Question about gears and hills

So this is my bike. It's a Lapierre, not sure of the model or anything. It's a women's bike. I just got it last summer. I don't know much about bikes, I just got it cuz it was pretty and I liked the frenchish name. My boyfriend and I took our bikes in to get a tune up a few weeks ago and the tech told me that looking at the gears he could tell that my bike is made for going fast, and not good for hills. This totally freaked me out! For one thing, I am soooo not fast. Also, my boyfriend and I are doing the STP (Seattle to Portland- 202 miles in 2 days) in July, which has 30 miles of uphill terrain, with an uphill altitude of 1,951 feet. Can you tell from that if it's a big hill? Haha I feel so dumb, I'm just scared that I'm going to have to ride up some giant hill and die because my bike sucks at hills!

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Originally Posted by hayleymajayley

So this is my bike. It's a Lapierre, not sure of the model or anything. It's a women's bike. I just got it last summer. I don't know much about bikes, I just got it cuz it was pretty and I liked the frenchish name. My boyfriend and I took our bikes in to get a tune up a few weeks ago and the tech told me that looking at the gears he could tell that my bike is made for going fast, and not good for hills. This totally freaked me out! For one thing, I am soooo not fast. Also, my boyfriend and I are doing the STP (Seattle to Portland- 202 miles in 2 days) in July, which has 30 miles of uphill terrain, with an uphill altitude of 1,951 feet. Can you tell from that if it's a big hill? Haha I feel so dumb, I'm just scared that I'm going to have to ride up some giant hill and die because my bike sucks at hills!

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Hi Hayley. Well, if you are doing 202 miles by July, you better start riding some hills before you go and putting some mileage in! Once you start doing this, you will see pretty quickly if your bike is geared to high for you.

The bike tech (mechanic) who worked on your bike probably noticed that your bike is geared high not low. What this means is that the cassette on the back (on your rear wheel) has a bunch of round gears with teeth on them. The more teeth, the lower the gear (or easier) the gear. He probably noticed that you do not have a very large gear in the back.

The opposite thinking works for the chain rings up front (where you chain runs over). The smaller these are, the lower the gear.

You can change out all of this on your bike. You can add a cassette with gears with more teeth; and you can even change your chain rings to put a larger one on the inside. I cannot tell you what would work for you since I do not know what you have and cannot tell what the cassette looks like on your bike since it is on the opposite side of the bike than your picture.

Any reputable bike shop can explain these things to you and recommend gearing that would complement your riding style, i.e. beginner

Hope this helps spoke

hah yes I do need to get my butt in gear and get out and ride! I've been going to the gym 3x a week all winter, so I'm not in terrible shape. We had some suprise snow this morning, so I'm hoping my plans to finally get out and ride this weekend aren't completely ruined! Good to know about changing cassettes, I didn't even think of that :] Thanks for the help!

Just go and ride your bike on hills. See what happens.

If it's not working out for you even after you've trained quite a bit, and learned more about gearing and other technical issues (from this wonderful forum, among other sources) then you can get a different cassette (the cogs at the back) for example to help you go up hills.

Pretty bike. Lapierre is an important bike maker in France, sort of like Trek in the USA.

that's a triple crank - don't see why this bike should not be going uphill.


STP has a total climb of 1900 ft? If so - if you can do two centuries back to back by the time it happens, that will be a joke.

Alpine You have better eyes that I have - I can't see the 3 rings in front!

Do you have to rub it in that i'm getting old?:D

1950 feet is not a lot of climbing at all, especially for a ride that long. It's hard to find just a century, even, with that little bit of climbing. At least around So. Cal. Believe me, I've tried! :D I did over 3200 feet of combined climbing just this weekend during two rides lasting 30 and 40 miles each. My husband did more cause he loves to climb

You should get a bike computer. Something that tells you grade and elevation, so you can get a feel for how much 1900 feet of climbing is. There are many to choose from, but Garmin is a popular one. That's what my husband and I use and several of our friends. But you could probably find a less expensive one. I'd ask around here what people use and like to make sure you don't end up with something you're not happy with. There are several things you can gauge with a bike computer. Speed, average over all speed, distance, time, cadence, grade, total distance ascended and descended, etc. Some may not have grade and elevation, so make sure you get that if you want it.

My husband added a bigger gear on my bike, so I can climb a little easier than I used to. I'm so slow on hills I need all the help I can get! But I'm getting stronger and need that biggest gear less and less. :D

My friend is doing STP, by the way, and tried to suck my husband and I in. We decided against it for various reasons, but may do it in the future.

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by alpinerabbit

STP has a total climb of 1900 ft? If so - if you can do two centuries back to back by the time it happens, that will be a joke.

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Yeah, I admit I don't know much at all about biking, and always feel I know less when I read here, :) but I do know that the 45 mile livestrong ride in Philly has 3,300+ ft of climbing. So 1900 ft over 200+ miles doesn't seem like much at all. But what do I know. Maybe it has 19,000 ft? The century in Philly has nearly 9,000 ft of climbing. Could it be a typo? My eyes can barely read the board, let alone see the chains on the bike in the picture. :)

Looks like a triple to me too which means you have granny gears perfect for climbing. There really isn't any big hills on the STP. Most of the hill are just rollers and as long as you get out and ride you should not have any problem. If you are new to riding, you will want to learn how to shift properly in anticipation for the hills ie. shift down before you need to rather than under power when you start climbing which could cause you to drop the chain.

Looks like it's true:

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* Total distance (miles) 202.25
* Uphill distance (miles) 30.87
* Uphill altitude (feet) 1,951
* Maximum altitude (feet) 463
http://www.cascade.org/EandR/stp/STP_Details.cfm

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You better start training :-) - upping your distance.

What do you ride in? Centuries don't go well with sneakers, and maybe, just maybe you could try going clippless. Think double the muscle at your disposal.
Also, I like the adjustable-angle stem but I don't quite like the slightly downward-tilting saddle (although you might be fine with that....)

Yeah - STP is pretty flat as far as centuries go. One or two longer climbs (the "big hill" is 1 mile long and about 7% - a little over 300 feet of elevation gain). There's very, very little in the way of steep climbing.

As far as the bike goes - sounds like the mechanic was a bit full of it... in any case unless he knows you and your riding style intimately he hasn't anything to judge you on as far as the gearing you personally will need for hill climbing... Sounds like he looked, saw a woman, and decided you needed even lower gearing than you already have... I'm guessing a bit, but your bike probably has Tiagra on it, and could possibly have a 12-23 tooth rear. That's not super low, but with a triple on the front, you still have several easier gears than you'd have on a standard double running a 12-27. If you find you do need or want some easier gears it's possible to go down to a 26 with a SRAM road cassette, lower with a mt cassette - but that could require a different derailleur.

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Originally Posted by spokewench

Alpine You have better eyes that I have - I can't see the 3 rings in front!

Do you have to rub it in that i'm getting old?:D

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You've gotta look at that nice long cage rear derailleur.

I don't see how this bike wouldn't have enough gears for that ride. I think your mechanic was teasing you...or an idiot. I dunno, is it heavy?

I second the suggestion that for long rides, you should consider going clipless.

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Originally Posted by spokewench

... The more teeth, the lower the gear (or easier) the gear....
The opposite thinking works for the chain rings up front (where you chain runs over). The smaller these are, the lower the gear.

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I still have problems understanding this. Can you rephrase it?
Something like
REAR-
more teeth=lower/easier
FRONT-
????????

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Originally Posted by Zen

I still have problems understanding this. Can you rephrase it?
Something like
REAR-
more teeth=lower/easier
FRONT-
????????

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I am so not a techy when it comes to gears, but I think it is easiest to explain:
REAR: more teeth easier
FRONT: Less teeth easier

So if you were in the rear gear with the most teeth and the front gear with the least teeth, that would be your easiest gear. Right? Feel free to correct me if I have this wrong :confused:

Oh thanks.
I'll have to put that on an index card and figure out my own way of remembering.

As others said...go ride some hills. The steepest hill on the route isn't far from you, and will make a great training ride. If you have a triple & a 12-25, and learn to relax, sit and spin, you'll get up the hill when you are good and ready. :cool: STP is mostly rollers. And someone else mentioned your saddle angle. If it works for you, great, but you may want to consider moving a little bit at a time to be closer to level if you have any discomfort. There is an amazing amount of good info on this forum about saddles...for good reason. Just keep poking around and searching here.

OH GOD the saddle angle. That picture is from the day we first rode our bikes, I believe the day after we bought them. I rode THIRTY MILES with that terribly adjusted seat! Hell no, it did not work for me. I couldn't sit down on a cushy bed without being in paaaainn!!! Never again will I go riding without an allen wrench for seat adjustments. I definitely learned my lesson! A nice older couple at the turn around point on the trail were kind enough to mention to me that my seat was at a rather extreme angle, and that's probably why my tushy was so sore.

I had never seen the tech guy in my life, he definitely didn't know a thing about my riding style or skill level. He just asked me if I rode many hills and I said no, and he said that's good, cuz this bike's made for going fast, not for hills.

Working on figuring out gears is pretty much my first priority this year! And I'm definitely getting clipless pedals :] I kinda wanted to get them last year, but we ended up moving and got so busy we stopped riding! Tragic :[

Whew! What a relief. :p The good thing is that you are obviously very motivated right now...you are going to be very prepared for a great summer of riding. Enjoy.

I wanted to get a bike that would make it 'easier' to get up hills, my coach told me, "doesn't matter what bike you have, it is still your legs", I got a compact, and alas, he is right, I still have to use my legs to climb;)

Also, not to hijack, but have you been fit? If not, it might be worth it to get fit several months before your ride (you want to allow time for your body to adjust and for tweaking). Maybe the seat angle is throwing me off, but the front end set up looks unusual to me. You have an adjustable stem, right? It looks like it's actually a fairly long stem, but the angle is adjusted up very high/with lots of spacers. Is this the best position for you, or was the bike set up more or less like that when you got it? Also, it's hard to tell because the bars (and front wheel) are turned towards the fence a bit, but those bars look really wide and the hoods perhaps a little low. Again hard to tell because of the angle of the picture, but I might consider rotating the bars up a hair as well. Some adjustments in that area might add to your comfort and efficiency.

Wow, um it was more or less adjusted like that when I got it. I think the only thing that was adjusted for me was the seat post. It's possible that it was adjusted for someone else, as someone had purchased the bike and then returned it, which is how I got such a good deal on it :] I suppose I might just spring for the money and go get fit, I had been thinking about it, but I think it's like 125 bucks at the only place I know of! Is that normal or kind of pricey? I pretty much know nothing about how it should be adjusted or even how it CAN be adjusted, I just started riding last summer, and haven't really read up on any of this stuff!

I think that's fairly typical... sometimes you can find them for less. However, if you have a friend who is somewhat knowledgeable and one of you has a trainer, he or she can probably take a look at you on the bike and get a decent ballpark idea of whether you need to make any adjustments. Proper setback on the seat is really important to look at too.

Edit: did you buy the bike at a shop? Usually they will include at least a cursory fit for free. It's worth asking. A cursory fit should look at more than just the seatpost, too -- it should involve putting you on a trainer and looking at reach, setback etc, and recommending component changes if necessary. It might be 35 minutes instead of an hour and a half or so you'd get if you paid, but it should get you somewhere close to where you should be.

I guess one thing I was wondering... and not seeing you on the bike, I might be completely off base... but the bars are up so high with the spacers and angle on the adjustable stem, yet the stem looks longish... and this makes me wonder if the stem is really too long and they attempted to make the bars feel closer to you by bringing them way up. If this is true, you might get a better fit with a considerably shorter stem with some rise (but probably less than your stem is adjusted to now), and with fewer spacers. However, this is COMPLETELY HYPOTHETICAL, not having seen you on the bike. Another possibility is that the bike was way too small for whoever bought it initially, and that setup was a stopgap measure (if the frame is too small, once the saddle is where it needs to be the front end can be too low). Anyway, it's good to re-evaluate whether the setup is working for you, or whether it could be improved with some adjustments and/or a different stem.

I've done 19% a grade paved hill with everything--a 23# comfort road bike, a 25# full suspension mtb, and a 17# speedy bike. It's a matter of training really. I think you will eventually climb anything once you are well into the season of your riding. :)

$125 is right in the range for a fit. When you go to Cycle U for your Road 101, chat with them about fittings. The nice thing about having Cycle U do it is they don't sell bikes...so they focus on working with what you have, unless, of course, it flat out won't work. Having a good position on the bike will make those hills much easier to climb (my attempt to bring the thread back to your original question).

If you have a fit done by a PT there is a good chance you can have it covered by your insurance.