Originally Posted by
rsbob
OR, you may want to start the climb in a gear or two lower than you regularly do, so when you reach the steep part, you will not have to shift. I don’t do this but if your bike has some shifting limitations you may want to give this a try.
Switching back and forth between modern and vintage bikes, I have to remember to shift the latter BEFORE I start the climb. There's one steep pitch on one of my routes that is no problem with brifters (let up slightly and shift), but on the older bikes it's just *grunt.grunt..grunt...grunt....grunt* as the bike slows down because I forgot to shift. So far, I've never had to bail, but I have once or twice gotten down to about 30 rpms before I hit the crest.