Originally Posted by
bampilot06
fun question of the day. Meant to ask this earlier. When climbing a hill, does one pick the gear they wish to tackle the said hill before starting so they don’t change gears while climbing, or use the gears that you have as needed? Today I shifted up, was doing 24 mph when starting the hill with a cadence of 115 half way through the hill speed dropped to 19 mph, cadence hit 89 so I down shifted but it was under load which doesn’t feel healthy for my bike.... as I am typing this I feel that I am over thinking this.
I like to be on the correct (so small) chainring at the start of a climb, but ideally you'll carry enough speed into the climb that you wouldn't want to begin in your main climbing gear. Shifting under load shouldn't be a huge problem with modern gear, but you can also learn to time exactly when you perform the shift and soft-pedal for maybe half a stroke to make the shift smoother.