Comments on: Climbing Technique

By: Fixaholic

Fixaholic — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:53:09 +0000

Great site. I agree with everything except that I don’t think fixed gear bikes are all that scary really. A little patience and anyone can get tha hang of it.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:10:37 +0000

Climbing long hills is also an excellent time to relax the grip on the bars and rest wrists, hands, and fingers. Many pros roll their wrists slightly backward on their grips when climbing to open up the chest and get a little more air…this is specific to mtb bars, but works the same if you’re on the top (not the hoods) of your road bars, I guess. I don’t road ride and don’t have road bars, but I do climb a lot of hills…

By: bikinginla

bikinginla — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:55:10 +0000

I agree, the only way to learn to ride hills is to ride hills. One mistake a lot of riders make is to start in too low a gear; it’s a lot easier to maintain momentum that to build it. And once you start up, it’s hard to shift up.

My standard technique is to attack a hill. As you approach it, shift up a gear or two from your standard cruising gear, and pick up your cadence a little. Then as it gets harder to maintain your pace, shift down to a more comfortable gear while trying to keep up as much momentum as possible. Sometimes you really have to dig deep, but I often find I can take a hill in a higher gear — and faster — than I think I can.

By: Bill Lambert

Bill Lambert — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:01:46 +0000

I don’t mean to be glib, but I try to avoid hills. Our very biggest hills here in NE Indiana are like speed bumps to you folks in the rest of the world. I did a climb in the Adirondacks in July and thought I might not survive to the top. I have been trying to do more hills, but I don’t know how I could ever survive a tour in the mountains (even in small mountains).

By: Jon Grinder

Jon Grinder — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:39:18 +0000

Well, obviously, that depends on whether I’m riding fixed-gear or multi-speed. On the road, I do find that I tend to climb in a higher gear than a lot of my friends, but I don’t necessarily go any faster.

On the mountain bike, I tend to hit the granny early and often. But, I think that’s just because I started mountain biking when the granny gear was a 24 tooth chainring and a 28 tooth cog (not that low, compared to the 20/34 combos which are common, today), so it seems normal to hit the low gear.