21
There is no correct answer. Do what works or is most comfortable for you.
Bear in mind that if you train yourself to sit and spin at a higher cadence you’ll get better at that. If you train yourself to stand up and pedal slower you’ll get better at doing that.
19
Answer Stay in the saddle for steady state climbing, if you can. Get out of the saddle for extra short term power, getting over a steep bit, or for punching through a short climb. Or if you need a change of position.
Are you Tall? I have long legs, so my saddle is high, and at some grade my saddle ends up "behind" my rear axle. So there's a ...
17
I have seen this effect with several different optical based wrist HRM's. Your HR is not 90, but likely closer to 180. Optical HRM's generally have a longer lag to track changes in the heart rate and sudden jumps can be interpreted by the software as drops rather than increases.
I've found that for long sustained efforts, the HRM eventually tracks back to ...
17
Is it best to attack the flat before a hill?
NO
On flat ground, power is proportional to speed cubed because drag from air dominates. If you want to go twice as fast on flat ground, you need to expend eight times the power. So if you're going 20 mph/30 kph and double your power, you'll wind up going all of 25 mph/38 kph - and you'll blow yourself up ...
13
Unfortunately, there is a fairly straight forward reason why you actually need to ride hills in order to get faster at them: crank inertial load.
We have two main types of skeletal muscles. (Skeletal muscles are responsible for our locomotion and movements, cardiac and smooth muscles make up the other muscle types in our the body). The two main skeletal ...
12
The spokes and gears are likely unrelated issues.
You have done 2000km on the bike - have you replaced the chain and rear cluster yet? At you weight and those hill climbs, I would not be surprised if they are just worn out. It is also possible that at your weight and that distance the spokes have come out of adjustment, and/or now have fatiguied to the ...
12
For grades beyond 10% having a gear that you can spin at the rate you can climb makes a big difference.
Only you can know exactly what gear that should be. If you can find a gear ratio tool that displays speeds for a given gear, wheel size and rpm. This one seems pretty good.
http://www.bikecalc.com/cadence_at_speed
Then think about your typical speeds ...
12
Generally, being light weight you probably have more of a deficit on the flats, which would point to an aero bike. That is your frontal area per watt per kg will be higher than a larger rider who is heavier, can turn out more watts and has a bigger frontal area but also has a a relatively lower frontal area per watt per kg. As such, an aero bike would ...
11
As you’ve noted, drag increases non-linearly with speed. So to e.g. double your speed on a flat (drag dominated) section you’ll have to more than double your power output.
Slow uphill sections contribute much more to your overall time (and therefore also average speed) since you spend much more time there and gravity is constant.
So if you wanted to achieve ...
10
Move your weight further forward to keep the front wheel weighted. Shuffle forwards on your seat and bring your chest closer to the bars. Standing can help for the steepest parts, but can cause your rear wheel to slip on loose surfaces.
The front wheel is lifting as when your bike is on a slope the wheelbase is effectively shortened, bringing your weight ...
10
Honestly, as an amateur cyclist I would suggest focusing on learning how to pace a climb first over more finer details such as cadence. Many amateur typically go out too fast on a climb, go anaerobic, accumulate a lactate debt, then find themselves suffering terribly the remainder of the climb. This gives most the idea the climbs are harder than they could ...
10
If Sheldon Brown is any authority for you (and if you don't have your own opinion/experience, he should be, IMO), he advises to stay in the saddle as a general case.
The idea is that standing up is a needless strain on both you and your bicycle, and you should prefer to use a lower gear (and correct posture).
That said, there is no harm standing occasionally ...
9
Mountain bikers regularly run these low cadences for very short periods, often at much higher power output. The issue with causing damage to knees is more about the duration of the climb and how strong your stabiliser muscles are. (Too much time mushing causes chronic overuse problems, while weak stabiliser muscles can allow injury to happen), however they ...
9
I prefer the cycling lore that it was decided by which gear of a Citroen 2CV you needed to be in to drive up the hill/mountain. For HC climbs you had to go up them in reverse.
Scientific? Not so much. Perceived Gallic? Mais oui!
8
For Strava climbs there is an objective categorization that is length in meters times grade in percent, with this categories:
score = length(m) * grade(%)
Cat 3: score > 16000
Cat 2: score > 32000
Cat 1: score > 64000
Cat HC: score > 80000
For example Alpe d'Huez has a length of 13800m and average gradient of 8.1% (according to Wikipedia), giving a score ...
7
Understand that the concern is not generally things like a muscle or tendon tear that can occur with, eg, extreme weightlifting -- off-road bikers might be susceptible to that sort of injury, but not a road biker.
Rather, the concern is the injury that may be done to joint surfaces and structures due to repeated force, above some "tolerable" level, applied ...
7
Get the biggest.
The down side is some bigger spacings.
If money is an issue consider used.
You have the option to not use a gear you do have.
But you can't use a gear you don't have.
Cassettes wear out. If you find yourself rarely using the 34 and/or 32 then get tighter for the next. Start with the biggest for a data point. If that is not ...
7
Every rider has a different optimal cadence. You need to find yours. This will depend to some extent how you are feeling on the day ('Ohh that hurts' vs 'pain, what pain').
Most novice riders pedal too slowly, as they are not trained it feels 'wrong' and are not efficient at high cadence. If this is you, you optimal cadence may be faster than your most ...
7
Basically the only real way to get better at going up hills is to get fitter - which you can do by repeatedly riding the hill :-)
Some tips:
Stay sitting down
Use low gears and a fairly high pedaling cadence
Use good gear management, shift down progressively as you start the hill and keep pedaling cadence up.
The main point is you want to avoid using ...
6
You can work on a pedal stroke that applies pressure for a larger portion of the rotation of the pedals. That will reduce the peak force that is causing the wheel to lift.
6
I would suggest that your bike is not set up correctly and your centre of gravity is too far back.
The first thing to consider is what is the predominant terrain you are riding?
If its mostly flat consider using a technique such as alex has
suggested in his answer to cover pinch climbs and small hills.
If your doing a lot of climbing (sitting on the front ...
6
Get an app like strava to log your rides, and see your progress on those climbs.
I have a climb near home which took three hours first time I did it. I rested a bunch of times on the way up, and got passed by dozens of riders.
Over the last three years I've improved to the point I can do the climb in 40 minutes non-stop, still get passed but I'm ...
6
One thing that may help a lot is shifting some load weight forwards. In other situations I've found that a surprisingly small amount of weight shifted from behind the back axle to the front forks improves handling a lot. For example rather than mounting a D lock behind a child seat, I put it on the front forks. That's something like 1% of the total weight, ...
6
I'm going to be contrary, with some caveats.
Yes, it may be worth attacking the flat just before a climb. If you can build momentum on the flat and carry that into the first part of a climb, it will put you further up the road than someone who just rides into it at a set power.
The downside is that you're pushing hard to get that momentum and to keep it up ...
5
With regard to the shifting, you do need to understand proper shifting procedure.
First off, with any derailleur-style bike the chain and sprockets need to be moving when you shift. (You're no doubt aware of this, but it bears mentioning.)
Prior to the advent of "indexed" shifters, it was not possible to shift "under load" at all. To shift you had to ...
5
I ride a SS fixed gear 3 times a week. My advice when the hill is hard and steep is to do what feels natural.
Stand up.
Move as much of your weight forward as possible. I notice a huge difference when I take weight off the back wheel. The hill is already putting your weight more back. Counter this by putting your weight more on the front.
Pull up on the ...
5
The general advice is that we should aim at 90 for an average cadence, and pushing slower than that can produce knee pain and injuries, and back pain and injuries.
However, everyone has their own best cadence. For example, I have not raced and find 110rpm is good for me on a flat-ish ride. My brother who has raced stays at around 120rpm on the same terrain. ...
5
Yes, if you like to climb like me and live in an area where there are long steep climbs over 10% grade, I highly recommend a compact 50/34 crank and a wide ratio cassette.
I have asthma and have provisioned all of my road bikes with 11-34 cassettes. Shimano makes 10 speed mountain cassettes that will work with an Ultegra long (mid) cage derailleur. In ...
5
The exercise bike feels different, because it is fixed in place and can not react to your movements like a real bike.
When you jump out of saddle, your body moves forward in relation to bike. On road, the you keep moving at roughly same speed and the bike slows down momentarily to accommodate the change in relative positions. A fixed exercise bike can't ...
5
Cross-training - do gym work to build your core strength and endurance. Avoid bulking up though.
Technique - find hill climbing positions that work for you.
Lightness - drop all your water except a couple mouthfulls before the climb. Don't take anything up that doesn't directly contribute. No tools/pump/spares. Remove excess clothing too - you should ...
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