Originally Posted by ScareyH22A
Maybe you should try hills with less incline to train yourself.
I'm not a great climber and this is what I learned.
Get into the small front gear before the hill approaches.
Lockout my shock/fork if necessary. Or adjust travel to lowest setting if available.
Shift the rear ring to a gear that I can feel slight tension in my pedaling.
Sit on the nose of my saddle.
Grip the bar with my thumbs on top and tuck my elbows in towards my waist.
Lean forward.
Pedal.
While climbing, shift the rear as necessary but never too much because you'll make too much torque and either slip the rear tire or wheelie the front.
That's all I can add.
BTW, using momentum is the worst thing if you can't make the climb normally because you'll be in too small of a rear ring while approaching the hill, to get as much speed as possible, so when you lose that momentum, which eventually will happen, you're in the wrong gear and often come to a complete stop.
thats how I used to climb before going to singlespeed, now its all about charging the hill HARD and using that momentum to keep your legs moving keeping you going up that hill, yes you will slow down, but then you have to get off the saddle and hammer up, still using that momentum. Sit down rest a few strokes and get up and hammer again, repeat and don't lose that momentum, cuz you'll lose your cadence which makes it harder.
Or you can just get into the super granny gear and spin up the hill at a slow pace that one lil twich will stop you cuz you have no momentum at 3mph
Two completly different ways of climbing, try both and see what works. Climbing techy stuff is almost an artform, there's many way to get power to the pedal and line to follow. Climb more and you'll see.