Need Advice on How to Get up This Hill
#51
Senior Member
Advice like this drives me crazy because it assumes everyone is the same. I am 57 years old, and started biking seriously again last year after about 14 years of not doing it. I immediately went back to my life-long habit of riding in the highest gear on the bike in the flats...
I don't hit high gear until I'm doing 28-30 mph.
#52
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I love when someone starts their post with this.
For a small fee. A convenience store along the trail has 49 cent ice cream cones. That will do.
I noticed that everyone is happy when they eat ice cream. It has a magical ability to transcend all barriers. BF'ers will find a way to argue about it though.
Vanilla vs Chocolate? Discuss!!!
-Tim-
For a small fee. A convenience store along the trail has 49 cent ice cream cones. That will do.
I noticed that everyone is happy when they eat ice cream. It has a magical ability to transcend all barriers. BF'ers will find a way to argue about it though.
Vanilla vs Chocolate? Discuss!!!
-Tim-
#53
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I love when someone starts their post with this.
For a small fee. A convenience store along the trail has 49 cent ice cream cones. That will do.
I noticed that everyone is happy when they eat ice cream. It has a magical ability to transcend all barriers. BF'ers will find a way to argue about it though.
Vanilla vs Chocolate? Discuss!!!
-Tim-
For a small fee. A convenience store along the trail has 49 cent ice cream cones. That will do.
I noticed that everyone is happy when they eat ice cream. It has a magical ability to transcend all barriers. BF'ers will find a way to argue about it though.
Vanilla vs Chocolate? Discuss!!!
-Tim-
#54
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It depends?! Seriously? You know what that article doesn't address? Whether these differences in force matter at all. What's remarkable here is how hard it was to find the differences. This is really marginal stuff we're talking about.
The more I'm looking into this, the more it's looking like something that basically has little or no basis in fact, yet everybody "knows" it.
The more I'm looking into this, the more it's looking like something that basically has little or no basis in fact, yet everybody "knows" it.
As I said on the roadie thread (cycling myths), I think the idea rises to the level of myth.
#55
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Where'd the OP go?
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Bacchetta Giro A20, RANS V-Rex, RANS Screamer
Bacchetta Giro A20, RANS V-Rex, RANS Screamer
#56
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Or, we could argue because my ratio of chocolate craving to vanilla is exactly opposite of your's.
Dammit, coming up with an ice cream argument is hard! Tim's right. Even thinking about ice cream makes me happy.
#57
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#58
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#59
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#60
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#62
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#63
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I am the original OP and I appreciate all your responses.
A little more info on my part woud have helped clarify some of the replies..
So here it goes.
I am 72 YO in very good condition except that I have bad OA in both knees.
I can mash but then I pay the price... so I really try to avoid doing this.
I normally take the Silver Comet(SC) in one gear... 48/12.. I stay in that all day long with a cadence of approx 60.
Very relaxed... I could do more... but I am out for 50 miles so I don't want to get back to my car and collapse
The little hill is located at about the 40 mile marker... It takes you from the flat trail up to the open highway.
I usually ride from Rambo Nursery to Garbage mountain at the 46 MM. I do not climb the mountain otherwise I would probably not make it home.
I alway make the hill but I know my shifting is incorrect... I shift to my granny gear at the very beginning and start to spin like crazy because there is no elevation...as a result when I get to the crest there is zero momentum..
As soon as I am at the top I shift back to my 48/12 and cruise along.
MY goal is to spend a few hours on a calm, non-rainy day, give my heart and legs a workout and come home exhausted... Believe it or not I have my own personal intervals where I will see a slight incline....kick my cadence up to 80 and run for a mile or two.....it sure feels good having the breeze flow past my ears.
Once again..thank you all for your responses... I hope I have clarified matters.
BTW.. I have a MOOT which I have yet to ride... Stuck on my look with the DT shilfters
A little more info on my part woud have helped clarify some of the replies..
So here it goes.
I am 72 YO in very good condition except that I have bad OA in both knees.
I can mash but then I pay the price... so I really try to avoid doing this.
I normally take the Silver Comet(SC) in one gear... 48/12.. I stay in that all day long with a cadence of approx 60.
Very relaxed... I could do more... but I am out for 50 miles so I don't want to get back to my car and collapse
The little hill is located at about the 40 mile marker... It takes you from the flat trail up to the open highway.
I usually ride from Rambo Nursery to Garbage mountain at the 46 MM. I do not climb the mountain otherwise I would probably not make it home.
I alway make the hill but I know my shifting is incorrect... I shift to my granny gear at the very beginning and start to spin like crazy because there is no elevation...as a result when I get to the crest there is zero momentum..
As soon as I am at the top I shift back to my 48/12 and cruise along.
MY goal is to spend a few hours on a calm, non-rainy day, give my heart and legs a workout and come home exhausted... Believe it or not I have my own personal intervals where I will see a slight incline....kick my cadence up to 80 and run for a mile or two.....it sure feels good having the breeze flow past my ears.
Once again..thank you all for your responses... I hope I have clarified matters.
BTW.. I have a MOOT which I have yet to ride... Stuck on my look with the DT shilfters
#64
Senior Member
I alway make the hill but I know my shifting is incorrect... I shift to my granny gear at the very beginning and start to spin like crazy because there is no elevation...as a result when I get to the crest there is zero momentum..
#65
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If I can push it up from my cruising speed up to say 21/22 MPH... then I can power over it without hardly dropping a gear.
On the other hand, my driveway hits about 16%, I think. There is just no powering up it.
I tend to run out of power once I hit a hill 2x or 3x that length, especially if I'm quite a few miles into my ride.
Certainly, with brifters it is easier to shift under high power, but even with the DT shifters, one can shift while moving.
Assuming the cassette has shift gates, one should be able to shift under moderate power.
If you really want to get over the hill in style, I'd approach it like this:
- Sprint to the bottom of the hill. Try to push the speed up to just over 20 MPH.
- About 1/4 the way up the hill, drop from the big ring to the small ring. Keep pounding.
- Shift on the fly as needed on the rear to get over the hill.
#67
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I have some short hills where I maintain a good speed on approach and drop the front ring at about the middle of the hill, right before I start to mash. FWIW, I also use DT shifters, although I don't know that it matters.
#68
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Riding a 48-12 at 60rpm all day sounds like mashing.
It's not mashinig if you are riding a essentailly flat terrain... Once I get going there is hardly any tension on my quads or knees. It's almost effortless.
Why don't you just shift gears one or two at a time as your speed drops, rather than bailing to your lowest gear immediately? Downtube shifters make this less trivial than brifters, but if your bike fits, it shouldn't be hard.
It's not mashinig if you are riding a essentailly flat terrain... Once I get going there is hardly any tension on my quads or knees. It's almost effortless.
Why don't you just shift gears one or two at a time as your speed drops, rather than bailing to your lowest gear immediately? Downtube shifters make this less trivial than brifters, but if your bike fits, it shouldn't be hard.
#69
Senior Member
I know that a hand needs to be removed from the bars in order to shift, but this shouldn't be that disruptive. Go to 1:15 in this video:
See how I shift both the front and rear shifter, while still pedaling mostly smoothly-ish? If the bike fits, it really shouldn't be difficult to do this.
If you're certain that the bike fits, and you're still having trouble with shifting technique, I'd recommend switching to a shifter type on the handlebars.
#70
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I love when someone starts their post with this.
For a small fee. A convenience store along the trail has 49 cent ice cream cones. That will do.
I noticed that everyone is happy when they eat ice cream. It has a magical ability to transcend all barriers. BF'ers will find a way to argue about it though.
Vanilla vs Chocolate? Discuss!!!
-Tim-
For a small fee. A convenience store along the trail has 49 cent ice cream cones. That will do.
I noticed that everyone is happy when they eat ice cream. It has a magical ability to transcend all barriers. BF'ers will find a way to argue about it though.
Vanilla vs Chocolate? Discuss!!!
-Tim-
I rode the Silver Comet Trail once from Cedartown into Atlanta. There's a minor climb and descent somewhere not too far from Cedartown that I didn't give much thought to. But when we stopped to chat with other cyclists, a lot of them asked us whether we did the gigantic climb out by Cedartown -- they were speaking of it like it was the Col du Tourmalet or something.
My takeaway is that it's all about perspective -- if your cycling is confined to an MUP with little-to-no elevation, than any minor terrain is going to seem like a significant feature.
Also I won't fault someone for not intuitively grasping certain aspects of bicycle shifting -- I was riding with a friend who had just purchased a bike who hadn't really ridden since he was kid -- when we got to hills he kept shifting into the smaller cassette cogs until I told him to do the opposite, and it was a revelation to him. This man is a doctor. He's smart in other ways.
#71
Senior Member
I tend to carry all the speed I can into the hill (without blowing up) and as I lose speed on the hill I downshift one gear at a time to keep my cadence reasonable. That way power is applied smoothly and continuously as my speed gradually drops to whatever climbing speed that's dependent on the slope.
#72
Banned
Hill Only 33M ?
Shoulder the bike and Run up the hill with it carried..
(Cyclocross racing does that, every lap)
(Cyclocross racing does that, every lap)
#73
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#75
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