Originally Posted by mom
When I was a kid, I loved to ride my bike. Now I'm 31 and relatively fit, but I can't seem to ride anymore! I can swim for miles, and I can ride for miles on perfectly flat roads, but as soon as I hit even a tiny incline, I can't seem to make the bike go. It's not that I get really tired or anything. I just slow down exponentially.
When hills come, some people tend to crank up, use all their energy, jump on the pedals and mash through the hills. Then others tend to take it easy and climb slowly. I tend to be like that. And I also am able to climb long long hills without problems, as long as I have really low gears.
Barring any adjustment problems with the bike, I suspect that what you need are lower gears. Depending on your current setup, a wide-range cassette (ex.:
11-32 instead of 11-25) or a triple with a smaller than standard small chainring (ex.: 50-38-
24) would help in your situation. Judging by your experience, you are built for the long run, and given the appropriate low gears, you'll learn
very quickly to pace yourself for multi-mile hills.
P.S. Gearing sold with road bikes (and even with many hybrids) isn't adequate for most people.