So that's what was going on...

Seriously, when I first started riding, I commuted to/from work every day (about 5 miles each way) and there are many relatively short, steep grades to overcome. When I'd hit these hills, my leg muscles would instantly fatigue, as if my life force was being sucked away. I always wondered if other cyclists had gone through something similar. My upper legs were always pretty muscular, but the muscles themselves were not especially defined. Now when I walk by the mirror in the bedroom I think out loud, "are those MY guads!?" And then my wife rolls her eyes and tells me I need to do some sit ups.

You mean like this? Click here

I hate trying to shifting to the granny gear only to find out I'm already in it.

So I take a 2 minute break.

We can ride together.

The muscles that gave me the most pain were the tendon and ligament groups around the knee and upper/inside of my legs, and the associated hamstring muscles. For weeks it was the same nagging dull pain, which eventually went away the more I rode, and the more I worked on a complete pedaling stroke, and learned about pacing on a climb. Aspirin was my friend during that time. I probably would have experienced less pain if I didn't do the climbing rides as frequently. I was doing hour long climbing rides at least 4 times a week. And on weekends I'd do a longer climbing ride, plus one day of mostly flat, longer rides.

Its the one I never seem to have.

Hi

I want hills to be as easy as possible, and am already using compact chain rings, but my rear cassette is standard shimano ultegra and has a big gear of 27. The biggest three gears come in an assembly so you can't just change the big gear individually. Is there any way that I can get 29 or 30 for my biggest gear in an Ultegra compatible arrangement. Will this have any implications for chain length etc.

Davida

Gads, if a 34/27 isn't cutting it you'd be faster carrying your bike up the hill. Are you hitting these hills with a loaded touring rig? You'd be hard pressed finding higher than 27 outside of MTB cassettes. Are you running 9spd Ultegra or 10? Otherwise, a triple chainring would give you a 30/27 arrangement, but you might need to swap out your right shifter and rear derailler to accomplish this.

A 34/27 at 80 rpm moves you at about 8 mph. I don't know about you, but I would probably not reach that speed running up a steep grade with a bike slung over my shoulder. Even if I did, I would not be able to maintain it for an hour. Besides, I would never feel like I conquered the hill if I had to get off and walk.

Davida, IRD makes cassettes with 32 and 34 cogs, but at about $150 it might be better to just switch to a triple up front.

Bailout gear generally costs upwards of $700 billion.

walking up the hill is for when your bailout gear can't get you up the hill.
which happens when you try and use 11-21 on a 53/42 on a 20% grade.

26x34 isn't enough in the snow sometimes, because of the massive amount of friction from the snow build up on your fenders

that said, for me, in flat as a board, but sometimes windy toronto area, 34x25 is low enough, even for going up short 20% grades.

actually, in toronto and surrounding areas, you can get away with a 1x# setup with 39 or 42 chainring and 11-25 cassette and never run out of low or high range gear.

I guess that would make these my bail out gear:

I might be 5 years too late, but this thread is near the top of what Google gave me for "bailout gear". The rest seems to refer to something else entirely.

34-32

Some days on fire roads, it's been the "first half of the day gear" .

30Fx34R on my touring bike.

Someone mentioned a 20% grade. I am not sure if I've ever seen one, much less climbed it.....

Note even a small hill with 40% ?

I didn't read the thread, so forgive a duplication of something said earlier.

In case it wasn't said, or the person who resurrected the thread missed it, I've always used the term "bailout gear", or "bailout granny" to refer to a granny or smaller chainring added to a bike with more typical road gearing, to provide added low gears for that unusual hill, or situation, yet keeping the overall range and combinations suited to the bulk of riding in flt or rolling terrain.

A typical "bailout granny" set up might be a 12-26 cassette, with 42-50 chainrings, and a 28t or smaller granny added. In essence it's a triple front setup that you ride like a double 99% of the time, then "bailout" to the granny when your legs say "I quit".

I use this kind of bailout gearing on my touring bike in lieu of a larger cassette because it gives me a better selection of closely spaced gears for the road, so it's geared like my 2x? road bike, but has the bailout for surprises.

A gear I've never used, considering my remarkable fitness level.

Mine is 36x28, aka >10% grade, aka stand on those pedals or die.

34x32 is my lowest gear ratio for bailout.

Goshen st in Mission Valley is as close as it gets down there. I highly recommend it.

That's my gearing. I'm using Q-Rings up front. On steep hills I shift it straight into the 28T at the start of the climb.

I've got a 50/34 crank and a 11-32 cassette on my road bike. I consider the 32t cog my "bailout" gear reserved only for the hardest of climbs. Generally I climb in 25 or 28.