Originally Posted by
billmagee
You guys amaze me. On steeper stuff my cadence drops to 60 or below and I have to tack back and forth across the road like a puffing sailboat just to make it to the top. I don't know what my HR is but it is pounding away in there.
My low gear has a gain ratio of 1.3. Any sense going lower?
Clearly you are too highly geared. The gain ratio is meaningless, it's what you're capable of doing that's important. If you can't keep the cadence up, you're too highly geared. If the pedal pressures are such that you can't spin and nice, smooth stroke, you're too highly geared. Incidentally, small changes can make a big difference. Where my fitness is now, my granny (26x32) pulls me up big hills with my HR in the mid to high 150's - one gear higher sees my HR climbing pretty quickly.
My son laughs at my gearing, but he's sixteen, hyper fit and 2/3rds my weight. On the other hand, he doesn't ride to school because he doesn't like having ride back up a hill that used to defeat me but now is just part of my riding.
Richard