing hills, and have done since about 2003. I had my first uphill crash on a 20+% grade in England that year because the hill was too steep for me, and with the clipless pedals I have not been able to unclip in time.

After the crash in 2007 and then struggling with confidence both climbing and descending, I changed my pedals to the Shimano PDM324 Multi-Purpose pedals. These have the SPD attachment on one side and a platform on the other. Sometimes I ride with both feet clipped in (on flat ground) and sometimes I ride with my left foot clipped in and my right foot on the platform. Actually, more often than not I ride with my left foot clipped in and my right foot on the platform. This gives me the confidence to know that if I need to put my right foot down at any time, I can.

My climbing confidence has increased a lot, and since the pedal change, I will tackle longer and steeper hills than I ever thought I would. Instead of getting off and walking at the bottom, I'll give them a go because I know that if they ever get too steep, I can just stop.

As for descending ... that's been a slow progression. I crashed on a steep, curvy, wet hill and for a while any descent was at least somewhat terrifying. Then I started building my confidence and speed on small straight, dry hills (like overpasses), and then longer straight, dry hills, then hills with a little bit of a curve in them ... and I'm still working my way up to feeling more confident on curvy, wet hills, but at least I can maintain about 50 km/h on dry hills with a bit of a curve in them where in 2007 after the accident I had trouble maintaining about 15 km/h on those.

It is a slow, gradual progress ... especially if you're not in your teens or twenties anymore.


One question ... you mention being fitted for your bicycle, which is good. But where are the handlebars in relation to the saddle? Is the height about even, or are the handlebars quite low? For the type of riding you want to do, I would suggest that the handlebars should be about even with the saddle, or maybe even a tiny bit higher. And that might also increase your confidence, and reduce the feeling that the back end of the bicycle might flip up in a fast stop.