How are you so fit?

[Deleted member 121159]

I don't, I use a 26t chainring and upto 40t Cass. It's all about cadence, keeping the gear spinning. Only lightweight riders can use bigger gearing due to far superior Watts/kg of weight. Gear for easy spinning

What's your setup? Do you have a square taper BB? I can't find anything as small as 26t for Hollowtech. Maybe you have a touring triple chainset?

 

[Asa Post]

46-36-24 up front, and 11-28 at the back.
On a good day I can avoid using the granny ring, but at my age good days are getting rare.

 

[ColinJ]

OK, to get to the point, how are you riding up steep hills (10-20% gradient) with only 34x34 or 34x32?

10% isn't steep! I'm not very fit but I can (just!) get up a few hundred metres of 10% on the 52/19 gear on my singlespeed bike.

I recently added a second gear option to that bike - 42/29. That is okay for a few hundred metres at 15%.

I have a 42/42 bottom gear on the bike I keep in Devon. I have used that for 20% climbs but anything steeper than that is pretty hard.

My lowest gear on my best bike up here is 28/30. On a good day I can just about get up 25% on that.

When I first got back into cycling up here in Yorkshire 33 years ago, the steep local hills half killed me. I had a 42/28 bottom gear then, which I soon switched to a 39/28 but even that was hard work. The thing is, I was not only unfit, I was also obese. Big rolls of fat don't help when trying to ride up big hills.

Am I just terribly unfit?

Quite possibly!

How tall are you and what do you weigh? How long have you been cycling?

 

[ColinJ]

46-36-24 up front, and 11-28 at the back.
On a good day I can avoid using the granny ring, but at my age good days are getting rare.

I had a very good year about 20 years ago. I lost 4.5 stone in weight and cycled much more than usual, including lots of 20-25% climbs. I think I spent the whole year without using the smallest rings on my triple-equipped bikes.

It didn't last long though. I pigged out the following winter, put half of the weight back on, hardly touched my bike for 3 months, and was back to being unfit the following year.

 

[Deleted member 121159]

10% isn't steep! I'm not very fit but I can (just!) get up a few hundred metres of 10% on the 52/19 gear on my singlespeed bike.

I recently added a second gear option to that bike - 42/29. That is okay for a few hundred metres at 15%.

I have a 42/42 bottom gear on the bike I keep in Devon. I have used that for 20% climbs but anything steeper than that is pretty hard.

My lowest gear on my best bike up here is 28/30. On a good day I can just about get up 25% on that.

When I first got back into cycling up here in Yorkshire 33 years ago, the steep local hills half killed me. I had a 42/28 bottom gear then, which I soon switched to a 39/28 but even that was hard work. The thing is, I was not only unfit, I was also obese. Big rolls of fat don't help when trying to ride up big hills.


Quite possibly!

How tall are you and what do you weigh? How long have you been cycling?

You must either be as light as a feather or have a heart made out of titanium pumping like a Porsche V8.

Take a climb I've done today - it was 2.3 miles long at the average gradient of 9.2%, but half of it averages at about 13-15% with the steepest at 22%. I definitely missed the 30x40 gearing when it got steep. I had to take that 'Sunshine' cassette out because the shifting was so bad. I'll probably replace my 11-34 with Shinamo XT 11-40 when it's time to change it.

 

[Alex321]

Practice.

When I first got back on the bike in April 2020 (after about 20 years of hardly riding at all), I seriously struggled with hills, and that was with a hybrid that had 48/36/26 at the front and 11-34 rear. But there are quite a lot of hills in South Wales, and I was finding myself able to get up most of them a year later. And rarely using the smallest ring.

Then in August last year, I bought myself a decent road bike with 50/34 and 11-32, and if anything I found it easier to get up hills.

The majority of hills round here are in the 5-8% range, but there are a significant number around 12-16%, and a few over 20% that I have ridden, and I get up even those nowadays. But I'm riding a few hills pretty well every time I go out. Even on a 10-15 mile ride, I'll usually be doing 200-300m of climbing. Today's 36 mile ride included 719m climbing, with two of the climbs having max gradients around 15%.

You just get used to it. I'm 63 years old BTW.

 

[ColinJ]

You must either be as light as a feather

Ha ha - no - I have just got back down to 82.5 kg (13 stone)! I am fairly tall though 1.86 m (6' 1").

or have a heart made out of titanium pumping like a Porsche V8

I wish! I can't push myself the way I did when I was young. I have to do these climbs very slowly to avoid collapsing at the roadside...

Take a climb I've done today - it was 2.3 miles long at the average gradient of 9.2%, but half of it averages at about 13-15% with the steepest at 22%.

That actually does sound like a pretty tough hill! I would prefer to be using my lowest best-bike gear on that.

Which hill is it?

 

[Alex321]

You must either be as light as a feather or have a heart made out of titanium pumping like a Porsche V8.

Take a climb I've done today - it was 2.3 miles long at the average gradient of 9.2%, but half of it averages at about 13-15% with the steepest at 22%. I definitely missed the 30x40 gearing when it got steep. I had to take that 'Sunshine' cassette out because the shifting was so bad. I'll probably replace my 11-34 with Shinamo XT 11-40 when it's time to change it.

2.3 miles at an average of 9.2% is a pretty hefty climb. I could get up it, but I'd be pretty knackered at the top.

The length of the climbs is almost more important than the gradient. A 200-300m climb at 15%, I can just power up, might not even use the bottom gear. But 500m at the same gradient, I will certainly be in the bottom gear, and working hard. 2 miles at that gradient, I couldn't do.

 

[ColinJ]

I just checked the figures... Your hill sounds like the tough parts of my local tough climb 'Mytholm Steeps' times two. That is HARD and I use all the gears I have on that one!

But I still sometimes don't make it...

 

[Deleted member 121159]

This one: https://www.strava.com/segments/998610

On my RidewithGPS it shows as 2.3mi, adding a little bit on both ends. As you can see, high cadence with 30x40. I did it with 30x34 today - it was harder and I was surprised to find out that I was slower as well. Not that I care about the speed, I just want to make it easy!

 

[Jameshow]

I use a 34 / 36 low gear on my carbon bike has got me up a few really steep climbs in the North York Moors, greenhow hill etc ..

 

[HLaB]

Sustained hills here are pretty non existent, our hill climb is on 6% for 0.6 of a mile. I run a 52/34 with an 11-28 cassette and that's fine for around here with most of my time in the 52t ring. I'll drop more to 34 (previously a 36t) when I visit my Folks and face some decent climbs. Btw, I had the lbs fit the 34t for Tenerife last year and its shifting up and down smoothly so I've left it.

 

[Alex321]

This one: https://www.strava.com/segments/998610

On my RidewithGPS it shows as 2.3mi, adding a little bit on both ends. As you can see, high cadence with 30x40. I did it with 30x34 today - it was harder and I was surprised to find out that I was slower as well. Not that I care about the speed, I just want to make it easy!
View attachment 664921

I actually cycled up that, many years ago, on the Ridgeback hybrid I had at the time.

Not all the way from the bottom, because at the time I lived halfway up Common road. But the really steep bit (from memory) is the bit between where it turn sharp left at the top of Common Road, and the end of the Golf club.

Not just step, but when it is damp, you will struggle to maintain traction going up it, even with the golf club there, it isn't a busy enough road to keep the surface clear of a thin film of moss.

I don't think anybody is going to get up that easily. I could actually try it again. It wouldn't be a stupid long ride from home to then come back past Eglwysilan.

 

[CXRAndy]

What's your setup? Do you have a square taper BB? I can't find anything as small as 26t for Hollowtech. Maybe you have a touring triple chainset?

It's a triple Shimano Deore crankset. Original 48/36/26. Now with a 50t outer chainring. Shifting done with Shimano XTR Di2

 

[Ming the Merciless]

What's your setup? Do you have a square taper BB? I can't find anything as small as 26t for Hollowtech. Maybe you have a touring triple chainset?

Shimano Deore goes down to 22t if you want it in Hollowtech