Gear Change for Climbing
 

I have an old steel Bianchi Alfana with Campi Avanti components. it is set up with a 30/40/50 Triple crankset and a 13-26, 8 cog set. I live in Colorado and do a fair amount of climbing and can hang and hammer with all my carbon fiber friends, however when we climb, I get dropped like a rock above 4-5% grades. I was looking for some recommendations on changing the rear cog set to aid in climbing. Thanks!

BTW - I know I need a new bike and I planing getting one this winter, but I am looking for a short term fix.

I'm in CO too and get dropped by "climber" types on sustained climbs of over 5%. My smallest gear is a 34/25, yours is a 30/26. The better climbers (that drop me) usually have larger gears.

I also weigh ~187lbs and they're usually ~140-155lbs and spend about 50% more time in the saddle than me. For me to be a better climber, it's a matter of losing weight and doing a lot more climbing. I won't say that you're in the same exact boat as me, but I don't think your gearing is hurting your climbing.

Per Joe Friel:

"Aerobic capacity is literally at the heart of success in endurance sport. Improvements in aerobic capacity have largely to do with how much blood (which contains oxygen) the heart pumps out to the working muscles with every beat. This is called “stroke volume” and has a lot to do with how much aerobic capacity you have. A purpose of training is to improve your stroke volume. There are basically two ways to do this. The first is to focus on the volume of your training. The heart responds to lots of time spent at higher-than-resting intensity (above about 50 percent of VO2 max) by becoming more efficient and effective which ultimately means pumping more blood per beat.

The other way to improve aerobic capacity is by doing high-intensity intervals, especially those done at about the power or pace associated with your VO2 max. At that intensity your heart rate is approaching maximum, so these are very hard efforts. This method will produce a higher stroke volume sooner than by relying only on volume. Most experienced athletes employ both strategies."

http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblo...-capacity.html

So, it's kinda just riding up hills harder. No bike can give you that...

you have an extremely low low gear. a 30/26 is tiny gear, the only way to climb faster is to getting stronger or get lighter.

That's it in a nutshell.

Climb hills and push. Don't push until you fry your legs and burn your lungs, just push. For example, if you're climbing at 7 mph, strive for 8 next time, then 9, then 10mph, etc. Try to maintain that speed at the highest cadence that is sustainable for you. Your heart rate will go up and you will work hard, basically like doing intervals. Do that often. Maybe every other day. Don't do it everyday to allow your body to recover.

It's a great way to loose weight too.

listen to this guy. gearing changes ain't gonna help if you are being dropped on a 5/6% grade when you're in a 30 inch gear.

You mean 30-tooth chain ring. LOL

Yea.. lower gears in the back is just going to make you even slower (but spin faster). To keep up you have to push at least similar gears as they do.

Thanks for the feedback and training tips. When I add up the weight difference, their bikes are 10 lbs less and they weigh 40 lbs less than I do. So until I can lose some more weight and get a new bike, I need to give a 50 lb back back for them to ride with! :lol: