Cannot cycle uphill.

[ColinJ]

Where would you rate "The Buttress" and the road through Heptonstall?

Heptonstall - done it lots of times, in both directions.

Buttress - tried to ride DOWN it once and frightened myself, overbraked and fell off; never even tried to ride up it since that first bit is so intimidating!

 

[Racing roadkill]

Your position in a road bike will be very different to that of a Hybrid. Get a proper bike fit done, then work on positioning your body to get the maximum aerobic efficiency for the hills. To put it in laymans terms, on the hills think more

Than

So back straight, head up, hips forward, not all squashed up with a curved back, and shoulders forward.

 

[classic33]

Heptonstall - done it lots of times, in both directions.

Buttress - tried to ride DOWN it once and frightened myself, overbraked and fell off; never even tried to ride up it since that first bit is so intimidating!

Just to give @mjr something to think about, when he says "hill".

 

[JamieRegan]

Thank you everyone. Some great advice here. I am definitely not fit enough, there's no doubt about that.

I do need to learn how to change gears better too. The number of times I click up instead of down is shocking.

I'll let you know how I get on once I've got the fitness up.

 

[slowmotion]

Our Great and Glorious Leader, Simon Legg, gave us beginners a few words of advice at the bottom of Ditchling Beacon, a short but quite steep hill a few miles from Brighton. "Start off in your lowest gear. You won't have to worry about changing."

Dead handy when confronted with something that looks like a cliff.

 

[mjr]

Just to give @mjr something to think about, when he says "hill".

I used to live on the end of the Mendips tyvm. 33% within metres of my door. Norfolk has nothing like it, but there are still hills here, as well as the other challenges.

 

[Dec66]

I used to live on the end of the Mendips tyvm. 33% within metres of my door. Norfolk has nothing like it, but there are still hills here, as well as the other challenges.

Someone told me Flanders was flat. So I got a little surprise when riding from Le Bizet to Messines.

OK, nowhere near the nastiest thing I've ever experienced, but enough to be an unwelcome distraction on a very hot day on an old bike with panniers mounted.

 

[Dec66]

I used to live on the end of the Mendips tyvm. 33% within metres of my door. Norfolk has nothing like it, but there are still hills here, as well as the other challenges.

Someone told me Flanders was flat. So I got a little surprise when riding from Le Bizet to Messines.

OK, nowhere near the nastiest thing I've ever experienced, but enough to be an unwelcome distraction on a very hot day on an old bike with panniers mounted.

 

[graham bowers]

Heptonstall - done it lots of times, in both directions.

Buttress - tried to ride DOWN it once and frightened myself, overbraked and fell off; never even tried to ride up it since that first bit is so intimidating!

Just checked out the Buttress - bonkers - I'd want to be roped up on that ..............

 

[NorthernDave]

I would agree if Jamie had said that he found it harder to climb steep hills, but what he posted was that he couldn't get up any hills. Even on road bike gearing he ought to be able to crawl up moderate hills if he has enough power to ride at 25 mph on the flat.

Good point - makes me wonder if the OP is attacking the hills in a higher gear intending to power up them but running out of steam due to the extra effort before he's able to drop down the ratios? It's a technique I used to use (but not for long!), before I got wise to finding a suitably low gear early and spinning up the hill instead. It might seem slower but it does work.

 

[Dec66]

Thank you everyone. Some great advice here. I am definitely not fit enough, there's no doubt about that.

I do need to learn how to change gears better too. The number of times I click up instead of down is shocking.

I'll let you know how I get on once I've got the fitness up.

Even if you're very fit, when you're 16 stone it's pure physics; I've seen guys who are obviously very fit really struggling up Box Hill, as they are built like bodybuilders or Rugby forwards. It's just more difficult to move mass uphill, particularly on typical road bike gearing (think yours is 52/36 front and 11-28 rear?).

I'd suggest practice your shifting up and down on the flat till it becomes instinctive (I kept shifting up instead of down on my Cube when I first got it), and perhaps shifting onto the inner ring when you know there's a hill coming up and selecting the highest gear you can readily maintain 100rpm cadence on (so you can change down to try to maintain the cadence as you climb).

Good luck, anyway... Hopefully I'll remember my own advice tomorrow as I have a date with some big hills...

 

[NorthernDave]

Even if you're very fit, when you're 16 stone it's pure physics; I've seen guys who are obviously very fit really struggling up Box Hill, as they are built like bodybuilders or Rugby forwards. It's just more difficult to move mass uphill, particularly on typical road bike gearing (think yours is 52/36 front and 11-28 rear?).

I'd suggest practice your shifting up and down on the flat till it becomes instinctive (I kept shifting up instead of down on my Cube when I first got it), and perhaps shifting onto the inner ring when you know there's a hill coming up and selecting the highest gear you can readily maintain 100rpm cadence on (so you can change down to try to maintain the cadence as you climb).

Good luck, anyway... Hopefully I'll remember my own advice tomorrow as I have a date with some big hills...

If you've got Shimano gears, the easiest way to remember is bigger lever = bigger cog.

 

[Dec66]

If you've got Shimano gears, the easiest way to remember is bigger lever = bigger cog.

I have, but it falls down a bit as the brifters are subtly different between the three bikes.

Old Reliable (my 12 year old Apollo TDF) has Sora brifters which have a little thumb clicker on the hood to change up, and you push the whole brake lever inward to change down.

My B'Twin has a bigger, downward-pointing clicker to change up, which I click with my forefinger; again, to change down, push the brake lever inward.

The Cube is a paddle within a lever, as you describe.

When I bought the Cube, I was forever changing up on steep hills inadvertently as I was so used to the B'Twin. I have the hang of it now. I think.

Speaking of big guys looking to improve their climbing, as the OP was; whatever became of @blazed, "the world's greatest 200lb + climber" (sic.)? He used to make me smile. A lot.

 

[cyberknight]

General fitness/endurance is not the same as cycling fitness/endurance.

I tried to run next to my daughter while she was riding in the park, it was not pretty .

 

[S-Express]

Get a proper bike fit done, then work on positioning your body to get the maximum aerobic efficiency for the hills

Aerobic efficiency has nothing to do with riding position.