Climbing the Alps - Gear Ratio

[Simone Vasco]

Thanks, that's great to know. I'm actually riding a single speed with 700x23.. not sure I can do gravel very easy.

 

[rich p]

Some of the VCA on the Fernpass side is a struggle offroad as I found to my cost. Stick to the road as it's not that bad IMHO. After Pfunds I suggest you follow the VCA and take the road that stays NW of the River Inn (B187?). It's a nice descent hugging a cliff and most of the heavy traffic takes the main road (B135?). The penalty is a climb from Martina to Nauders which is grinding and winding but rewarding.

Here's a pic of a section with the Roman cartwheel tracks visible

 

[zizou]

I cant remember the address but i recently read a blog post by someone who did 4 ascents (the 3 roads plus the fireroad) up Ventoux in one day fixed - think it was 48x18 he had. The descending in particular sounded punishing and not enjoyable at all, unlike what it would be like on a freewheel so a flip flop might be a good idea.

 

[zizou]

found it http://www.thebicyclestory.com/2011/11/paul-rozelles-24-hour-pre-pbp-fixed-gear-mont-ventoux-rides/

 

[rich p]

FWIW, these are the two days my wife wrote up about the Fernpass and the Reschenpass on the crazyguy site.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1&page_id=115862&v=2l
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1&page_id=115871&v=2X

 

[simon.r]

Some years ago I struggled up an Alpine pass using 22/32 on my mountain bike. Of course, if I'd had sensible tyres fitted and not 2.3" knobblies I'd have used 44/11. Possibly

I did speak to an American lady who passed me riding fixed, so it's definitely doable. Just not by me!

 

[Simone Vasco]

found it http://www.thebicyclestory.com/2011/11/paul-rozelles-24-hour-pre-pbp-fixed-gear-mont-ventoux-rides/

Thanks for this. Quite a challenge on the Ventoux (I'm not THAT crazy). I run fixed in London but will possibly mount freewheel when climbing and descending the Alps.
I wonder if a 2.2 gear ratio will be enough to climb 9% gradient

 

[TheDoctor]

I struggled on a 0.92 gear ratio on 6km of 10% gradient.
However ridiculously low your gearing is, sometimes the hill is even more ridiculously steep!

 

[DreamBig]

I came across a nice app called Bike Gear Calculator, I had the same issues with gears. this gear calculator gave me the answers I needed. As it turned out there are so many things to take into consideration.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bike-gear-calculator/id505985340?ls=1&mt=8

 

[Simone Vasco]

So at the end I did it!
1007 miles in 10 days.
Fixed 48/16 until Stuttgart then it was just too much so I switched to 48/17 freewheel. Passes weren't that difficult even though it was snowing A LOT the day I climbed Fernpass in Austria. On a side note Northern Italy dolomites are just awesome and so is the Val Venosta valley. Great experience. I posted every day on Strava and uploaded pictures in my twitter page if you're interested let me know.

 

[oldfatfool]

Linky to pics needed. Did you get up the Timseljoch?

 

[Alex11]

What a fantastic idea - touring on a singlespeed! :-) Did you camp?

 

[Old Plodder]

What a fantastic idea - touring on a singlespeed! :-) Did you camp?

They used to do it in the old days...........

 

[GrumpyGregry]

They used to do it in the old days...........

They used to send kids down the mines in the old days too..........

 

[compo]

They used to send kids down the mines in the old days too..........

Now they go to school and they call it progress