Hopefully your route will involve the Manhattan Bridge, the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges are lousy. Of course the entrance/exit to the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan is about as safe as a bear trap.

Have fun :)

but not for lack of form. He is generally regarded as one of the most naturally gifted cyclists, which includes his form on hills. Lance's high cadence is not something that most riders can substantially benefit from. I don't mean to suggest that mashing up a hill when you're uncomfortable (which was the original post's description) is good; it's not. But Ullrich is beautiful to watch when he climbs. He does get beat by armstrong, but it's not for poor form.

I know :). I was just being a smart ass.

Pro cycling mashers are a little bit different to the kind the OP is talking about, though... some of these people are probably barely hitting 40rpm!

I think it's the Williamsburg bridge that I'll be taking - its the one with the bike lanes that are surrounded by metal fence painted red. One the J train. Word.

When I ride my mountain bike I use much taller gears (basically just the top two) and stand on the pedals way more than on the road bikes. I have not studied bike physics, but somehow it works better on the smaller frame and wheels and just doesn't work on the taller bikes. So you could say I'm a masher, and proud of it. For all the people with the snarky knee comments, I commuted this way for 10 years, and I bet I did it on my singlespeed BMX bike when I was a kid, and my knees are golden. (I've never abused them by jogging.)

Its funny. Ever since I started on a single speed (52x15) I find that when I go back to my geared bikes, I rarely change gears.
Since I've been on that ss, I can spin that bike up the evil hill on my 20k route that I do daily no problem, whereas I was dying on it before with a geared bike. Guess I'm a masher.

I mash from time to time during my commute. Uses different muscles, and returns some much needed blood to my bum. No saddle sores for me.

Depending on how steep the beast is a lot of times I can mash it (well for the most part I usally drop down a couple of gears staying on my big ring, and failing that my second). I must admit I am not sure what the 'granny gear is' I can only guess small front/big back (1 and 1 is how I learned my gears not by their sizes so what I sound like a new rider sometimes but I can push it with the best I've met with out trouble most the time...runners background)

Elvish

I climb faster using a combo of both. If I end up spinning prematurely then I miss out on some of the taller gears where I could've mashed just as fast and climbed faster instead of dropping down and spinning immediately. Generally I mash @ 60-80rpm and spin @ 80-100rpm... I supposed mashing at anything lower than that is really inefficient (I'll trade some inefficiency for speed, but not too much).

I like to do this too... there is a whole different feeling in the legs when "mashing."

Mashing builds up those sprint muscles. Of course, spinning allows you to ride all day long...

Usually, I keep it just a little harder than I'd like. Still young, can do that...

thats the dumbest thing i've ever seen more like ullrich in 1st and armstrong in last. ullrich is way better you can't even spell his name it has 2 ll's ,jerk

The Manhattan side to the Manhattan bridge is far worse than the Brooklyn side now that they closed the north side bike path. Getting to it is a pain in the ass and involves crossing some nasty bridge traffic.

The Brooklyn is not a bad bridge to climb, but is just damned packed w/ tourists who wander around in a daze oblivious to their surroundings.

I don't think I've touched the granny ring on my sorrento in weeks. Even climbing huge hills. Of course, it doesn't LIKE the granny ring, and with the 34t MegaRange granny cog on the cluster... who the hell needs a granny ring?

My dad and I took a 10 mile trail ride, his bike (a Marin Bayview - laugh all you want, it's a great bike) and mine are almost a dead match for each other on gearing with the exception of my granny cog. Even on the steepest hill, I was spinning like mad on the second ring. He had to drop down, though.

All it took was a week of dieseling it on my old x-mart bike, though. My knees were toast, then I finally found the beauty of spinning.

NY Bridges
 

Could someone please describe how bad of a climb these bridges in NYC really are?

I mapped out the manhattan bridge as a route on www.mapitpronto.com and don't see any big deal. But I don't think the elevation data includes the bridge itself (only land). How much of a climb are the bridges? How steep of a climb are the bridges?

The following link shows the ride I mapped out:
www.mapitpronto.com

(just enable the elevation graph at the bottom of the page) It goes all the way to 0 feet, but I think that is because the elevation data only includes land and not the bridge.

In any case, I try my best to stay in my 3rd ring, I only drop to my second ring when absolutely necessary. Granny, out of the question.... unless I'm dead. I have used the granny maybe 3 or 4 times this summer tops in 1600 miles of riding. I'm guessing that I'm probably not being as efficient as I could because I definately have a mental block. Stay off the granny.... Stay off the granny.... Are there any good sites out there that describe how best to use your gears?

I usually don't mash, but don't drop down much in the granny gears either - I've slowly built up a tolerance (I guess) and have only been using the top 4 cogs of the 21 speeds I have.

Sometimes I'll mash, and I do it because I know I have the energy, and I know if I really give 'er in a fairly tall gear, it'll get me up the hill faster - and sometimes I just love the extra hard work of mashing. I don't mash when I've got the trailer on the back though, I'll drop down and spin - I just feel safer and I'd probably do myself some injury mashing with ~60lbs towing behind me :p

It's rare I'll drop down to the middle ring on the front, so far rarer to use the granny cog - only when I really really need to do I touch them - and that's usually in the MUPs, coming out of the valley in some spots isn't paved, and needs some decent effort at times.

I think there are some Forrester notes on Wikipedia regarding shifting.

Personally, I shift as I would in a car. When I start out, I'm in the lowest gear (of the range I typically use for road riding, top front cog and 1st-3rd on the back) and then as I start to get into a higher cadence, I shift up and so forth. Then, when slowing for a light (and you know you're going to stop) just shift down, if you're rolling in and think you can get a head start, obviously don't shift all the way back to your 'start' gear, you'll just feel which is right and go with it.

They are really no big deal. I woudn't concern myself with "climbing" the bridges if you are even somewhat in decent shape.

some bar napkin estimates...

Wikipedia lists the clearance of most ocean port bridges at at least 130 ft, so I'm guessing the international standard is somewhere near there. There are wiki entries for all the NYC bridges.

Add another 20 ft for the thickness for the road ironwork, and at least on the williamsburg, you're another 10 to 20 above the car lanes and J train.

So figure from 150 to 170 ft, probably having climbed from around 25 ft, in around 3/4 of a mile.

I'd be curious to see some more accurate figures.

the williamsburg and bkln are made tougher because you're always losing your rhythm and momemtum dodging random peds and cyclists. Gotta love the groups of orthodox women power walking and jogging.

Manhattan bridge is the least used bike route.

in saskatchewan? the place where you can see moose jaw coming from three days away? :D

I generally pedal in all terrains with the same consistent amount of torque on my legs. When climbing a hill I start in the heaviest gear I can and keep downshifting as the torque changes. I don't want to tighten my legs up too much as I am affecting the balance of my commute.

If I can pedal faster, I pedal faster. If I can't, I try to keep pedaling. Fixed gear for 8 years ... may have forgotten how to shift.

As long as you stand up, mashing a big gear isn't so terrible. Same leg motion as climbing stairs. It's mashing the big gear while seated that is troublesome. I commute almost every day on a single speed bike. As long as you're not climbing a mountain it's no big deal.

Funny that some posters mention seeing this phenomenon on the Queensboro Bridge. I wonder if they're talking about me?

I try to remember to shift down on the bridge. I do the first (uphill) half on the second chainring. I've never felt the need to go to the granny ring.

Marca, the NYC bridges (and I've commuted over all of them at various points in my life) aren't so bad. Don't worry, you shouldn't have any trouble. I don't, and I'm a middle-aged former sedentary smoker with a knee replacement.