Gears for Pyrenees --how low , and how high?
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Nice picture. I 've just come back from the area and due to time constraints stuck with my 39x27 gearing . I climbed the Tourmalet / Aubisque / Hautacam.
I've climbed the Aubisque a couple of times before so it wasn't too bad on that gearing combination. A little tough after the Gourette but I belted up the last 2km quite nicely (11 to 13kph) The Tourmalet was a lovely climb, a little tough around the avalanche tunnels but nice all the same.
The Hautacam on the other hand was a right bugger. Knees popping out and speed down to 7.5kph. Nasty, nasty climb. (Apart from the car park there's nothing at the top either)Paul0 -
If you're worried, pack a triple, end of story.
I'm 46, still 100kg, but finished this years Etape on a 30/27 bottom end triple, over an hour ahead of the wagon, and I really am no athlete. No need to walk, no knee pain, nought but enjoyment.
Most of the strugglers I saw were grunting over too-high ratios, often on standard doubles, not even a compact, though there were plenty of those too. Didn't see many failures amongst the "I want to get round so I bought a triple" brigade.
When the going gets tough, change down.0 -
Long time believer and user of triples. I use 52x39x30 with 11-23 on back (12-25 if any climbs of 5km or longer at 10%). Know Pyrenees well Of climbs OP mentions Marie Blanque is hardest but also my favourite. Portet D'Aspet further east is steeper but shorter.
If you really like steep climbs then there are a couple to the north of the St-Girons-Massat-Foix road
Crouzette (TDF wimped out and came up the easy side last month
http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Co ... ainID=6128
Peguere (last section pretty steep, if it was in the UK it would be a famous climb)
http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Col-de-Péguère&qryMountainID=6316Martin S. Newbury RC0 -
54/42 x 12-21 in an aero-tuck on my TT bike
Or more seriously, I did Ventoux and Bonette and other Southern Alpes/Provence last year on 50/36 x 12-27 and I really wished I had lower.
Those gears are great for me in the UK, but we don't have long, unvarying slopes - in the UK it's short-n-steep bits you do out of the saddle plus what longer drags we have are generally really up-and-down : mostly uphill but with flat bits and even downhill sections you can recover on.
When you come across something which says 8% for 25k and it means 8%, or maybe 8% +/- 0.5%, for 25k, you end-up grinding along : it's not steep enough to ride out of the saddle but I was struggling to push 36x27 for 25k - I was doing 7 or 8 mph and killing myself with effort but couldn't ride it slower as I didn't have the power to manage the slope at a slower cadence.
There was an older woman on our trip, very lightly built, rather 'fragrant' - she has a 22t inner ring and spun up the climbs in a stately manner without breaking into a sweat - she was slower but she got there...0 -
In the big mountains I can assure you that it is much, much, better to have more gearing
than you need as opposed to not enough. Long, long climbs can really grind on you
even if they aren't overly steep. A few years back I did Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado.
It's about a 30 mile uphill battle that has the added bonus of getting steeper(of course)
as you get closer to the top(something like 9% for 5 miles). Topping out at about 11,000
feet it was , and still is, the toughest climb I have ever done. I would have given just about anything for a triple that day even though I was running a 34-27. Add to that the fact that I was in my late 50's at the time. I do not ever want to climb that pass again.
Dennis Noward0 -
I don't know all the different gearings you're talking about, but the moor has some climbs that go on for more than 5k with gradients ranging up to 25%.
I just tend to pedal a gear that I feel I am just below my limit in and I can go on like that from the bottom to the top.0 -
Another vote from me for erring on the side of having more gears than you think you need! Quite a while ago now, I did some touring in the Alps with a 34x30 bottom gear, and was in the lowest gear virtually all the way on most climbs. I was younger and fitter then so survived okay except for a truly wretched climb out of Pinerolo up to the Gran Paradiso NP. Here, I was reduced to 6-7km/h and ~35rpm - not fun at all.
It is really noticeable on rides like PBP that the French virtually all have triples, whilst others do not. Even if you don't need especially low gears, having closer ratios down low can be a big help IME.
Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it I say. For <200km/day rides, then something like 50/34x12-27 will probably be fine, if you are fit and carry nothing. Even one more lower gear can make a huge difference when things get tough.
(And if anyone here is planning on cycling on Himalayan back roads, no gear is too low!)0 -
Thanks all for the advice -- reckon I`m going with my 50/34 and 13 (or 12 if change block slightly) - 29 cassette; I`ve ridden a few local hills of 2 -3km and average 7 to 10% around here (being mid Wales they exist; eg Eppynt from Garth, hill from Norton to Knighton...features in Autumn Epic as last hill) and can struggle up on the 26 but the 29 eases it a lot.
James0 -
Yorkman wrote:I'm terrible at climbing the stairs, but I got up the Peyresourde, Aspin and the Tourmalet on a compact and 12-25 whilst following the tour this Summer.
They aren't steep by any stretch of the imagination, just incredibly long.
When I showed 2 Spanish lads some pics on my camera of Hardknott they thought it was a trick.
spoken like a true brit cyclist abroad"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
mididoctors wrote:Yorkman wrote:I'm terrible at climbing the stairs, but I got up the Peyresourde, Aspin and the Tourmalet on a compact and 12-25 whilst following the tour this Summer.
They aren't steep by any stretch of the imagination, just incredibly long.
When I showed 2 Spanish lads some pics on my camera of Hardknott they thought it was a trick.
spoken like a true brit cyclist abroad
There's a climb in Spain that goes up 436m in 2.7km which is both longer and steeper than Hardknott.
http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Iondogorta&qryMountainID=4520Martin S. Newbury RC0 -
Just back...thanks to all for comments; for the record used 34 x 29 as low and 50 x 13 as high and content with it; never felt I needed a higher gear as 60 to 70 kph downhill quite fast enough for me!!
For the climbing with Aubisque , Tourmalet, Col de Jau happy mostly on 34 x 26 with occasional resort to the 29 to ease off a bit; only really really needed the 29 for Marie Blanque and the Col de Crousette which does top 3 to 4 km of 12 , 13, 13 % (big struggle)--- and the sun shone too, great week out there0 -
Excellent, well done...glad you made it up the Marie Blanque and Crousette and had good weather to boot...Martin S. Newbury RC0
