GrainBrain

Make sure you practice taking pressure off the pedals momentarily for shifting - but the best bet would be: Don't be a hero just downshift to your lowest gear as you hit it and get ready for the burn.

​​​​​​We have only a handful of challenging climbs here, only like 10% at most? A couple hundred feet of climb

DrIsotope

Lemond1985

One of the biggest problems on a really steep hill is if you have to stop for whatever reason, trying to get your feet clipped back in, on some wall of a climb. It can be almost impossible.

I had huge problems on the hill below, which is above Cambria CA. It's gotta be 20+ percent. I know the final part of Mt. Diablo is 18%, this road is substantially steeper than that is. Some helpful person spray painted "DON'T WALK" on the steepest part. You can see how steep it is, somewhat, by comparing the tree on the right with the angle of the road.

124Spider

17% is why god gave us cars.

devianb

This is what I do, but I will rock side to side if I feel like I won't make it up the hill.

Machka 

Incidentally, in this thread I post photos (page 2) on measuring grade.

% of grade



This is 16.5%

downtube42

I think it's best to sneak up on it quietly, so it doesn't hear you coming. If you're lucky it won't know you're there until you're over the top.

A different strategy, if you're with friends, is to chat and laugh and pretend you don't see it coming. That way it thinks you're unprepared. Then BOOM you power up the beast.

If that sucker's really 17%, go small/small well before things get tough. Shift early, but try to hold the lowest cog in reserve. If feels good to have a bailout gear at the ready, and it feels better to never use it.

Oh, and make sure your derailleurs are well adjusted. There's nothing worse than going for the small ring or large cog on a climb, and they won't shift.

GamblerGORD53

Last summer I rode my 120 lb tour bike 3,900 miles in the NW mountains. In several cities I got stuck going up super steep hills.
I had to put my FEET in 5 inch gear and BARELY was able to push it up. Vancouver, Seattle and old Tacoma. How the hell do they drive these places in the snow??? Another similar hill I barely made it DOWN with the brakes I had.

50PlusCycling

I pick up the pace a little bit to get a little momentum, and shift down as the climb progresses to keep the same cadence. When it becomes to steep to maintain cadence, I get out of the saddle.

This weekend is my first on the bike after the winter, my regular loop has a climb in the middle, and today I was standing to get over it. In 3 weeks I'll be able to get over it without getting out of the saddle. In 6 or 7 weeks I'll be able to climb it without shifting down. There are a few grades in my area over 15%, but thankfully they are not long.

79pmooney

Best approach? Do this hill enough that you can learn what works best for you. There is no one approach that is best for everyone. For some, getting into the low gears early is best, Others ride as far up the hill as possible in a big gear before shifting down. Some prefer to sit, others stand,

General observations: The faster you hit the hill and longer you can power on, the less of the hill you have to grind out. The better, faster, and cleaner you can shift, the less time and speed you lose shifting and the further you can ride with confidence in a bigger gear with speed. When hills get that steep, being comfortable standing is a huge plus. (Not everybody can.) This is where shifters that allow fast multiple cog shifts are a real plus. (I've never ridden modern index shifters so I do not know their limitations. I've relished the full cassette slam to a big cog on my downtube shifters forever. So I do not have direct advice for your shifters, But get to know them; really well if you can.

So? Practice, Attack those hills, Make it a mindset that you are beating it. Yes, you have to do it within your limits. Ignore others (except to watch for tricks they use that might help you). Also experiment with shifting sequences. An approach that might work for you is come into the hill on the big chainring and say your 2nd to biggest cog. Go in strong but before you bog down, drop down to the small chainring. You may well be able to use your momentum to get further up the hill before you need to do that last shift. Don't take this as the word. Try different approaches and you will learn that each hill has its best approach. With experience you will start seeing good approaches to hills you don't know. (Most of the time. I still get it badly wrong sometimes and I have been doing this 50 years.)

I grew up 2 miles from a 400' climb in 9/10s of a mile with a stretch near the top at ~17%. I had to walk around a gate at the bottom so it was always lowest gear from the start. In the middle I could shift up a cog or two, then back down for the steep part. It was hard. But doing that hill really helped my mindset on hills I had not seen before. Now I am a mountain goat by birth. If I said the gears I use, you might want to give up. But it isn't you vs anybody else, just you vs the hill. And you can win. You can beat any hill. The better your skills became (shifting, standing, planning), the easier those wins become.

Go tackle that hill. And come back and tell us about it.

Ben

79pmooney

When it snows in those cities, driving becomes a spectator sport. Pick a good hill or corner, find a safe place the cars cannot reach and ready yourself for hours of entertainment. (I used to live in Seattle, now in Portland.)

Ben

79pmooney

I never rode up Alba Rd. My winter in Santa Cruz I took my brand new Peter Mooney down it in a full on winter storm. The Mafac cantis worked superbly, One finger the first half, then going to two, Wet? There were inch deep rivers running across the road. (Alba Rd is a half Mt-Washington, NH only paved. The mountain might be paved now. It wasn't when I did it in '76 and '78.)

I went to your link. Nice colors. My memory is black and white. Dark grey skies. Mid January.

Ben

HTupolev

The classic:

JanMM

The steep hills I like best have downhills immediately preceding them.

Koyote

Some posters seem skeptical that the OP faces grades of 17%...Shoot, I can find that grade about 4 miles from my house. Then there's this 37% (peak) hill, which I rode up (along with a couple hundred other people) last November. Just watch this video, and you'll see a few different strategies -- get up off the saddle and grind up in a tall gear, stay seated and spin in a granny gear, etc.

brianmcg123

Lemond1985

I love it when the big guy does a "Frenchman's Wave". Classic:

fietsbob

Get in your granny gear, 3rd chainring , Before it's too late in the hill ...

get momentum up so some slack on the chain before forcing a chain derail

doing otherwise is how chains are forced apart.

honcho

Riding a tandem, we attempt to build up as much speed approaching a hill and use the momentum and downshifts to keep making progress to the top. However, most the the hills we encounter on our local rides aren't terribly steep or long. The worst thing is encountering a cyclist who stops in the uphill path or, worse, a group of pedestrians with a dog on a leash!

RaihanS

im bad at hills

ibanez350ex

hey thanks there, could i ask at here, if you keep the set up in the middle, middle chainring and middle of the cassette's, would that have a 'best of both' hill or flats effect, or maybe inclines and flat effect?
i know it sounds lazy lol but saves changing gears and and confusing self. i remember when i did an 11mile camel trail ride i only change gears a few times but it felt like you could just leave the setting as it was and go the distance without doing anything apart from pedalling and light braking.

clengman

I've tried canton ave a few times and have yet to master it. I've got a few dirty dozen hills under my belt at this point but not more than two in one ride. I'd love to be able to say I did the whole ride, but I doubt it's ever going to happen. I've got a lot of respect for all the finishers.

caloso

2003 SF Grand Prix:

Koyote

You should give it a try! According to Danny Chew, about half of the riders don't actually make it up all of the hills -- but it's still a great day, and a great way to see Pittsburgh. Seriously, it is one of the top five days I've had on a bike -- and I did it in 2018, when the weather was wretched - low 40s and raining most of the day.

BlazingPedals

There are a few hills around me that max out around 10%, but they're short. Rarely over 5% and rarely over 50 vertical feet. Staying behind the uprights in this terrain is a great workout, but not smart. If I stay behind them, they all lose speed quickly at the bottom, then just as I'm applying power and trying to maintain my speed, they all downshift, forcing me to hit the brakes. Then they stand and dance up the hill, leaving me behind (I can't stand up.) But, if I float out in front of them prior to the hill, I carry more speed into and partially up the hill. I'll lose speed; but at the top I'm still ahead of them. At that point I can either wait up for them or I can rub it in by making them chase me for a while.

On longer hills or really steep ones, like for instance 17%, they'll eventually catch back up and re-pass me; but those kind of hills are far from home and not encountered very often.