Climbing advice.........

Discowheels

May seem a daft question to some BUT.........

I have been working on my climbing skills and have been trying to avoid using my climbing gears on hills - i understand this will put more stress on my chain but a friend of mine is adamant i stop this right away as it will knacker more than just my chain. Im unsure - any advice guys??

porker33

I found this recent article interesting...

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... ttle-27049

cougie

What cadence are you using on the hills ? If you're going much under 60rpm then I'd say to use a lower gear. You dont want to strain your knees too much.

Pross

I'd be more worried about knackering your body. I would say ride more hills using a comfortable cadence and try to ride them harder.

Discowheels

Cheers guys - thanks for the advice. Im at work at the mo, but ive printed that article out to read later so cheer Porker

I am quite confident in my climbing ability as its something ive worked on for a while. A year or two ago i would have avoided hills if i could but now i love them

Obviously any strains i feel on knees or thighs i take it easier, but i was asking more from a mechanical POV. I wouldnt want to be damaging me bike by doing this

John.T

It does not make much difference to the bike. If you are riding up a hill with X% gradient using a gear ratio of Y" the pedal pressure will be the same wether you are on the big ring or the small one. The chain tension will however be greater on the small ring so in theory the wear will be greater on this ring. This is not really worth bothering about though. Just use the gears you find best at the time.
Forcing up hills in a big gear came be useful for strength training but in small doses only. Too much can damage joints and muscles.

Discowheels

Just what i was hoping for John.T

Cheers

KingCustard

Out of interest, how would you find out what % a certain hill is?

Bobbinogs

KingCustard wrote:

Out of interest, how would you find out what % a certain hill is?

There are lots of route/mapping tools out there, everyone has a particular favourite. I use mapmyride.com which is fairly straightforward to use, has a nice hybrid mapping view and gives you the elevation. The elevation shown, denoting percentage climb and ascent/descent, does get quite inaccurate for the gradient the longer the distance mapped (since it averages over a fixed range). Hence, if you want accurate figures then just map the hill to a max of about 2-3 miles.

The ascent results are good for the whole ride though and give very useful info (as in, if you are doing a 50 that shows over 2, 500 ft of climbing then it is going to be hard work ).

Giant Phil

I do seem to remember talking a guy down the club who'd been warned off big gear usage by his doctor because he was displaying symptoms of an enlarged heart. I don't know if this is of relevance, but as mentioned in a previous post, a big gear can do damage to your body, I'm not convinced that the bike would suffer too much.

Phil

Hals1967

Funny how most cyclists start off hating hills...then all of a sudden look forward to them !

Never thought it would happen to me...but it has.