hills. gears. ??

[elk]

while I'm waiting for the UPS truck to come singing up my driveway with my Brooks replacement B67....I am thinking about riding up hills...

When I was shopping for a bike, everyone told me I had been doing hills in the wrong gears....I always used a higher gear to get up ...but they told me to shift down to a lower gear (1 ia low gear, 6 is a higher gear right?)

So I've been doing that...going into the hills shifting down to 1st as I felt the tension in the cranks increase...and I had a lot of trouble getting up the hill and was quite overcome at the top... 4 3 2 1

So I've been going up in 6 5 4 3 and I get up faster and easier....

I know, according to Mr Brown, one should ride trying to keep the same cadence no matter what the terrain...thus gears...but

I've been using higher gears generally....and I like it better.
(i have 8 IG)

am I a freak?

elk

[indysteel]

Whatever gets you to the top.

Actually, I must have missed the memo that said you have to maintain the same cadence on hills that you maintain on the flats. On gentle grades, perhaps, but the steeper the grade, the more this becomes difficult, at least for me. I've heard a different rule of thumb that you should aim to pedal 75%of your usual cadence on climbs.

Rules of thumb aside, use the gear that allows you to balance the strain climbing puts on your legs and lungs. That's going to mean a different gear for different people, depending on their respective leg strength and aerobic capacity. I have one friend who can spin fast up just about anything, alla Lance Armstrong, without blowing up. Most of us, however, cannot aerobically handle that and have to spin a bigger gear (or little gear in my cas) at a slower cadence.

[indigoiis]

I don't think you're a freak.
It's whatever gets you up. You know?
Sometimes I use a slower gear to stand up and "rest", sometimes I use a medium gear to "save" my easier gears... it's kind of a mind game.

Mostly I forget about the back gears and use only the front three. Keeps it simple.

[elk]

I don't know why I get so confused about the gear parlance. I even drive a stick in my 5 gears car ...

Given my 8:

Front gears? 1 2 3?
Smaller gears? 4 5 6?
HIgher gears? 6 7 8?

I guess I better study gears today..

[aicabsolut]

Spinning takes practice. Eventually, you can go faster and have more in reserve for bombing down the descent if you pick a gear that allows you to maintain as close to your flats cadence as possible. You may start out slower at first. When you get stronger, you can spin as fast in slightly harder gears, thus upping your speed. Or, conversely, you may be able to add another 10rpms to the original easy gear choice. I'm not a strong climber at all, but by taking the time to practice this technique, I have been steadily improving. It's really hard to at first, because you think, why do I want to go with an easier gear if it's just going to slow me down? Over time, it won't. You may even have a little left over for a surge at the top! The really steep stuff where you run out of gears where you can spin will keep your strength up. And you can power up the short rollers. I find that if I don't want those climbs a mile or longer to kill me, I've got to spin. I may fall back at the base behind my huge gear using riding buddy, but I almost always pass her at some point later on in the climb.

[indigoiis]

I don't know why I get so confused about the gear parlance. I even drive a stick in my 5 gears car ...

Given my 8:

Front gears? 1 2 3?
Smaller gears? 4 5 6?
HIgher gears? 6 7 8?

I guess I better study gears today..

Forget numbers.
Do it by "feel."

Think "One potato two potato three potato" and get into that rhythm.

Count to ten, change down a gear. Count to ten, change down a gear.

Find a hill near your house (so it's an easy ride home) and practice practice practice!

[indysteel]

I should clarify that most of the hills I climb are short and steep with 15 to 20percent grades. I, for one, cannot spin at my usual 92 rpm on these hills. I don't have enough gears, even with a triple and even if I did, I would blow up before reaching the top. I'm sure there are people out there who can do it; just not me.

While on my bike tour in Tennessee, I did some longer, "mountain" climbs that had more gentle grades. I generally picked a gear that allowed me to spin at or near my usual cadence. Those climbs are a different kettle of fish from my usual fare.

For rollers, I either power over them or drop down only a gear or two. Unless I'm tired and then all bets are off!

[michelem]

Elk,

I feel your pain. When I was riding my mountain bike, it had the numbers on the gear shifters. Turns out the numbers are not the same for every bike - with some 1 is easy and 6 is hard . . . for others it is the opposite. And then, with road bikes, guess what? NO NUMBERS!

So, my suggestion to you is to TRY not to fixate on the numbers (easier said than done - I got stuck on them, but really it did just make everything a lot more difficult). Go by feel. In which gears does your pedaling feel easy (less resistance)? In which gears does your pedaling feel more difficult (have more resistance)? Generally, you want to be in a gear with less resistance when going uphill and more resistance on the flats and downhills. On downhills, I want to be in my big front chainring and my littlest back cog (sounds like you have a triple in front - the big ring creates the most resistance, and the little chainring creates the least resistance; it's opposite in the back - bigger equals less resistance and smaller equals more resistance). Be careful not to cross-chain (big in front and big in back or little in front and little in back) as this will create "chain rub" (you'll be able to hear it and it isn't good for your chain). On uphills I want to be in my middle front chainring or for really steep grades, I may go all the way down to my "granny gear," which is the smallest chainring in the front. If I was way down in those low resistance gears on the flats or downhill I'd be spinning like crazy and not getting much forward speed at all (or even lose speed).

I hope this makes a little bit of sense. Just keep practicing. Pushing really hard gears (lots of resistance) can be hard on the muscles and joints, so the "rule of thumb" is to find a gear in which you can easily spin at approximately 90-95 rpms.

Here's a Sheldon Brown article you may find helpful:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears.html

[Kalidurga]

elk, you mentioned driving a standard 5-gear transmission in your car. That's exactly how I keep track of what gear to use on the bike. I don't know if this will work for you, but it definitely helped me to get used to gearing for hills.

When you're in low/easiest gear of the car, the stick shift is close to your body and the transmission runs in such a way that the car goes more slowly but you can more easily make it up hills. As you shift towards high/hardest gear, the stick shift moves away from your body, and the transmission allows the car to go faster, yet it has less power to get up hills.

The bike works the same way, only the stick shift= the bicycle chain and your body= the bike frame. When you're in lowest/easiest gear, the chain is close to the frame and you can spin more easily, which generally makes the bike move more slowly yet it's easier to get up hills. As you move into higher/harder gears, the chain moves away from the frame, and spinning becomes harder but the bike moves faster.

I'm not sure if I explained that well. Does it makes any sense? If it does, then basically the "number" of your gear becomes less meaningful because the direction in which the chain is moving is what helps you keep track of whether you're shifting in the right direction.

[onimity]

I ride some pretty steep hills with a compact double and so there is no way I can maintain my cadence at the rate I use on flats going up a steep hill, since I usually end up in my lowest possible gear combination. 75% seems about right to me, though I do try to maintain my normal cadence as long as possible.

I shift down as the hill gets steeper but then as the pitch levels out I shift back up, sometimes standing a little first to get my speed back up. So on a steep hill I will generally drop to my small chainring and shift up a few gears in the back. So a flat->steep hill for me might look like:

9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-4-(stand)-3-4-5

This is my normal pattern on a hill I ride almost every day, about 1/2 mile and 8-10% grade. At the top it levels out to 5 or 6%. Though lately I've been trying to avoid my lowest gear and stand more just because I am a masochist.

It really depends a lot on the hill, though. On a less-steep hill I'll stay in the mid range as long as I can keep my normal cadence up. When I was new to riding I stayed in my lowest gear a lot. As I've gotten stronger my gear choices have increased.

I think the thing that confused me most about gears when I was really new to cycling was that the shifting seems opposite in the front and back...but with good reason. Dropping to a smaller chainring in the front makes it easier to pedal, while shifting to a smaller cog in the rear makes it harder.

On a triple, I am usually in the middle chainring on flats, large going downhill and small uphill. On my compact double I am usually in the large chainring unless I am on a steepish hill or heading into a bad headwind. I have no idea if this is 'good' or 'right'...it just works for me.

Anne

[elk]

Thank you...it all makes sense....Kalidurga, your metaphor of the car is helpful and yes it's clear...

In some ways I have it easy because I have internal gears...so I push a button to go into lower gears and use a thumb lever to go into higher gears..so there is never any mistake.....

it's not the numbers I'm thinking about so much as how much resistance on the cranks I want /need...I've even been using my higher gears more in general ...

A hill near my house is funny because I can't even get off my street without going up one...!!!
But I'm gonna try spinning a LITTLE more..I was just so happy to find I could get up the hill in a higher gear with less agony...

I am just getting into shape after many years of bumsitting.... kind of thrilled about it too.

[fastdogs]

I was re-reading this post today, because it's interesting, but also because I rode a different bike this weekend and it seemed like it was geared WAY differently than my usual bike.
I mentioned to my dad that I was thinking of getting a new bike to ride on the weekends. He said he had a good bike that I could have, and dug out an old huffy from his shed. The plastic on the bottom of the shifter said "1992" so I guess that's how old it is, and the brake cables were actually routed through the top tube instead of being clamped on the outside of it. It had a selle royal saddle. He was quite proud of it, because he'd got it for $5.00 at a yard sale. I am not knowledgeable enough to take an old bike and fix it up, but took it out for a ride because he was so pleased that he had just the bike for me.
It fit me perfectly (would never fit him, he's too tall), but the slightest touch of the front brake made a scronking noise loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. The rear brakes would not stop it, but I was able to slow down a bit with them to avoid making so much noise all the time. Looking down on the front wheel, it appeared to be a bit wobbly, although the bike didn't feel wobbly, and he told me later that the rear wheel is a little wobbly too.
Anyway, I headed up a long hill near the house. I'd gone up it on my folding bike, and it wasn't easy, but I didn't have to go down to one till right near the top. On this bike, however, I was all the way down to 1 only halfway up. Needless to say, I could not make it all the way up the hill. The front deralleur was not working- the chain stayed on the smallest or middle wheel, depending on where it was when I started (it didn't work while moving, but would be on a different wheel when I stopped). I never got it on the large one at all- I could hear the chain rubbing like it was trying to push it over but it wouldn't move. The rear one worked fine. Just not low enough to climb the hill.

Is there that big a difference in the gearing of different bikes or was there just something off with this one? I only have a 9 speeds on my folding bike, but it seems to be enough to get me up most hills. It wasn't even close with the huffy.
vickie