What type of bike do I need to cycle Wrynose Pass?

[frances99]

Hi

I am about to sign up to do the Great Lakeland Challenge in September - which includes 26 miles of cycling over Wrynose Pass. I am looking into buying a bike - but don't know what time would be best suited to this. I visited Evans today and they though road bikes (with racing style handlebars) would be best, however I have looked at the video from last year and most people seemed to be using standard handlebar bikes (perhaps hybrids?)

I am new to cycling so please excuse my ignorance!

Thanks!

 

[aberal]

The people at Evans probably gave you good advice. Drop handlebars are not necessarily "racing style" handlebars - they are used on all kinds of bikes used for commuting, touring, cyclo-cross or general road use. Their advantage is that they offer you a variety of places to rest your hands (5 or 6 different locations) which allows you to continually vary your position and so lessen fatigue. Flat handlebars don't allow as many positions. Some people prefer them as they feel safer and better able to access brakes and gear changers. More importantly though - you should be thinking about what kind of gearing you want. If you are new to cycling and are aiming to tackle some big hills, you might want to consider either a compact chainset or a triple chainset which will give you a good spread of gears, and in particular some low gears to take on the hills. Pure racing bikes tend to have very high gearing. In short, and assuming that you are going to be doing most of your riding on the road you might try googling audax or sportive or touring bikes and see what pops up - as bikes like that are likely to suit what you are looking for. A hybrid is likely to do the job for you too - just not as well.

 

[SurlyNomad]

+1 for the advice on gearing from aberal. I have a surly lht and the gearing is such that you could go up the side of a house if you would let it. I would go for something with good range of gears but it depends how deep your pockets are and how fit you are and maybe even go as far as saying how sane you are because ive walked up wrynose pass and its one of them OMG momments. Hope you post some pictures up mate and good luck on your journey through the lakes.

 

[frances99]

Thanks so much for the advice - I called them "racing style" as am not really au fait with the terminology! I tried out this women's road bike at Evans today:
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pinnacle/aura-flight-2010-womens-road-bike-ec021922?query=womens road bike

Quite liked it but it's the first time I haven't used flat handlebars, and I think I will simply feel more secure with them. Would you say the gears on the bike above are along the right lines though?

@SurlyNomad - must be pretty insane. As the challenge involves rowing across Lake Windermere, then doing this cycle part before climbing Scafell Pike. All in less than 12 hours...

 

[GrumpyGregry]

if worried that you may not adapt to the position of the brake levers, esp if you have smallish hands, you can get things call cross tops which are a second pair of levers on the flat top part of the bars.

That's a very good bike for the money, as for gearing, a lot depends on your youth, leg strength and how much training esp quality climbing training you can put in. I wouldn't want to tackle anything in the lakes without a triple ringed chainset but I'm old fat and unfit.

Now is a good time for buying imo, as the 2010 model bikes are all reduced to make way for the 2011's.

 

[ian turner]

Wrynose followed shortly after by the Hardknott pass are two of the steepest hills in England if not the steepest (there's that one in Yorkshire).
What's your prior cycling experience?

 

[Spin City]

Frances

It's very difficult to give advice about appropriate gearing because "What gears you require for particular terrain, conditions, level of fitness" is very personal and is only usually learnt after you've tried cycling up the climbs or someting similar.

For example, experience has taught me what gears I need to get over Hardknott/Wrynose when I'm fresh and what gears I need to get over a particular Alpine pass after a long day in the saddle.

The lowest ratio on the bike you're looking at is 34/25 = 1.36. Lower gears can be achieved either by reducing the number of teeth on the front ring or increasing the number of teeth on the largest cog at the back. If you bought a bike with a triple chainset which had a 30 tooth front ring and, say, a 27 tooth cog at the back you're lowest ratio would be 30/27 = 1.11

 

[dodgy]

Don't buy a bike specifically for one or two hills on a 26 mile route. Presumably you will be riding it before, during and dare I say it, after the event? IF this is true, think about what you want to use the bike for.

It would be folly to make your selection based on one fairly short event.

Any old bike would do as long as the gears are low enough. For an absolute novice, then a mountain bike with slicks might be the right choice for one event as described by the OP.

 

[Garz]

I cycled that last year on my boardman comp about halfway on a 112 mile route. Getting up it in 23x34 was quite tough but as Ian asked it is dependant on your fitness.

If I was buying a bike from scratch I would lean towards a touring drop bar bike as these can carry extra stuff and accommodate mudguards and usually wider tyres for rougher terrain.

 

[aberal]

Quite liked it but it's the first time I haven't used flat handlebars, and I think I will simply feel more secure with them. Would you say the gears on the bike above are along the right lines though?

@SurlyNomad - must be pretty insane. As the challenge involves rowing across Lake Windermere, then doing this cycle part before climbing Scafell Pike. All in less than 12 hours...

If you can take on that kind of challenge, I'd assume that you were reasonably fit, so that bike (or something like it) looks like the kind of bike which would suit. And it looks like a really good deal too! The bike has a compact chainset, meaning the small chainring at the front has 34 teeth, which will be absolutely fine for someone who has a decent level of fitness. Racing bikes typically have 39 or 42 teeth on the small chainring which makes it harder to use to climb. You will need to build up the mileage though. If you stay on this forum, someone somewhere will be able to point you to a training regime - but on a simple level I'd suggest that you start with runs of 10-15 miles and then depending how you get on, increase that distance weekly by about 5 miles a time.

I honestly wouldn't worry too much about the bars - you will very, very quickly get used to them. Drop bars are as safe as a safe thing. There is a perception out there that they are somehow more difficult to ride than flat bars - but they're not. The only time flat bars are an advantage on the road are for people who commute in very heavy traffic, otherwise drop bars tend to offer far more advantages.

 

[frances99]

Thanks so much for all the advice. I am pretty fit generally yes, but not an experienced cyclist, which is why it is this part of the challenge that is worrying me the most (and giving me doubts about whether to do it). They do say that it's suitable for all levels - as long as you are fit and healthy.

Of course if I do decide to do it, I will throw myself into training over the next nine months, so should have plenty of time to build up the skill and stamina necessaru (and also get used to a different kind of bike). I think this site may become my saviour...

 

[Cardiac]

In my youth (I was 17 at the time) I took my bike over Wrynose and Hardnott passes (on different days). No special bike, no special gearing - I just got off and pushed for the really steep bits. Even then I passed a couple of cars with steam coming from their radiators (not that I wasn't steaming as well!).

I would take the advice - don't choose the bike on the basis of these two climbs - the bigger ride is more important.

Just go for it. It's a beautiful area, and the downhill stretches will be fun too.

 

[mcshroom]

Just go for it. It's a beautiful area, and the downhill stretches will be fun too.

Definitely go for it (although fun is an interesting way of describing 1:4 descents with sharp hairpins and no barriers )

I'm yet to build up the courage to take on Wynose/Hardknott on a bike, but I'm not exactly fit and have a decent amount of extra weight to haul up the hills. The views are stunning though: -

This is a view from the top of Wynose looking West towards Hardknott.

With respect to a bike I think that the one you have looked at should be good enough to get up the passes, but you may want to change the cassette to have a smaller bottom gear (you can at least get 28t with the current equipment and 34t is possible but you would need to change the rear mech to a mountain bike one).

That being said I won't take it on with a triple chainset and 32t rear (so 28x32 bottom gear or 0.875 ratio) but that's just lack of guts

[Edited as I managed to get East and West mixed up]

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Wrynose followed shortly after by the Hardknott pass are two of the steepest hills in England if not the steepest (there's that one in Yorkshire).
...

Rosedale Chimney

 

[ian turner]

Having looked at that website and done some figuring out myself as they seem to reluctant to actually provide a map I'm guessing it's from Ambleside or thereabouts at the end of Windermere to Wasdale Head for the Scafell Pike section. So that's Hard Knott as well though that's shorter.
Just thinking about it is unnerving.