Elevating front wheel on a trainer
 

When I ride on my trainer I elevate my front wheel on a step to put me in a climbing position. The step is 6.5 inches high, any idea what % gradient that equates to?

Thanks.

What's the length of your bike, wheelbase?

arctan(6.5/(length of bike in in.)) = gradient?

It won't affect resistance just so you know.

Gradient % is simply rise/run. 6.5 inches / wheelbase of bike.

How does elevating your wheel on a trainer change the load or effort necessary to replicate climbing? Seems that increasing the resistance on the trainer would be the way to to go.

^^^ It doesn't increase the load but it will put your body in a different position, for example to work on standing climbing

arctan will get his degree angle...

for % grade:

(6.5 - <how high off the ground your rear wheel is in in.>)/<wheelbase in in.> * 100% = % grade

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_%28slope%29

It won't change the resistance, but mixed with a trainer with adjustable resistance, the slightly different angle of raising the front wheel seams to make me feel like I am using a slightly diffrent set of muscles. Climbing has alot ot do with adjusting your posture.

It does not change the load/effort, but it does change the relative positioning of the saddle to the bars. That affects weight on your arms as well as the technique you use. When climbing all day, I tweak the setup since I ride further back on the saddle. Also, I like the nose down just slightly.

It also changes the muscle groups you use when pedaling...

It is an effective technique to work the same muscles you use when climbing...

Combine it with cranking the resistence, and its about as good as us flatlanders can do.

Elevating the front wheel changes the direction of the gravity vector relative to the bike and rider. If the resistance to pedaling were in the same direction as gravity, there might be some sense to this argument, but since the entire resistance to pedaling comes through the chain, chainrings, and crankarms, and since elevating the front does not change the relative position of any of these, the same muscles will be used to pedal regardless of bicycle orientation.

If you are sitting then that may be true. If you are standing, it is not necessarily true. Edit: Bottom line is that the position on the bike affects the muscles being used, but changing the orientation of the bike makes certain positions easier or more natural to maintain.

Personally i would avid to much climbing or high resistance loads on the turbo. Its not a normal climbing feel, watch you dont get problems with your knees. I dont get Knee problems, but riding alpe duez a few times in a few days on RLV (real life video) on iMagic my knees stated to play up.

First off thanks to everyone for the responses.

My bikes wheelbase is 38 3/8 inches. Do I divide 6.5 inches by the WB?

I know it's not the same as climbing out on the road but I'm off to the French Alps in 2 weeks for some fairly serious climbing.
I just figured I would use the trainer when the weather was bad, and put the front wheel up to simulate the position that I'm going to be spending a lot of time in very shortly.

not 6.5, but 6.5 minus the height of the rear wheel.

Your front wheel is 6.5 in off the ground, but not 6.5 in higher than your back wheel. You need the difference between the two wheels.

My back wheel is only 1/4 inch off the ground, so the difference is 6 1/4 inches or 6.25 inches.