Tips for getting up hills.

nolance

As a beginner to road cycling I would be glad if any of you guys or girls can help me.As I live in Cumbria I often encounter hills,not mountains I hasten to add.The problem is if they are steep I seem to get stuck in a gear where I slow so much that eventually I have to get off and push.What is the knack of approaching a hill and getting up without running out of steam?
I am reasonably fit but find it difficult to change down the gears once I am struggling
Is it a case of getting into the easiest gear when I see a hill approaching?
Any advice would be gratefully accepted,other than to pack in !!!!

ash68

welcome to the madhouse Nolance. Think you've got the right idea in your post. IMO it's good to start thinking of what gear you're in before hitting the hill.Try to get into a gear where you can maintain good leg speed, steady breathing and work your way up the hill. If you find your struggling in that gear, ease the pedal pressure as you change down a gear to give a smoother gearshift.Think alot of it comes with practise, the more hills you do, the better you will adapt to them.If it's a long hill sometimes it's good to get out of the saddle and climb standing up, it helps to ease your muscles for a short while, then sit and climb steadily again.personal choice really and others will offer different/better advice than me. If you find you're running out of gears, i.e. in bottom gear and still struggling, it may be worth talking to your bike shop about a wider ratio cassette or smaller chainrings.This would give a lower bottom gaer and possibly make it easier for you.

Smokin Joe

Bottom gear to begin the climb riding at a pace well within your limits. Wait until you get into a rythym you can cope with before attempting to increase your speed or change to a higher gear. Changing up on hills is no problem, having to change down because you are overgeared destroys your rythym and will leave you struggling.

On approach take about ten seconds of deep breaths to fill your lungs with oxygen and unzip your top as your temerature will rise quickly on a steep climb. On longer climbs don't keep your gaze on the horizon as it can destroy your moral if you never seem to be getting any closer, look just far enough ahead to stay safe.

ean

Have a look here for some good info on climbing.

Steve I

Yeah I agree, get into a low gear before you hit the steep parts. Once you're grinding away on the steep bits it's hard to select a lower gear without crunching the gears and risking damaging them. You can do it by doing a very short, aggressive sprint to get enough momentum to be able to ease off the pedals a bit and shift.

Other than that, try to remain seated for the whole climb, standing up on very long climbs is for the super fit, even then it hurts a lot. Be especially careful standing up when climbing in the wet as your back wheel can spin and cause a heart stopping moment. It can even spin when seated if your gearing is too high and you need to apply lots of torque.

BTW I'm jealous, I like hills and it's completely flat for miles around where I ride in North Merseyside and Lancashire. I have to ride out 16 miles to get to some decent hills.

giant_man

You lucky thing you living in lovely Cumbria.

Christ I wish ..... all those wonderful hills!!

Cajun

If you find that changing gears is almost impossible due to the chain tension; do a 'serpentine' ride to ease the tension (i.e., right-across to the opposite side, then left-across back to the side, repeat....repeat...) this will ease the tension on the rear-derailleur (and your knees/legs) and allow you to shift to a larger rear cog. If your routes have a steady supply of hills, then I'd recommend you change out the rear cluster to something that your knees/legs/ability can handle....time in the saddle and miles of hills will improve your performance....we all have our limits, no matter how long we've been riding...what you don't want to do, is to hurt your knees by over exertion; what you do want to do, is to be healthy enough to ride 30 years from now... 8)
http://www.cptips.com/climb.htm

Steve I

Good common sense advice from Cajun. However, if you do zig- zag make sure there's no cars or bikes around you as someone (a former professional.) very nearly took me out on the Bwlch y Groes during the Wild Wales challenge this year. He zig zagged right across the road without looking and I ran straight into him. I managed to stay upright and clipped in, if I'd stopped there'd have been no chance of getting going again on such a steep climb.

John C.

Who was it who said
Fail to prepare, Prepare to fail !

The same goes in cycling so start small and progress. Start with a small hill and in a low gear. If you sruggle use a lower gear, gears are there to be used so if you have a very low gear use it. Take your time , this is not a race, do not look up at the steep bit in front of you, look to the side and admire the veiw, See how low you can get your heart rate without stopping, in short ride easy, keep your heart rate low and you will be OK. the speed will come in time. Enjoy.

peanut

sounds like you have two problems here. first is possibly difficulty in changing gear when riding hard up a hill and secondly you may not have a suitable cassette on your bike for the rides you are doing.
Easiest first count the number of teeth on the big and small rings of your chainset and then count the teeth on the smallest and largest sprockets of your cassette and post them back here so we can advise you further.
If you are new to cyling in hilly country I would advise a 12-27 tooth cassette or 13-28t unless you are very unfit or the hills are mountains you shouldn't need any thing larger than 28tooth on a road bike.

I suspect that your bike may have been supplied with a 50tooth and 42 tooth front chain rings. If that is the case you need to change the 42tooth to a 39 tooth which will make a tremendous difference.There are lots of cheap chainrings on ebay or your local bike shop (LBS) will have one . Best to get one that matches the existing chainset but there are plenty of substitutes by Sugino, Mavic, Stronglight etc

As to changing gear up hills if gears are set up correctly there should be no problems whatsoever changing up and down even standing up.I have no issues on my bikes so if there are any problems with other posters its because the gears are not set up correctly or you need to practice your technique .

Steve I

Peanut, to take issue with a few things you said. Swapping a 42 tooth ring for a 39 will help but certainly won't make a tremendous difference, it's about the equivalent of one tooth on the back sprockets.

Secondly, we're all different, some people may need an 18 front and 34 rear to get up steep hills. No way could all cyclists get up all the hills they meet on a 39 front and 28 rear. That might appliy to fit, well trained cyclists, even then some of them prefer compact chainsets or triples.

Lastly, nothing up with my gears. You're not seriously suggesting that you can shift gear on something like a 1 in 5 hill without some technique to ease off the pressure on the pedals while maintaining enough momentum are you? Like I said, attempting that is risking damaging parts of the transmission. I use a short sprint, Cajun rides across the road a bit to level off the slope. We are talking about proper hills here aren't we? not uphill drags, the OP lives in Cumbria.

BTW, apologies nolance, we've probably confused the hell out of you by now.

nickwill

As someone who lives in Cumbria, I would suggest low gearing is a must for any of our bigger climbs. Most of the people I ride with, now use a 50, 34 compact chainset, with at least a 25 tooth sprocket at the back, often a 27.
Standing up on hills isn't a problem, and I like to sit and stand on climbs at about a 50% ratio.
This means you use different muscle groups, and give your back a rest.
The best advice I can give you is to keep at it. The more climbing you do, the better it gets.

ash68

good post nickwill, agree totally with lowering gears for riders from very hilly areas.I bought my giant tcr with a 30/42/52 triple chainset, never regretted it yet. I'd rather have low gears for when i need them , than bugger up my knees by straining in too high a gear. Next bike may go for a compact 34/50 like you suggest with probably 27 tooth on the back. Some might get away with 39 chainrings, but not me.

stevejmo7

Definately pedalling in circles helps - a number of times when I've been about to fade I've started to pull up on the pedals and the change in speed is very noticable. Also, if you are in a group, then if you have to get out of the saddle, put in a little harder push to slightly accelerate first as, when you stand up, you automatically drop back enough for the rider behind to touch wheels if they are not wary/experienced. Yesterday I nearly came off when the bloke in front got out of the saddle uphill into a strong headwind and I had to brake hard enough that the guy behind me nearly hit me.

muz250

Having a triple realy dose help if you new to cycling, I was using double before and now that I have a triple it not only helps me get up the hill, but helps saves your energy for the rest of the ride. I go for the sitting and standing method, feels better for me when am standing but my speed is pritty much the same, I find just helps rest different muscles as was said Nickwill.

oldwelshman

As you ride more you will learn to improve your climbing technique and will get stronger.
I cannot agree with the advice of sticking it in lowest gear at start of the climb.
all climbs are different so it would depend on how steep the climb is.
If it starts off with a moderate gradient why would you stick it in lowest gear and and up spinning too fast?
With experience you will get to know by the look of a slope what gears you require and know when to change.
Lots of climbs have different gradients so it is inevitable to require gear changes on the slope.
If your on a slope and you are about to climb a steepr section, then accelerate just a bit so you can ease tension to drop a gear or two before you start the steep bit.
If your on a steep but and have no gears, the last resort is to zig zag to reduce the grade, but if you climbing such a slope regularly and get oof, then you need lower gears.

SteveR_100Milers

I think one of the great things about sti levers is that you can change up and down whilst climbing. Sure if you are giving it max effort then you are going to struggle to cog it donw without some horrible noises from the transmission, but its still do-able with practice.

John C.

Just out of interest for you , if I know I'm in for a 100 mile+ V. hilly ride I use a bike that has a 26/42/52 front triple with a 12-32 rear. The gears change faultlesly with a deoreXT rear mech and a tiagra front. As I get stronger I use the bottom gears less and less but the fact they are there is a big confidance booster. Some people do snear at them but on that 25% hill on the 100 mile mark there are people pushing who would give their eye teeth for my low gears.

pjh

I've just changed from a triple to a compact arrangement and must admit I'm finding the difference quite tough to deal with!

I'm certainly having to stand and sit now where previously I could sit all the way

Pacing yourself is key .... as someone wisely said ... "it's about getting up them first, and then about how fast second" :-)

Felix-da-house-mouse

sit back with your back straight as poss and get the weight onto the pedals and your lungs are opened right up.

nolance

Can I firstly thank everyone for taking the time to give me advice on getting up hills.
My bike is a Giant SCR 2.0 with a triple chainring on the front(52 on the big ring and 30 on the small) and the cassette is 9 sprockets with I think 12 up to 25 teeth.
The hills I am talking about are probably not steep to some of you guys but they feel like Mont Ventoux to me!!
What combination of gear and sprocket should I be using as I attempt to get up these monsters?

ash68

IMO on the steady,not too steep climbs use the middle chainring, which is probably 42 teeth and select a gear you can turn over at a steady pace without straining too much, and without spinning the pedals wildly. On the monster/really steep climbs I would use the 30chainring and the smallest sprocket I could keep a good cadence/leg speed on.You can always select smaller gears if you ease off the pedals slightly. As you have seen advice from fellow cyclists varies alot. What some reccomend, others scoff at. It's up to you to sort out what works best for you, as we are all different and have different cycling styles and strengths and weaknesses.Don't be afraid to experement with the different advice given and you'll soon know what works for you.

peanut

Steve I wrote:

Peanut, to take issue with a few things you said. Swapping a 42 tooth ring for a 39 will help but certainly won't make a tremendous difference, it's about the equivalent of one tooth on the back sprockets.


.

Steve I don't mind you taking issue with my opinion provided it is constructive and it is accurate.
Unfortunatly your critism is niether accurate or in my view constructive.

firstly if the OP had a 42 chain ring and a 27 highest sprocket on the rear his gear inches would be say 42.0 inches for sake of argument .(depending on wheel dia and tyre etc)

Using a 39 tooth chainring instead of a 42t with a 27t rear would give 39 " a gain of 3"
That is a very welcome gain when you are dying on a hill with no higher gear available I can tell you.
More importantly the same gain is worth 2x sprockets on a 42" chainringt and 2x sprockets on a 39t chainring l not 1x sprocket as you have wrongly claimed

2x sprockets or 3 inches is is a significant gain when it is for free.

If you put a 38t chainring on the front instead of a 39t you would gain a maximum of 4" which is almost 3x sprockets !..now tell me that isn't worth having for the price of a single chainring !

Oh ....and if you are crunching gears when changing up a hill I'm afraid it is either your setup or your technique thats at fault.

OllyUK

When Hill Climbing I reccomend starting slow, get in the appropriate chain ring for the hill and then fine tune with the cogs going up the hill. I also tend to get faster as I get nearer to the crest. Find a pace you can maintain and just concentrate on the rhythm of it

oldwelshman

OllyUK wrote:

When Hill Climbing I reccomend starting slow, get in the appropriate chain ring for the hill and then fine tune with the cogs going up the hill. I also tend to get faster as I get nearer to the crest. Find a pace you can maintain and just concentrate on the rhythm of it

Good advice, unless your in a race and getting dropped, then you go as hard as you can to keep up until you fall off!!
Once your dropped, you normally stay dropped.

Steve I

Peanut,

My apologies if I seem to have come across a bit harsh. You're quite right in saying that swapping a 42t chainring for a 39t gives you a 3 inch lower gear and if you're running a double, that might make the difference between walking or riding on those real killer hills. From my own experience, I just don't think 3 inches is all that much. Other people, including you, think differently, fair enough, just differences of opinion.

Can we sort it out with a hill climb race? - then I can prove to you that I don't crunch the gears going uphill ( BTW, I never said I did).

Nolance,

If you ride the same hills regularly you'll get to know the gear combinations that you can use on them. If you're unsure of how to approach a hill, particularly if you don't know it, then use the inner 30 tooth chainring and change at the back as appropriate, there's a full cassette of sprockets to use with that 30 tooth ring. Also, the inner chainring is where your very bottom gear is, if the hill goes too steep for the 42 middle ring you won't be able to get into the 30 inner ring.

John C.

Nolance if you are still worried about your bike just swap your inner chain ring for 26 and you will climb anything. Low gears bring confidance, confidence lets you ride all the way to the top. If you cann't do this your LBS should be able to do it for you and if they cann't or are reluctant to do so go else where, a mountain bike specialist would probably be the best bet.

oldwelshman

Bloody hell, I can imagine climbing on a 26 front and 30 rear
I would have more trouble balancing the bike at the speed you would get with that low a gear
Would be harder to balance than pedal.
There comes a time where you might as well get off and walk as that speed would be around 1.5mph unless you spin at 200 rpm.

peanut

Steve I wrote:

Peanut,



Can we sort it out with a hill climb race? - then I can prove to you that I don't crunch the gears going uphill ( BTW, I never said I did).
.

ok as long as I don't have to do it on a 20t front and a 30t rear lol

Oh and as long as you promise not to crunch ya gears ok !

John C.

oldwelshman wrote:

Bloody hell, I can imagine climbing on a 26 front and 30 rear
I would have more trouble balancing the bike at the speed you would get with that low a gear
Would be harder to balance than pedal.
There comes a time where you might as well get off and walk as that speed would be around 1.5mph unless you spin at 200 rpm.

You spin as you say. Yes you can just about walk as fast, well you can. the point is when you are learning and are afraid of hills it gives you confidence, and once you've got confidence you can ride the hills. I've lost count of people I've past walking up hills because pride prevents them from using low gears, once you push up one hill you panic at the next and your confidence goes.