" Is it OK to get off your bike and walk up a hill?"

[totallyfixed]

Depends who you are and where you are. For me, no it's most definitely not ok. I expect that will change when I get old.

 

[snorri]

[QUOTE 3706610, member: 9609"]I get off and push on really steep stuff but if I hear or see anyone coming I stop and pretend i'm taking a picture [/QUOTE]
There are many variations on that theme, I prefer inspection of a rare roadside plant, checking that odd rattle which seems to be coming from the tail lamp or doing my civic duty and picking up a bit of litter, squashed can, etc..
The list is endless......or you could just be gracious in defeat and salute the youngster overtaking you and intent on pedalling to the summit.

 

[Dan B]

Its when you need to walk down a hill that you know you have a problem.

I did that a few years ago on the L2B ride, though admittedly I was on roller skates and didn't fancy descending through a crowd of cyclists with no brakes to speak of

 

[snorri]

"Well, we took the train to Ardrossan, then the fery to Arran, then we started cycling. On seeing the first hill, we turned back and waited for the group in a coffee shop. All in all quite an expensive trip for coffee ..."

Sound like a navigational error, everyone knows you should cycle round the south of Arran and not the north.

 

[Crackle]

i live just over half a mile from the high street. I see loads of my neighbours driving there. I despair at the cars circling for the empty space near the supermarket doors when there's half a car oark empty the other side of the service road

That's not laziness, that's the modern day hunter out stalking.

 

[Harry_Palmer79]

This reminds me of an Arran outing some members of my Ladies group did a while back, I could not go as I was working, had not been at all then, but knew about the hills.
So a few months later I met some of the participants, asked how they got on, I was told:
"Well, we took the train to Ardrossan, then the ferry to Arran, then we started cycling. On seeing the first hill, we turned back and waited for the group in a coffee shop. All in all quite an expensive trip for coffee ..."

There are hills on Arran?!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

There are hills on Arran?!

There are hills everywhere

 

[Hip Priest]

I feel bad if I have to walk up a hill. Been a while since I had to do it mind. Last time it was because the surface was slippy, so I had to put a foot down to avoid crashing, and then it was too steep to get clipped in.

 

[ayceejay]

So what is the deal then, you come across a hill you didn't know was there and you have to get off your bike and walk at a certain point because you can't get up it on your bike?

 

[DEFENDER01]

There are hills everywhere

We have hills but all of our hills seem to go up not down.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

So what is the deal then, you come across a hill you didn't know was there and you have to get off your bike and walk at a certain point because you can't get up it on your bike?

Aye, because if you'd have known it was there you would have gone a different route

 

[slowmotion]

I've walked up lots of hills. Sometimes I've subsequently ridden up them and felt a sense of personal achievement but that's as far as it goes. I just try and turn the pedals until I can't turn them any more, then I walk or rest for a minute and try again. Shame doesn't enter the picture. I'm doing it for me, not trying to prove something to anybody else.

 

[ColinJ]

Walking up climbs is ok if you think that it's ok, but that is a personal preference!

I prefer to ride up hills rather than walk up them, but I don't avoid steep hills that I know I can't manage. I have low gears on my bikes so I can get up even quite long stretches of 20% but 25+% is always going to be a bit tough.

In 2012 I took a forum ride up what was known as the 'Côte de Goose Eye' in this year's inaugural Tour de Yorkshire. That time I struggled and had to walk it but I did have a reasonable excuse - unbeknown to me at the time, my pulmonary artery was half clogged with blood clots! I got my revenge in the TdY sportive a couple of weeks ago - I rode up every climb including Goose Eye and did get a lot of satisfaction from that, especially since 90% of the riders around me were walking and the crowd were screaming at those of us still riding - 'Dig deep, lads!'. If I'd dug any deeper I would have been holidaying on a beach in Australia!

 

[Tin Pot]

Only if you have cramped in both legs, cried out like a baby seal being clubbed to death, are still sobbing uncontrollably and yet walking through the pain and tears as though the hill really mattered.

Otherwise, its not acceptable.

 

[vernon]

Hills were invented so that everyone could take advantage of their 24" gears.