quick question - steepest gradient and gear inches
Discussion
What's the steepest hill you can get up (in steady state, as opposed to just hitting it with a lot of momentum), and with what gear inch? I'm a bit dissapointed with my hill climbing ability - whilst I could do with losing a few kilos, I've always had fairly strong legs, but some hills I simply don't have the strength (as opposed to the cardiovascular ability). In addition any exercises for this? I do have access to a leg press and do squats, both of which, I thought, were useful for steep hill climbing. For reference my lowest gear is 42-23, although I don't know the gradient - though it's pretty easy on a mountain bike with a lowest gear of 28-28.
Hmmm I fear your question is a bit like comparing beach volleyball with a can of Tizer
Not at all easy
My own experience from riding in the Peak District is as follows:
On a MTB anything goes due to the low gearing, its technique that will have you off or not as opposed to your legs
On the road I admit the gearing matters
I have fit muscle bound mates who ride up anything on a 39/25 or even 39/23
My preference is for a 34/25 which gets me up Winnats @25% if I stand up and mash it
I also have a wusses 34/28 on another bike which crawls up anything
I have also ridden the Pyrenees on 34/25 including Tourmalet which is a challenging 17km climb then another col just for fun
I had to stand up occasionally on the 10% bits but it was mostly OK
Last weekend I went to the Alps and took the wussy gears mainly as I planned to hit Alpe d'Huez which is a decent climb after 95km
In reality I didnt actually use the girly cog but it was nice to have it in the bag just in case
Errr so a conclusion then right?
Well for me Id rec a compact crank ie 50/34 on the front and anything on the back
I get by in the UK with a 25 tooth cassette but found having 28 psychologically comforting after 100km
I have ridden big mountains on 25 though
I do not have big muscles
cheers
RRS_Staffs said:
Hmmm I fear your question is a bit like comparing beach volleyball with a can of Tizer
Not at all easy
My own experience from riding in the Peak District is as follows:
On a MTB anything goes due to the low gearing, its technique that will have you off or not as opposed to your legs
On the road I admit the gearing matters
I have fit muscle bound mates who ride up anything on a 39/25 or even 39/23
My preference is for a 34/25 which gets me up Winnats @25% if I stand up and mash it
I also have a wusses 34/28 on another bike which crawls up anything
I have also ridden the Pyrenees on 34/25 including Tourmalet which is a challenging 17km climb then another col just for fun
I had to stand up occasionally on the 10% bits but it was mostly OK
Last weekend I went to the Alps and took the wussy gears mainly as I planned to hit Alpe d'Huez which is a decent climb after 95km
In reality I didnt actually use the girly cog but it was nice to have it in the bag just in case
Errr so a conclusion then right?
Well for me Id rec a compact crank ie 50/34 on the front and anything on the back
I get by in the UK with a 25 tooth cassette but found having 28 psychologically comforting after 100km
I have ridden big mountains on 25 though
I do not have big muscles
cheers
Cheers, that about tallies with my experience - I'm mainly hoping just to confirm I'm not doing anything wrong and it should be easy to spin up >20% grades with my gears - I'm definitely looking for a compact when things come up for replacement! (I am also sufficiently tight to avoid changing something if necessary, so back to the gym in the meantime)Not at all easy
My own experience from riding in the Peak District is as follows:
On a MTB anything goes due to the low gearing, its technique that will have you off or not as opposed to your legs
On the road I admit the gearing matters
I have fit muscle bound mates who ride up anything on a 39/25 or even 39/23
My preference is for a 34/25 which gets me up Winnats @25% if I stand up and mash it
I also have a wusses 34/28 on another bike which crawls up anything
I have also ridden the Pyrenees on 34/25 including Tourmalet which is a challenging 17km climb then another col just for fun
I had to stand up occasionally on the 10% bits but it was mostly OK
Last weekend I went to the Alps and took the wussy gears mainly as I planned to hit Alpe d'Huez which is a decent climb after 95km
In reality I didnt actually use the girly cog but it was nice to have it in the bag just in case
Errr so a conclusion then right?
Well for me Id rec a compact crank ie 50/34 on the front and anything on the back
I get by in the UK with a 25 tooth cassette but found having 28 psychologically comforting after 100km
I have ridden big mountains on 25 though
I do not have big muscles
cheers
partly an ulterior motive comes from reading the accounts of fixed wheel riders (proper ones who have heard of 'riding outside london'
) - I know that the momentum drags you over the 'dead zone' at the top and bottom of the crank rotation, but I've had the good fortune to retain my thunderthighs from rugby, so if I'm struggling on any serious grades, how in the name of starley are people managing to climb with close to normal flat gears, unless a)they're nothing but quad muscle or b)I'm much more rubbish than I should be? As an out of London fixed gear rider, I find 68" gear 46 x 18 gets me up most things up to 1:6.
Some short 1:4s I have got over with enough speed carried in to them but usually I have to walk the steeper bits.
I have climbed Ditchling Beacon on 73" and 68" then again a friend of mine has done it on 86" but he is smaller with bigger thighs
Some short 1:4s I have got over with enough speed carried in to them but usually I have to walk the steeper bits.
I have climbed Ditchling Beacon on 73" and 68" then again a friend of mine has done it on 86" but he is smaller with bigger thighs
42/23 is relatively big gearing for a bottom gear.
You can't really compare different riders with different gearing of different hills. Plus most of what you'll find in the UK is hills, compared to (say) the Alps, where you have mountains. So to me a mountain climb will take around an hour and is uphill all the way. If I ride that I'm aiming to dose my effort over the entirety of the climb. I know from experience that if I hit 9-10% in the first half of the climb I can ride it out, but in the second half of the climb that gradient will put me into survival mode (60-70 rpm). A12+% gradient early in a climb like that puts me into survival mode. This is using 34/25.
You can't really compare different riders with different gearing of different hills. Plus most of what you'll find in the UK is hills, compared to (say) the Alps, where you have mountains. So to me a mountain climb will take around an hour and is uphill all the way. If I ride that I'm aiming to dose my effort over the entirety of the climb. I know from experience that if I hit 9-10% in the first half of the climb I can ride it out, but in the second half of the climb that gradient will put me into survival mode (60-70 rpm). A12+% gradient early in a climb like that puts me into survival mode. This is using 34/25.
Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 20th July 22:00
You're all a bunch of pussies. I used to climb all the way up Rawson's Rake, from the main road in Ramsbottom, on a 42/21.
Mind you, I was 20 at the time
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Rawsons+Rake,+Rams...
Mind you, I was 20 at the time
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Rawsons+Rake,+Rams...
You ride up hills, but climb mountains, or any inches as long as I get to the top. I like my triple.
Gives me the 52:12 on the way down and a 30:25 on the way up for the penalty of the weight of one tiny ring. Given I'm over 16.5st I think I know where the real problem in getting up hills(no mountains round here) lies.
Gives me the 52:12 on the way down and a 30:25 on the way up for the penalty of the weight of one tiny ring. Given I'm over 16.5st I think I know where the real problem in getting up hills(no mountains round here) lies.
OneDs said:
You ride up hills, but climb mountains, or any inches as long as I get to the top. I like my triple.
Gives me the 52:12 on the way down and a 30:25 on the way up for the penalty of the weight of one tiny ring. Given I'm over 16.5st I think I know where the real problem in getting up hills(no mountains round here) lies.
I like a compact, not for the weight saving but for the simplification it brings. With a triple I feel like I'm always shuffling cogs. A 50-34 compact with an 11-28 cassette would give you the same bottom gear and a longer top one as well.Gives me the 52:12 on the way down and a 30:25 on the way up for the penalty of the weight of one tiny ring. Given I'm over 16.5st I think I know where the real problem in getting up hills(no mountains round here) lies.
Mr Will said:
I like a compact, not for the weight saving but for the simplification it brings. With a triple I feel like I'm always shuffling cogs. A 50-34 compact with an 11-28 cassette would give you the same bottom gear and a longer top one as well.
Good points on the other side of the fence, If I tried to tackle any real mountains a simple rear cassette swap to the same 11-28 affair would give significantly more than a compact without major changes.The constantly changing point is another good one, it's something that becomes preprogrammed almost natural and I think keeps my cadence in the "zone" so to speak. But yes I accept I am feeling about when to change gear a lot.
Edited by OneDs on Thursday 21st July 13:16
I'm not going to brag about gear inch because A, Its Moronic and B, I have low gears so can't :-)
Down here (Dorset) we've got a few killer climbs, any route out of town has minimum 12% climbs, most with short 15% stretches, many of the backroad climbs have sections over 20%, one has 400mtrs of 24% (which gets you thighs singing) and I do them on a 50lb recumbent.
That said- great, high speed descents too, so can't complain!
Down here (Dorset) we've got a few killer climbs, any route out of town has minimum 12% climbs, most with short 15% stretches, many of the backroad climbs have sections over 20%, one has 400mtrs of 24% (which gets you thighs singing) and I do them on a 50lb recumbent.
That said- great, high speed descents too, so can't complain!
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