Hi all. I've read lots of literature on cycling. Specifically, climbing. Being a 6'6 over 200lb monster (on it's way to 190), any little edge I can get in the hills I'll take. In most articles/books I've read, it's mentioned that when climbing, one should sit farther back on the saddle and hold the tops of the bars. I've certainly done this, and have noticed quite a difference, but don't understand why. Why is it better to only do this on hills? I can only assume it brings more muscles into play? Perhaps the lower back and glutes?

Thanks!
Cole

exactly

Take advantage of your size and weight by standing during the climbs. This will allow for more power while climbing and should improve your cardio at the same time.

try to keep a constant spin and move down gears before you reach the hill. with a constant spin you may take longer to get over the hill but you won't get tired out. If you start mashing and picking yourself off the saddle you might get faster but boy are you going to feel it later.

Moving back in the saddle allows for more leg extension and a longer, more powerful stroke. Holding the tops of the bars fosters a more upright, open-chest position for proper breathing while climbing. This ‘climbing’ position is not very aero, but, when climbing it does not matter. That’s why one would not be in that riding position when riding hard on the flats.

Well, you're not overtall, you're underweight....

Yuh know, I sure hate it when those skinny little pixies draft you to the bottom of the hill, and then glide away, but it is their only moment in the sun because the rest of the time they are somewhat overshadowed.....

Quickest thing you could do to climb faster is to get some crankarms proportional to your leg length. I like 5.3mm / inch of inseam, but Lennard Zinn likes to go even longer than that, and he makes various sizes of crankarm. Search on that name to find his website. I have T.A. Zephyr 185mm cranks, to match my 35" inseam, from Peter White Cycles. I have to guess, but at 6'6" I would figure you have an inseam between 36" and 37".

Train to climb by standing a lot (be very careful with your knees while doing this), and sitting and spinning with hard effort. You want to be about one gear too high for short periods on the steep sections, which will drop your cadence just enough to allow you to work on pulling up and recruiting the muscles on the front of your lower leg. Concentrate on kicking over the top of the pedal stroke too.

When you ride with the pixies, use the gear that will keep you in the low 90's or so, and spin your way to the top. You may never get all of them, but you may very well train to where you can get most of them.

Remember you have an aerodynamic edge on shallower slopes. Take off and let them chase, or even just keep the fast ones and let them draft, and that will put many of them in poorer condition to get you back on the steep slopes.

Thanks everybody for the replies.

SDS: Very helpful, thanks very much. I'll definitely give your advice a try, though those cranks may have to wait a little while. Currently, I usually try to sit and spin (on some of the bad boys around here, I never get over 50RPM in 39-27) up all hills, with a standing burst to pop me over the top or to keep me going on the longer hills (I have this horrible fear of tipping over, and this just seems less likely while standing), and will grab the hoods for leverage. However, from what galen said, holding the tops of the bars opens up the chest and allows better breathing. Is it a good idea to stand out of the saddle and hold on to the tops, or does the standing cancel out the positive effects of the tops by straightening out your chest while reaching to the hoods?

Thanks again,
Cole

g'day cole,

you need to practise so that you are comfortable climbing both in the saddle & out. On long climbs you will notice that the large majority of pro's will use both. Climbing out of the saddle allows you to use your body weight to assist your legs on the 'down stroke'. The majority of your weight should be 'over' the crank as it goes down. Your arms also come into play when climbing, moreso than at any other time. In the saddle with your hands on the top of the bars, you would be 'pulling' back toward yourself. out of the saddle, hands on the 'side' of the hoods, (or fingers wrapped around between the brake & the hood top), you would be pulling 'up' toward your chest. As one of the other posters mentioned, its important to go 'over the top' at a reasonable pace, don't start your recovery as soon as you reach the top...thats what down hills are for!,

cheers,

Hitchy

Ahhh, Hitchy, are you sure. Don't you pop it into the big ring/little cog and go for it to get max acceleration and then top speed as soon as possible after the crest?

There's also a school of thought that you should continue to "ghost pedal" on the downhill to pump the lactic acid out of the leg muscles, especially the calves, and to keep the ligaments and muscles supple for the next (inevitable) climb.

G'day rowan,

bloody taswegians....I didn't say stop pedalling....a lot of inexperienced racers, will do the climb as quickly as they reasonably can, then 'sit up' at the top....those still pushing behind will close up gaps quickly. At 200lbs, i'd suggest he's not gunna be 'redlining' his heart going down the other side....& thus his recovery will begin...you ar right about the 'ghost pedalling though...I made that mistake at the Alpine Classic a few years ago.....just cruised down Falls creek without pedalling, when I needed to pedal, I cramped straight away,

cheers,

Hitchy

If you are down at 50 rpm in 39 X 27, I highly recommend a triple crankset. For general riding across all terrain, I prefer 53-39-28 and an 11-21. For touring in Colorado or the Texas Hill country, I switch to an 11-27 or 12-27 with the same rings (you have to have the 11T to chase tandems downhill at 55mph). For the Mount Evans race I put MTB rings on the front end, 24-36-48 with 12-27.

It's rare that you can beat everybody, but staying above 90 rpm while seated will give you a huge advantage over where you are. Furthermore, the high rpms mean your legs are not trashed by the high-level efforts to get up the hill, and as soon as the grade lessens a little, you can turn up the speed fast, and anybody who has been mashing will not be able to catch you. Right then, they just don't have the legs.

I will stand up and stay up for a very long time (8 minutes or so) with relatively high rpms while training, because it really helps build muscles, but I rarely stand while climbing where competing (club ride or race) because for me it just uses too much energy. I will stand to relieve my butt and switch to different muscle groups and to surmount steep sections and top climbs, but that's about it.

The nominal capacity of Shimano FDs is 22T. That's why the road triples are 52-42-30 or 52-39-20. You can cheat on that some but shifting performance is degraded, combinations are limited, and reliability is reduced as the range is increased. I have actually heard people claim 29T differences work well, but I doubt it. I don't like to go past 25-26T. As parts wear out or if you get to order the pieces as you like, I would switch to 53-39-or-38-28 (I prefer the 38T) and whatever cassette you need. If you are ordering from scratch, the Ultegra triple works just fine, but the high-cap XTR derailleur works even better. It seems to me that the XTR RD comes in two sizes, the low-cap and the high-cap, and I prefer the high-cap. On the front you want a road triple FD, because the contour of the outer cage plate matches the radius of the big road ring.

It's better to get rings with ramps and pins and gates, but if you find yourself choosing between ramps and pins and gates and getting rings that have the number of teeth that you want, get the rings with the right number of teeth. STI shifts well enough even without the ramps and pins and gates.

I used to ride with a man who was 69 years old. He rode on club rides like he was in his 40's. Tough, tough, guy. He swore he would never get a triple, but his cassette was big enough so you could flip it over and eat pie off it (it was as big as a plate). I would look at that and think of the big gaps between gears and how he could go even faster if his gears were closer together. And that is the advantage of a triple when you are not in the hills: you can put on a smaller cassette and get your climbing gears out of the small ring, and have smaller gaps between gears on the other two rings.

Wimpy people might laugh at you for having a triple, but they will not be around at the top of the hill, and the strong guys who did not laugh at you will be lining up behind you for the draft.