Hills

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
I leave my door, and go up or down hill. I used to run a bit, and got quite happy going uphill running. Cycling seems to exaggerate the difference - complete freebie downhill and mega pain uphill. My obvious first useful place too go gets to a 16% mile and a half up hill within a short distance.

Any suggestions beyond "knuckle under and get used to it"?
 

Sittingduck

Legendary Member
Location
Somewhere flat
So are you saying that there is a climb that you must tackle that is a mile and a half in length and 16% gradient, right outside the front door, pretty much? If this is the case then the best advice I can give is that you move house! :ohmy:
 

MrJamie

Oaf on a Bike
Get an electric bike :P

In all seriousness keep in mind that weight is exagerated up hill and going uber slow on a bike with low gearing is probably the only way of making it comfortable. On the plus side if you force yourself to do that a lot youll get ultra fit in no time i should imagine ;)
 

Berties

Fast and careful!
every exit out of my village is a hill, two 14%plus 1 mile climbs coming home,good on the way out!!!
as you get stronger on a bike,as you say you can run up hill which i am pretty good at,your legs will get more stronger and more capable quickly as you obviously have determination ,
i spin in slower gear with a higher cadence 90-100 and keep a eye on my heart rate to keep your work rate up,and so keep the speed up
i do the old positive thinking thing the hill won't last long and every hill i get stronger,just look at the front wheel and do it !!
I don't think about hills now in fact quite enjoy them
 

Pauluk

Senior Member
Location
Leicester
I'm lucky as there are no big hills on my commute, just 3 longish gradients on the way home. For the first couple of weeks these were hard but now they are not too bad at all and my speed up them has increased. I think Its just down to practice.

Make sure you get in a gear where you can spin easily so you are not having to put loads of pressure on the cranks and don't worry about your speed too much. It will improve, but you will probably still get knackered, you'll just get faster :smile:
 

Sittingduck

Legendary Member
Location
Somewhere flat
Try different techniques. To begin with, the one where you barely grip the handlebars and go almost limp in the upper body, spin an easy gear and drive from the legs / back, is good. I like to get out of the saddle and push a slightly harder gear quite often but never used to do this to begin with. I'm currently experimenting with a technique that has me hanging right over the front of the bars almost kissing the front tyre and pushing a largish gear while snarling and often using four letter words. It's going ok, so far lol. Always nice to sit up and spin though.

2 golden tips...
  1. Practice
  2. Increase power/weight ratio
 

Andy_R

Hard of hearing..I said Herd of Herring..oh FFS..
Location
County Durham
Only problem with using big gears and grinding is that grinding is exactly what you're doing to your knees. Spin, spin, spin. Get your heart rate up, and you'll find you build up the power in your legs over a relatively short time. Or use an E-bike. Or not.:tongue:

This evidence is based on the fact that I live in County Durham which is, on average, flat.
 

Sittingduck

Legendary Member
Location
Somewhere flat
every exit out of my village is a hill, two 14%plus 1 mile climbs coming home,good on the way out!!!
g.gif

Good strategic venue then. Handy if the Vikings come back.
 

Kiwiavenger

im a little tea pot
i just stuck my bike in the big ring only this morning! managed to knock quite a bit of time off my recent times up the hill out of the village!! normally i just sit and spin but i was out the saddle a bit today
 
Top Bottom