Granny ring or grind it out
barrowmatt
Posts: 104
At the moment i'm riding a mountain bike on the road but with locked out suspension and 1.5" slick tyres it's converted to a hybrid.
Today I decided to tackle a couple of hills, first was a short and sharp footpath and I got over it easily enough on the middle ring, took a bit out of me though and on the way back I had another climb with a couple of steep sections. I just stayed sat down and pushed my way slowly over them on the middle ring as I feel dropping to the granny ring on a road is a bit embarrassing, on a shortish ride too.
Should I have dropped to the granny ring and maintained as much cadence as possible? What is the best approach in terms of improving my cycling fitness?
Today I decided to tackle a couple of hills, first was a short and sharp footpath and I got over it easily enough on the middle ring, took a bit out of me though and on the way back I had another climb with a couple of steep sections. I just stayed sat down and pushed my way slowly over them on the middle ring as I feel dropping to the granny ring on a road is a bit embarrassing, on a shortish ride too.
Should I have dropped to the granny ring and maintained as much cadence as possible? What is the best approach in terms of improving my cycling fitness?
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Comments
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The best approach is always riding more. Drop to a gear you can maintain.0
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T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:The best approach is always riding more. Drop to a gear you can maintain.
That.
There is no shame in using a low gear. These days compact double chainsets seem to be increasingly common. There is a place for increasing resistance to less-than-comfortable levels to increase strength, but in general a faster cadence that you can maintain is generally preferable.0 -
+1s for the above. That said, the even the middle ring of an MTB will probably give you a lower gear than you'll get on a road bike so if you are thinking of getting a road bike, it might be as well to get used to not having that sort of low gear.Faster than a tent.......0
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Rolf F wrote:+1s for the above. That said, the even the middle ring of an MTB will probably give you a lower gear than you'll get on a road bike so if you are thinking of getting a road bike, it might be as well to get used to not having that sort of low gear.
Yes, good point; didn't think of that.0 -
Didn't consider thatRolf F wrote:+1s for the above. That said, the even the middle ring of an MTB will probably give you a lower gear than you'll get on a road bike so if you are thinking of getting a road bike, it might be as well to get used to not having that sort of low gear.
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I've just done the swap from a similar setup MTB (triple) to a road bike (again triple)
On the MTB it was very rare that I ever went off the top cog on the road, and even rarer to use the smallest cog (killer mile at mow cop etc)
I worked out the gear inches etc and the smallest gear on the road bike doesn't go as low as the middle cog on the MTB. So I would say you need to be confident you can ride in the middle gear or above before moving to a road bike.
I tend to grind rather than spin, I did a quick 20 mile the other day without moving off the big cog (on the road bike) but that was relatively flat compared to my normal routes and only had around 700ft of climbing. On the road bike I have had to drop to the granny ring on a good few occasions, I even worry a few times on really steep hills about whether or not I'm going to run out of gears - I hate the thought of trying to unclip my foot whilst struggling to turn the crank and get my foot down without falling off!0 -
Cadence is generally more productive than grinding out. Comes with practice0
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Better for your knees too!Cannondale SS Evo Team
Kona Jake CX
Cervelo P50 -
Will try it next time and see how it feels.
It wasn't completely killing me, I didn't have to stand up but have been trying to concentrate more on keeping cadence up instead of as i've recently done and been riding the bike single speed and not using the gears, middle ring and 6 on the back is a good cruising speed on the flat/downhill whilst still able to push over most typical rises without much effort.
I've only just started riding again so i'm just happy to be getting some miles in.0 -
Very large +1 for this as far as I'm concerned.ThatBikeGuy wrote:Better for your knees too!Mangeur0 -
Unless specifically training strength you should try to maintain over 80RPM on a hill..obviously the super steep ones (17%+) its gets more difficult.0
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DavidJB wrote:Unless specifically training strength you should try to maintain over 80RPM on a hill..obviously the super steep ones (17%+) its gets more difficult.
Is there any back up to such a specific comment? 80rpm on my lowest gear (39 x 27) equates to 9.0mph. If I could climb something like The Tumble (3 miles at 7.7% average) at that speed I would be more than happy and I'm not a beginner! I appreciate what you are saying but I think putting actual numbers can be misleading - I would say that when going uphill you should try to maintain a comfortable cadence (which differs for everyone) but at times you are likely to have to get out of the saddle and grind a bit. I would say that the lower the gear you can comfortably use the fresher your legs will stay but I also see people take that to the extreme and end up spinning a really low gear whilst going nowhere.0 -
Rolf F wrote:+1s for the above. That said, the even the middle ring of an MTB will probably give you a lower gear than you'll get on a road bike so if you are thinking of getting a road bike, it might be as well to get used to not having that sort of low gear.
But bear in mind a road bike will probably be lighter and will have less rolling resistance
It's just a hill. Get over it.0
