hill climbing in a bigger gear

make mine a triple

Hi everyone, the clue is in my username , but after a bit of internet research with no success
I wonder if anyone has an opinion on the most efficient training for my particular hill climbing weakness.
I feel most comfortable pedalling at 100-110 rpm, and on hills up to 10% whilst my cadence drops a bit, I still feel best pedalling fast rather than mashing a big (for me!) gear

Problem is my current lowest gear is 30/27 and I would like to build up to pedalling
at the same rate on say 30/23 equivalent as I would like to get a compact as a next bike.

Here is my test hill if you like...where this season I am at 10:32
http://www.strava.com/segments/1764048?filter=overall
I climbed it twice on Sunday and cant conceive how I can climb
it without my triple


Any climbing is good training, but to specifically improve climbing
strength what is the most efficient training?

a. pedal 30/23 the whole way up a hill such as this at an inevitable slower cadence
b. pedal 30/23 at my preferred 30/27 cadence but do short interval repeats on a smaller hill

many thanks..

slowbike

Why not just try in 30/25 if that's your next sized gear. Go as far as you can before dropping back to 30/27 - next time go a bit further ... when you can do the whole hill in 30/25 then drop to 30/23

kajjal

Hill climbing is a combination of fitness, technique and confidence. If you look on Strava you can see how fast other people are going up and if they are doing certain sections of the hill a lot faster than you.

To give you an example on a hill climb by me I was losing time in Strava to the faster riders on the steepest section of the hill. Worked out by using a harder gear and standing up I would go faster and knocked 15 seconds off my time to put me in the top 10 for the hill on Strava. That was purely down to technique and choosing the right gear

indjke

I wish I had such a climb near my home... ^^

ai_1

Since you can now get a 34/30 or even 34/32 ratio with most compacts (you may or may not have to replace the rear derailleur depending on the particular groupset) you don't necessarily need to change your style to use a compact.

Having said that I wouldn't change how I ride to suit the bike wnyeay. The bike should suit the person not the other way around. However you do have more choice if you're looking at bikes with compacts.

I ride a 9sp triple myself at the moment with a 30/27 smallest gear. I'm waiting for my new bike which has an 11sp compact (ultegra 6800) with 34/28 smallest gear. I don't spin as high a cadence as you and have done big hills on compacts before so I should be fine but if I'm tackling any really big stuff on it (like a holiday in the Alps) I just might throw on an even bigger cassette.

meanredspider

For doing The Alpe 6 times this summer, I've fitted a 33 ring up front and a 12-30 cassette to give me plenty of room for manoeuvre. To try it out, I attempted the steepest hill I can find on the Black Isle which apparently is 30% in places (certainly, seated, I was lifting the front wheel) and it was fine for that. That, BTW, is on 10-speed Di2 Ultegra and is probably the most it can take.

markhewitt1978

It's easy to try it out, work out what gear would be the equivalent on your triple setup, put it in that and off you go.

davidof

That's a fairly short hill, it is the kind of thing we use for hill repeats locally. I noticed that the average grade is 8% but there are some steeper sections, maybe these are where you need to low gears for a few meters?

Hill climbing is pretty much a power to weight question. If you want to climb faster you need to loose weight without losing a similar amount of power or alternatively increase your power. Ideally doing both is nice. If you are carrying a lot of flab this is not a problem. Indeed less fat in the muscles will let your muscles work more efficiently.

Increasing power and pushing bigger gears is a question of doing specific intervals. You seem to be able to pedal at a high cadence so you need to work on pushing bigger gears at a lower cadence, you can do this with your current setup and also practise climbing standing on the pedals. With your hill you should be able to climb standing, pushing a bigger gear, for the whole of that hill.

You can also do weight work in the gym if you wish.

make mine a triple

davidof wrote:

That's a fairly short hill, it is the kind of thing we use for hill repeats locally. I noticed that the average grade is 8% but there are some steeper sections, maybe these are where you need to low gears for a few meters?

Hill climbing is pretty much a power to weight question. If you want to climb faster you need to loose weight without losing a similar amount of power or alternatively increase your power. Ideally doing both is nice. If you are carrying a lot of flab this is not a problem. Indeed less fat in the muscles will let your muscles work more efficiently.

Increasing power and pushing bigger gears is a question of doing specific intervals. You seem to be able to pedal at a high cadence so you need to work on pushing bigger gears at a lower cadence, you can do this with your current setup and also practise climbing standing on the pedals. With your hill you should be able to climb standing, pushing a bigger gear, for the whole of that hill.



Thanks for making me feel inadequate Davidof
Your second comment was my related to my question, I would like to push a slightly bigger gear, but at the same high cadence, so to train is it best to do this for short intervals to keep the pedal stroke correct, or just push a big gear slowly up the whole hill..... I can/ will lose weight (174cm and 74kg at the moment) but compared to many in my club I am not that heavy, but definitely one of the few who has such low gears.

You can also do weight work in the gym if you wish.

davidof

make mine a triple wrote:

Thanks for making me feel inadequate Davidof

I think you are climbing at over 900 m/h which is ok.

make mine a triple wrote:

Your second comment was my related to my question, I would like to push a slightly bigger gear, but at the same high cadence, so to train is it best to do this for short intervals to keep the pedal stroke correct, or just push a big gear slowly up the whole hill..... I can/ will lose weight (174cm and 74kg at the moment) but compared to many in my club I am not that heavy, but definitely one of the few who has such low gears.

You lack strength, 74kg for your height it okay. I would work on pushing the biggest gear you can at 50-60rpm on whatever slope you can manage (even flat into the wind) but not neglect your high cadence efforts. You should be able to ride that hill at 1100 m/h without too much work with something like a 34x25 gear.