Originally Posted by
slowNslower
I wish someone had told me this before I had to figure it out myself. All the literature out there for newbs recommends "spinning up hills" but sometimes, the way to get to the top of the SECOND hill faster is to go slower up the FIRST hill. Rather than maxing out your gears to keep your cadence super high, just pedal SLOWER and save that last gear for when you really, really need it. My new rule of thumb is to always have enough left in the tank that you could stand up if you had to. If that means dropping your cadence to 50, 40, whatever, so be it.
I was always working to keep a cadence high, which would drop me into the 28 tooth cog early, which would blow me up before the top, which wouldn't leave me enough time to recover before the next hill. That was an error (thanks heart rate monitor) I've learned to avoid.
The "spinning up hills" advice cracks me up, especially for beginners. That is fine if it is a 4% grade, but not at 8%, and most people can't spin at anything over 10-12% unless they are really strong. If you have to drop your cadence, so be it. None of us are Chris Froome.
That said, the way to get better on the hills is to ride more hills. I would leave the bike as-is for a year or so and ride more to see if it gets easier.