Slogging up Hill.
Comments
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The only time I get off the bike on a hill is when whatever was in my belly wants to hit the ground or when my vision goes so blurry I cant actually tell what direction i'm going.0
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I Don\'t Get It wrote:Thank you Mr Chuck!!!
I'm beginning to think all the others have blown a gasket in their brainboxes by their constant exertions, and denial of the laws of physics!
I think there are additional factors - there is a minimum speed at which you can pedal before it becomes difficult to balance, therefore if its a really steep hill you may end up pedalling faster than you'd wish to in order to maintain your balance. At very slow speeds, you are also expending energy in keeping the bike balanced - you get the exact opposite effect when pushing as you are using the bike to aid your balance.0 -
i aint no super fit person nor ever will be but....
A couple of years ago a mate came to visit and doing a bit of fireroad climbing he got off. Being a good pal I dropped to my granny rings and just pootled beside him. pushing is harder for me than riding it out. i found it took me longer to recover and spoilt a ride. Sometimes I have had no choice (traction, mentality beaten and geography) but as long as i can keep balance I will ride it out.
I have found my own style of riding with my toes pointing down and tend to flick the peddles backwards towards the bottom of the stroke works for me going up hill. eg, heel down until at 5 oClock then flick the ankle forward and through the stroke. it works for me so hey!fly like a mouse, run like a cushion be the small bookcase!0 -
It is a balance as keeping momentum is key, it come down to aerobic or anaerobic exertion. Unless you have the heart and lung capacity to be truly efficent it can be more efficent to use muscle power. I prefere a taller gear then stand on the pedals, use as much body weight, upper body strength and mechanical advantage as you can. If drop below 5mph then it is better to push it and have a breather, though I likea lowish gear and high cadance on the flat when momentum is greater.Radioactiveman wrote:captainfly wrote:When pushing you can use your body weight to help you push, where as pedaling is all muscle. I have found that spinning in to low a gear is what wastes energy up hill try a taller gear.
Seems odd I thought spinning an easy gear used less energy as less force was required to turn the cranks?-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Mongoose Teocali
Giant STP0
Why are MTB economics; spend twice as much as you intended, but only half as much as you wish you could afford? :roll:0 -
It is down to fitness, practice, cadence (a big factor, as mentioned by GHill), and sheer dogged determination.
I absolutely love climbing hills and, believe it or not, it's the thought of doing exactly that that makes me want to get on the bike on a regular basis. Some people just don't like climbing and I think that while ever you have that frame of mind, you will find it difficult. I find that, like in all other aspects of riding, looking ahead helps greatly, and concentrating on your cadence really makes a difference, rather than just trying to stamp down on the pedals.
I know this might sound strange, but try and have ten second sprints (or at least a faster pace than you generally maintain) every so often while climbing, and you will find that things become much easier. And, keep a positive mind - if you start having doubts while climbing, you will certainly make it harder, and may be even give up once you've convinced yourself that it's too hard.0 -
Johnny Napalm wrote:It is down to fitness, practice, cadence (a big factor, as mentioned by GHill), and sheer dogged determination.
^+1 on that for sure.
One thing I have noticed in this Thread is that everyone is beaten by a climb sometime.
Practice does make the difference. In fact I am back off to Cannock today to take on that mofo ascent between FtD part1 and 20 -
It's funny when I started biking I realised because of where I live (Peaks, in a valley surrounded by high hills in every direction) that I had no alternative but to become a hill climber if I wanted to get out and about and do the great natural riding around me.
I started off going out the back gate and hitting the first road out and got a third the way up and died and that was using the granny ring. Now, in middle ring, 18 months down the line of doing that almost daily, that first hill now only kick starts my heart and lungs for a 5 mile hill climbing loop that I do for fun fitness rides now.
And i actually burn that route off doing daily interval training. My weight loss, reduced body fat and increased muscle-age has made it possible to actually shave minutes off the route with personal best times. But I vary things and keep things fresh.
The right gear and cadence automatically follows if you're concentrating on what you're doing and what your body is telling you. Over the 18 months, on a 24 speed bike, I don't think there's a gear combination I haven't used to get to where i am now. It's down to practice, regular repetition, breathing technique and pure psychology.0 -
technicaly, on a propperly set up bike, you have the mechanical advantage, so it should be easyer, but its not, this is becouse the muscles used for walking are so commonly used, and so well trained and exercised that you find it easy... but for the bike the muscles are not used as much and therefore are less able to keep going at a high work load for a long period. really it all comes down to, not so much overall fitness (although this will play a part) as your BIKE fitness, there is a difference.I like bikes and stuff0
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joshtp/mbukman wrote:technicaly, on a propperly set up bike, you have the mechanical advantage, so it should be easyer, but its not, this is becouse the muscles used for walking are so commonly used, and so well trained and exercised that you find it easy... but for the bike the muscles are not used as much and therefore are less able to keep going at a high work load for a long period. really it all comes down to, not so much overall fitness (although this will play a part) as your BIKE fitness, there is a difference.
Once you've lost you're initial momentum, any advantage the bike has in terms of efficiency is pretty much lost when going uphill - I seriously doubt there is any mechanical advantage.
Thinking about it, I don't even think it has anything to do with leverage either - bikes are efficient because you can free-wheel - the steeper the hill gets, the more this advantage is lost until you pass a point where it would be more efficient to push the bike.0 -
I love hills0
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Mongoose Teocali
Giant STP0
Why are MTB economics; spend twice as much as you intended, but only half as much as you wish you could afford? :roll:0 -
captainfly wrote:
meh wither way i'm not ars*d but there's an old saying, whatever goes up must come down so I totally agree mate haha
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Well stick a ladder up the side of your house and use your mechanical advantage to ride up that! (I'll willingly strap the bike to my back, climb up, and drape it over the chimney pots.)
There is a sloping concrete sea wall I regularly carry sea gera up and down. It varies between about 30 degrees and 45 degrees at its steepest part, and is about 40 yards from bottom to top. (Embankment of an old railway line cur into the hillside and now a road.)
It has no lack of grip being rough concrete, but I can't see it as rideable.You couldn't keep the cranks spinning past top and bottom dead centre. (And even if you could you'd backflip.) It would be no problem to carry the bike though.
Face it demon climbers: even you must have limitations no matter how many Desperate Dan Cow Pies you scoff!
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Nah. It's you. You're being a fanny. 0
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Well if I'm a fanny, why do I dream of Raquel Welch, fall out of bed in excitement, and hurt myself? (I'm gonna sue her for aggravated injury! It puts me off riding my bike.) 0
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blister pus wrote:Nah. It's you. You're being a fanny.
+potato!
Keep ti real, we're mountain bikers not foot up trials motorcycle riders.. we don't have the added edge of an internal combustion engine beneath our @sses
I have a friend who is a roadie and man he kills me on hills when we ride MTBs. He puts it down to training and mindset which seems to be the common message here that you just don't want to acknowledge. There is no panacea for hill climbs other than training combined with mindset..0 -
Quote.
He puts it down to training and mindset which seems to be the common message here that you just don't want to acknowledge.
I CAN ride hills. I AM fit. I HAVE the right mindset! What part of what I've been saying are you unable to understand?0 -
People do understand but you're posts are mostly pointless to real world cycling and experience. Best thing for you is a cyclo-cross bike and to start posting in the cyclo-cross forum.
Personally, I'd ban you. 0 -
because you have to fight against sliding backwards, when your pushing you dont have to do this.
^ sorry if that makes no sense0 -
so do istealthelite1986 wrote:I love hills
when my back wheel isnt spinning with little or no grip and the front isnt popping off the ground 0 -
I did a jaunt at Cannock after work today
There are a few hills at Cannock that own my [currently not {quite} fit enough] @ss
Anyway instead of using the granny / innermost chainring I stayed on the centre chainring and also in the middle of the rear cassette, so instead of pedaling like a crazed Wile E. Coyote on an Acme Corp. bike, I was pedaling slower and more methodically.
It worked for me, I did a lot better climbing the hills today than I've ever done. At last I've rediscoverrd the technique that suits me and that I used to use on the hardtail.0 -
Raymondavalon wrote:I was pedaling slower and more methodically.
Get the breathing right with that (think metronomic and in your own world) and that's your building block. After that it's repetition / regularity and incrementally pushing things. And that's about it. I'm always surprised at how much concentration I have to use hill climbing to keep it all together too.0 -
I've been training my legs down the gym recently (usually only do upper body at gym and legs on the bike/at work) and I tell you what I haven't struggled on any hills lately. Working my way up to the full 200lbs on the leg press machine (quads) and 160lbs on the calf one over the last month has really made a huge difference to my climbing and sprinting. Only realised on the way home tonight when I took a different route and tackled a hill that used to leave me gasping when I took it on out the saddle.... absolutely flew up it today.
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there is some thing down somewhere ( might be on here) about low gears pedaling fast / high gears pedaling slow on hills, if i remember right pedaling fast uses fast twitch muscle groups, low and hard use low twitch muscle groups, the fast twich muscles recover faster where the low twitch take much longer, eg when your back at home.0
