Herbie53

yes. figure out what works and get up the thing and do it faster next time.

Wogster

Think that's bad, try it with a 52/42 and a 13/28 on the back end, fortunately that bike has drop bars.... I think a compact double would work quite well on it.....

bigdaddy10028

one other thing i'll add about hills is that you can really shoot your wad going up the first couple too hard too fast. Its nice to hit a hill and blast over it, but if you know you have a bunch more, you may want to conserve. When I do my laps around central park the section known as harlem hill I blast up it the first time around. When I'm on lap 4 it's another story entirely.

rdtompki

Don't over-think this whole hill thing. Get up each hill anyway you can in what gears you have. Walk if you have to. Unless you've got one foot in the grave you'll improve rapidly. You won't see instant results, but should see a gradual improvement. After 6 months you'll be thinking, "what hills?".

rffffffff

no doubt I have it easier, but the bigger point is that with saddle time and doing hills enough your smallest gear will eventually be just right, within reason... its just a matter of time...

Well at least thats what the optimist in me thinks. Otherwise I'll fit a 32 on the back somehow! =o)

msalgado

https://beta.mapmyride.com/route/detail/21080258/

So I tried going that ride I linked above today. I made it about 7.5 miles before I knew my body had had enough and it was time to turn around. Disappointing I couldn't make it but I was riding in the afternoon heat (even my water out of the bottle was gross and hot) and I just didn't have enough today. Hopefully I'll get out there again this weekend (in the morning) and try to get up all the way this time.

In any event I'm exhausted tonight so I know I at least got a good workout today.

jr59

Keep at it! Don't give up! Never give up! Sooner or latter the hill will seem like it was nothing. Just keep on grinding.

mtalinm

not to rain on the parade, but at our weight hills are always going to be pretty tough. my zero-body-fat friends always say stuff like this to me, but then I remind them that if they were towing 100# of extra weight they'd be slow on the hills too. dont' beat yourself up if it is still hard for a long time. baby steps...

CliftonGK1

I rode a 300km brevet last weekend that had 3 mountain passes and 12,000' in total elevation gain. I am by far the biggest dude in our group (possibly the heaviest guy in the entire club) and still managed to hold my own with the non-Clydes.
Was it tough? You bet your arse it was. But it was tough for everyone, not just me. Don't fall into the mental trap of thinking we can't climb.

grueling

switch to a triple. you will make it up, albeit slowly. once you gain the stamina, technique, stubborness (is that a word?), and strength, you can always go back to your compact double. If you go with a 52/42/30 you will gain some top end gears for going down hill quickly, as well

Mr. Beanz

I better ditch my triple!....Hmmm, I run the 43 inch combo on my triple ( IN THE GRANNY RING!) and the 42 on my standard double (39/25). If I had known the triple was slower, I'd have tossed it already!

Seriously, I've timed myself on my double and my triple, same 8 mile 2200 ft course. Difference was a few seconds, but that could have been the weather, my breakfast, or tube design. Honestly, once I have a triple, I'd keep it. I get a kick out of some riders that have brought up the fact that I was riding a triple on a mtn ride as if it was something shameful. I think the shame was that they couldn't keep up!.

CliftonGK1

Would some of the weird rando doubles get any more respect, since they're doubles (even though many of us rock lower bail out gears than a stock standard road triple?)

TA 50.4 bcd 26/46 crank matched to a 12 - 28 cassette?
33/48 compact crank matched to an 11 - 32 cassette?

There is no shame in finishing, no matter what gearing you need. When I finished my ride last weekend, I was greeted by earlier finishers saying "Congratulations. Soda and pizza is over there," not "Dang, you're slow. We ate all the pizza. You really don't need any more."

Mr. Beanz

Wow, low gears! And I'd look like the sissy showing up on a triple!

actually, anybody that knows about gearing wouldn't think twice (condemning) about what others are riding. It's about getting there like you said!

Joemess

This!

Relax. The more you tense the more oxygen your body requires due to muscle contractions.

What i did to get better at hills was find a good set of hills and ride from the top of one to the top of the other. Turn around. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Considering that I once hated hills, I actually look forward to them now.

Bluetrane2028

Speaking of the gearing issue, my favorite strength builder is to go hill hunting on a singlespeed. Now, keep in mind... "hills" around here often aren't particularly long or steep, but using the rolling hills around here as an interval opportunity kicks my butt soundly, and every time it gets a bit better.

Yes, it's painful, but I've been getting faster up hills by leaps and bounds.

CliftonGK1

+1

I do repeats on my singlespeed on the hill in front of my place. 2.25 miles long, ~600' gain. 44/18 gearing (65 inches). It's a nice low cruising gear for the terrain around here, which involves a lot of long, mid-grade hills.
4 - 5 laps on my repeat hill whoops my butt for a few days.

chasm54

^^ This. I was touring last week with 50lbs of gear on the bike. Its lowest gear is 28 front, 32 back - a 24-inch gear. Without the luggage I could climb a cliff with that, and to be fair, I didn't encounter a hill I couldn't get up. But the difference between the bike unloaded, and carrying the extra 50lbs, is dramatic. One simply has to take everything slower and accept that the only way to tackle steep hills is in the lowest gear, at a low (often less than 60) cadence and get up them at about 3 mph.

Plenty of people here are carrying much more than 50lbs extra every time they get on the bike. They shouldn't beat themselves up about climbing being tough, it is bound to be tough. They can certainly get better with technique, and as they keep trying they'll get much fitter, which will help a great deal. But keep thinking positive - the strength they're developing while training on hills at their current weight will mean they'll feel like they are flying up those same hills when the weight comes off. It takes time, it's important not to get discouraged about it, and the good news is it's a virtuous circle. The more you do, the more you can do, and the more impact you can make on the weight.

Anybody who is climbing any sort of hill while >100lbs overweight deserves congratulations; it's impressive. And it will get better.

CliftonGK1

There's a difference you're overlooking with this scenario: Nobody here gained 50 pounds between waking up and getting on their bike that morning. You could load Lon Haldeman's bike with an extra 50 pounds of stuff and even he's going to be slowed down significantly by it.

Of course climbing is going to be tough when you weigh more. I don't think anyone is saying is won't be. I'm pretty sure that no one is claiming that all of us here can climb like the Big Mig did. But don't paint yourself into that mental corner of "carrying extra weight". Horsepucky; we weigh what we weigh, and we're used to lugging it around all day long. Those 30/50/100 pounds any of us want to drop might not make it any easier on the hills, but it's not the same as weighting down a Cat-3 racer with a couple of 25 pound plates in his panniers.

chasm54

Actually I was attempting to be supportive. I think it is admirable that so many people here, with weight issues vastly more problematic than my own, nonetheless work so hard at improving their ability to climb etc. And over time, as i said, they will get better - and lighter.

But I think you are wrong about the physics of this. Cycling is a non-weight bearing exercise. The bike carries the weight, all we have to do is propel it along. It doesn't much matter whether the weight is inside the rider's skin or outside it, it is going to take the same amount of force to propel the weight uphill at a given speed.

As for being used to carrying the weight around, that's true. Being used to propelling it uphill on a bike is a different matter. The Cat 3 racer's cycling-specific muscles will be highly trained, his aerobic capacity considerable, his heart in top shape, his functional threshold high. Give him 50lbs in panniers and I'm betting he's still going to climb faster than the newbie who is 50lbs overweight. I'm sure there are some cat 3s in the road forum who would oblige us by conducting an experiment.

vdek

This pretty much. Having lost ~30lbs already, I'm finding Hills that I used to have trouble going up ~7-8 mph 2 months ago I can now zoom up at 15-18 mph. It also helped(a lot) moving from my Mountain Bike to my Road Bike with clipless pedals.

Once I drop another 60lbs I'm pretty certain I'll be flying up any and all hills.

whitecat

Just climbed about 3000 ft over 15 miles this last weekend. Most of the difficulties were in my head, not in my actual body weaknesses. I overcame and came out on top. Report will follow, but in due time, I'm a bit preoccupied lately with work and stuff. Only bad thing was my rear tire exploding on downhill return route, so I had to stop, boot the tire, sew it back together and limp home. Ruined an otherwise completely adrenaline-inspired downhill run, so overall not so pleased with the end. But I will do it again soon, and it will be good! I will get my adrenaline fix descending haha! Stay tuned

CliftonGK1

Looking forward to the report. I'm in process of writing up the 3 Volcanoes 300k brevet, which has 12,000' of climbing, mostly done in 3 mountain passes. Nothing screams "FUN!" like spending 3 - 4 hours at a time struggling to keep up 5mph.

Hillbasher

I am curious. How long and how much gain in these hills that you are zooming up at 15-18 mph?

StephenH

When you see all these people climbing in the mountains, realize that they don't all live right there by the mountains. A lot of them loaded their bikes in the car and drove 40 or 100 or 500 miles to find some cool place to ride their bikes. Well, there's no law that says you can't do the same. If you know of some flatter spot within driving distance, load the bike in the car and go ride there instead of fighting with the local hills. Check if there's any roads or trails that follow rivers or rail-to-trails routes or roads that parallel railroads- all of which tend to be flatter than the surrounding terrain.

I've found a decent route that I ride from my house now. Before that, I'd ride here locally, but then once a week or so, I'd load the bike in the car and go ride a trail over in Dallas that I liked.

Mr. Beanz

We Do!


We do!...actually for the wife. I'd rather not have her in traffic and riding the mtns everytime out would discourage her!