Hi y'all! My first post on Bike Forums.

I was wondering what your thoughts are on the technique I'm using whenever I'm riding uphill (not too steep). The bike I'm using is a mountain bike, and yes, I ride it on asphalt roads.

The technique is to maintain the bike in a horizontal position as much as possible by going side-to-side uphill. This means that you only stay more vertical whenever you want to switch to the other side of the slope. Maybe the attached drawing explains it better...

Some people call it tacking, cuz it's similar to tacking in a sailboat.

And yeah, it's easier than riding the bike straight up in the same gear. BUT less efficient than getting in a low enough gear to ride straight up the hill.

I usually only do that when it gets REALLY steep. And typically on my fixed gear.

In my uneducated opinion, and I am a total noob, if your granny gear isn't low enough to get you up a hill, get off and walk. What would you do when overtaken by a faster rider? Looks like a crash waiting to happen. I'm a fat old man and I could easily strip a gear if I didn't know when to get off and walk it.

Oh, and welcome to bikeforums by the way Hope to see many posts from you Baville

It's the same idea as switchbacks in roads going up mountains. It doesn't work well if you need to share the road with other traffic.

thats unacceptable, your zig-zags are too wide and you might knock down an old fat man so tighten up and ride the bike like you're supposed to, straight up the hill,,

I got em on that one huh fat man?? hhahaaha

I do that switchback thing sometimes on the hill going up from my house - especially when I'm on my single-speed.

As mentioned, not safe if there's other traffic.
A) Get stronger
B) Get lower gears
C) Walk

Thank you all for your quick responses. However, I cannot agree that this the same as a "switchback" (I didn't know what it was, but I did look it up after reading about it just now), because:

1. It is always on a wide asphalt road. The wider, the better.
2. The trick is to increase the speed while the bike is positioned horizontally towards the sides.
3. You pedal with one full right stroke when turning left, and pedal with one full left stroke when turning right - all in a quick rhytmic fashion.
4. You are standing up while doing this, supporting using the pedals as mentioned in 3.

I think the most correct term one of you mentioned could be tacking, but I couldn't find anything related to tacking with bikes - only boats.

Is this you?

Ahhh...I'd be walking that one...

keith

Looks like a good way to quadruple (or more) the length of a hill Seems like you'd need to maintain a pretty good speed to keep from losing momentum and falling over on the sharp turns, but maybe the angles aren't as acute as you drew them. I would think it to be an unsafe practice on steep grades and a waste of energy and time on more gentle ones, but everybody has their "thing," and if you like doing this, have fun.

Without trying this I can only wonder if the added distance does not run you out by the exact same amount as going directly uphill. At the end of the day its about work right? You still need to beat gravity through the same amount of work.

That is something I discovered for myself, John.

All you need is double gear reduction.


Sometimes when starting on a steep hill, I do find it handy to take off horizontally, then head up.

So far I've only tried it when I've been forced to - meaning the path is a switchback - and it usually ends with me walking my bike up because the turns are too sharp for me to handle. Example - this is complete btw, the pic was from construction couple of years ago - the killer for me is the handrails that were installed along the switchback, making sharp turns even more difficult:

Wow...zig-zagging up a climb is pretty common...up steep ones, anyway. Moreover, the concept should not be that foreign, because as pointed out, it's why switchbacks exist. This is ancient practice, guys...literally.

All that said, the OP should not need to zig-zag up anything but the steepest climbs, which are pretty rare. If they're finding difficulty climbing most hills, perhaps a change in gearing, or even reviewing how to use gears, would be helpful. Thing is, an MTB is typically geared quite low, lower than most road bikes, so I'm a little confused as to why this is being done.

Also known as paper-boying.

Fabulous! Kind of wish he hadn't run the stop sign on the way down. Makes the switchback thing look safe.

caloso ftw: doin' the paperboy.

That kind of ramp must be something else.

That looks like a wild segment, but also riders that I would expect to be pounding straight up the hill. Obviously they didn't quite get their gearing right.


A lot depends on the rider... And, of course, the hill.

If the rider is carrying around an extra 50 pounds or so, it can make the hills that much harder.
Also, cheap MTBs can be as much as 20 pounds heavier than a nice road bike, as well as having more rolling resistance. A lot more to lug up the hills.

I stand a fair amount when hill climbing, so cleats or clips are very helpful. Take that away, and I'll be rapidly dropping gears, and struggling.