Lowest gear too hard!

[adamangler]

So coming from a mountain bike to a cx bike which im riding on the road....

Today for the first time i did a fair bit of climbing and i just couldnt spin the lowest gear ratio on my bike, really struggling to get up the hills and it hurt my knees mashing the hard gear, i had to get out of the saddle a lot, just dont have enough fitness to climb.


So my question is, what to do? how would you train to be able to climb better, should i continue pushing a hard gear on the turbo trainer or work on spinning?

I dont really know what im asking, i just want to be able to climb without my legs stalling!

 

[compo]

Two possibilities. You say you went climbing for the first time and struggled. With practice and a few more rides under your belt it will become easier. It may just be that you are undertrained for what you attempted today. Alternatively you may want to look at the gear ratios on your bike and sort out a lower gear.

 

[Sittingduck]

I would imagine it being a CX bike would yield quite a low, lowest gear... By your own admission, you've only tackled a fair few hills Today, on this bike. Rome wasn't built in a day
Forget about turbo workouts and just get out and keep doing the hills on the new bike. You will improve, with practice and an improvement in fitness.

 

[DaveyM]

I kind of felt the same (like I didn't have a low enough gear) but with practice you get better at working harder, so you can start to climb hills that were too hard previously.
good luck

 

[Oldspice]

Was your gears set up correctly. I found out, when i purchased a bicycle and took it in for it's free service that the gears were set up wrong (explains the swearing). I only buy from trusted shops now and only purchase triples.

What bike have you got. Maybe if you post a pic of your bike in the low gear a smart person may be able to help

 

[smokeysmoo]

+1 for replies 2, 3 & 4, or if all else fails see rule #5

 

[Rob3rt]

You aren't fit enough, get fitter, riding your bike more would go a long way toward achieving this.

Also what are the chainrings and cassette fitted to your bike?

 

[simmi]

What ratio is your lowest gear?

I was finding hills very hard to start so changed my cassette to give me a lowest gear with 28T instead of 23T which made hills a lot easier.

The only trouble with this was that it gave me larger gear spacings in the 15-20mph range where I do 80% of my riding, which was not good for my cadence.


Ended up changing to a compact crank 34 and 50 teeth chainrings and reverting back to my original cassette (12-23 teeth)

This gave me the best of both worlds, help with the hills and single tooth gear changes in the money zone.

The other option which others will always tell you when you start threads like this is STFU and man up a bit

 

[adamangler]

I'll stfu then lol. I'm used to using granny ring on mtb and spinning . My cx bike is 46/34.
So lowest ratio is like using middle ring on mtb. I guess just need to climb more. Cheers

 

[Rob3rt]

What is the cassette? 34:25 should get you up just about anything! If you absolutely need to you could try a cassette with a 27t.

 

[ianrauk]

Get bike
Ride Bike up hill
Ride Bike up hill again
and again
and again
and again
etc
.
.
.
.
.
.
And you get better at the hills

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Get bike
Ride Bike up hill
Ride Bike up hill again
and again
and again
and again
etc
.
.
.
.
.
.
And you get better at the hills

Or improve threshold on the flat?

 

[simmi]

Or improve threshold on the flat?

Hi TMHNET,

I think I know what you mean, but this is a beginners thread so could you please elaborate a bit.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Hi TMHNET,

I think I know what you mean, but this is a beginners thread so could you please elaborate a bit.

Hills don't become hard because they point up. Hills become hard when you physically can't turn the pedals fast enough relative to your selected gear. The exact same thing happens on the flat so there is no reason at all to repeatedly climb hills. Why would you? (unless there was a cafe at the top!)

 

[cyberknight]

Hills don't become hard because they point up. Hills become hard when you physically can't turn the pedals fast enough relative to your selected gear. The exact same thing happens on the flat so there is no reason at all to repeatedly climb hills. Why would you? (unless there was a cafe at the top!)

For fun
I must admit that i did not used to enjoy hills and i am certainly not the fastest up them but i regard the challange as the carrot.