Originally Posted by
justinzane
Some people ride mostly on the flat, like I did many years ago in Florida; some ride with huge climbs and descents. I'm currently in an area where I normally ride with few long flats, no slopes over about 185m/600ft vertical change and lots of little steep grade changes. To give an example that may be relate-able for most, consider highway (motorway) over/underpasses -- 8-10% grade, 50ft vertical over 300ft horizontal. Those little steep parts fit between constantly changing minor grades. I seldom am able to go 1000m without shifting.
I'm going to get a new crankset and am between a compact double (50/34 or similar) or a triple. I used barend shifters, so swinging through many cogs on the back is no big deal. For those who frequently ride this sort of terrain, what do you recommend?
I live and ride in the same area as Homebrew. I also started on down tube shifters, went to a right side bar end, and finally went to ergo/STI levers (ergo for me).
I find that in the area I need to approach hills in two ways.
1. Get it over with. Bigger effort, bigger gear, much faster, typically standing, if sitting I'm pushing a big gear, anaerobic.
2. Twiddle. Smaller gear, pedal a bit smoother, typically seated, much more aerobic (but not completely, else I'd be going really slow).
As an aerobically challenged rider this is the way I approach the terrain around here.
In North County / Carlsbad / SoCal area (I used to make training trips out there), I rarely make it to the top of the moderately long hills in the big ring. The hills there, instead of being 200m long, are more like 500-800m long. For example Palomar Airport Road heading inland is challenging for me - the hills I climb on that relatively easy road surpass most of what I see around at home. If I were dealing with hills like that I'd have to tone down the big gear stuff and do more of the little gear stuff.
A tip on bar ends - most drop bars are too long for most riders. There's a couple inches of dead bar at the end of the drops, stuff that virtually no one uses. You can't reach anything from there, your arms end up too close to your body, etc. What I did when I had my bar end is I cut the drops down to put the shifter in my hand when on the functional part of the drops.
Post about it is here, picture from that post below:
At least with this set up I could shift from the drops while still having a finger on a brake lever. Although I did this primarily for crit racing, it comes in handy really any time you're on the drops. I never had a problem with slipping off the drops, I virtually never end up on the drops while not being able to brake (except for very specific situations), and it neatens up the whole drop area.
With a bar end the only time I couldn't shift quickly was when I was on the hoods standing. Otherwise, if I were sitting then it wasn't a big deal to tug on the bar end whether I was on the tops or the hoods. From the drops, sitting or standing, I could shift fine.
If you have a bar end I'd highly recommend having a modern cassette, derailleur, and chain. The modern cassettes have ramps cut into them to enable smooth shifting even under 100% power. The stress from those shifts requires a modern chain. A modern derailleur (early 90s on) will allow the derailleur to move the chain over more precisely. If you have indexed bar ends then this doesn't apply.
I have (Campy) ergo levers but I still cut down my drops until I get to about the same point - heel of my hand is just in front of the end of the bar. In this picture you can see the bar (FSA Wing Compact) ends just after the heel of my hand. I cut maybe 2-2.5 cm off the drops:
With ergo levers I find myself shifting all the time, even on the flats. It's no biggie to see if a slight gear change will be better. I really like being able to shift when standing on the hoods (on hills) or while on the drops making a big effort (sprinting type efforts). I basically ride on the tops or the drops so my ergo levers don't really help me when I'm on the tops.