# When do you get off and walk?



## Smurfy (19 Dec 2014)

1. When it's too steep to ride?

2. Slightly before it gets too steep to ride, so as to save your legs for other hills later on


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## ColinJ (19 Dec 2014)

I have low enough gears to be able to get up 20% climbs and short stretches at 25%, so a climb would have to be steeper than that (or steep for a long distance) to make me dismount. If I were going to dismount, I would prefer to choose my moment so I could dismount safely.

The other problem would be my back wheel slipping on a wet or icy surface, which would lead to an emergency dismount.


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## Slioch (19 Dec 2014)

or....
3. When I get a p**cture and I'm only a few hundred yards from home (happened once!)


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## derrick (19 Dec 2014)

What? walk never.


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## User19783 (19 Dec 2014)

Colin,
How many inches are you using?,
I run a 68 inch and a 73 inch, I can ride up a hill of 20%, but no more, I usually tried to do more, but if i can't, i just turn around, and find a different route.


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## Hacienda71 (19 Dec 2014)

I remember on a ride with a couple of other forum members watching a single speed attempt up Winnats Pass. The attempt finished at the gritting bin about a third of the way up when he keeled over and pushed the rest of the way.


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (19 Dec 2014)

ColinJ said:


> I have low enough gears to be able to get up 20% climbs and short stretches at 25%, so a climb would have to be steeper than that (or steep for a long distance) to make me dismount. If I were going to dismount, I would prefer to choose my moment so I could dismount safely.
> 
> The other problem would be my back wheel slipping on a wet or icy surface, which would lead to an emergency dismount.


Colin, as this is posted in the ss and fixed section I don't think your dinner plate rear cog and pinhead front ring count...


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## Drago (19 Dec 2014)

Never!!!

Though this year I've had to admit to myself I ain't indestructible, so the day may come soon when I have to get off and push.


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## arch684 (19 Dec 2014)

When riding my old raleigh with a 26/42 lowest gear I still refuse to walk.I wait until I get to the top and fall off


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## MontyVeda (19 Dec 2014)

I think it's actually easier to ride in my lowest gear than it is to walk/push... only the ice makes me get off and walk, as it did coming home from work at midnight last Friday... saying that, if it wasn't icy, the excessive amount of beer I'd drunk may have had me walking too.


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## User6179 (19 Dec 2014)

When her husbands coming up the path


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## Donger (19 Dec 2014)

Sacrilege! ..... Never! If I find a hill I can't get up I turn round and find another one I can. Having said that, our club went up Haresfield Beacon once, and after i lost control on the 25% bit I just had to swallow my pride and walk for 100 yards. It still irks. Apart from that one, nobody has EVER seen me pushing up a hill.


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## steveindenmark (19 Dec 2014)

I am a tourer, not a racer. That means I am duty bound to get off and drink coffee from my flask, take photos, check the map etc. This is often on steep hills. But sometimes on steep downhills as well.

Or in the case of Sa Colabra on Mallorca many, many stops.


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## ColinJ (20 Dec 2014)

User19783 said:


> Colin,
> How many inches are you using?,
> I run a 68 inch and a 73 inch, I can ride up a hill of 20%, but no more, I usually tried to do more, but if i can't, i just turn around, and find a different route.


See below! 



bromptonfb said:


> Colin, as this is posted in the ss and fixed section I don't think your dinner plate rear cog and pinhead front ring count...


Oops, yes - I did not notice the context of this thread! 

I was talking about a 38 or 39 ring with a 23-29 sprocket for short steep ascents, For a long steep ascent, a 26 or 28 ring with those sprockets.

Since singlespeed would not help at all, I would need the same gears as above. 

I have never ridden fixed so I don't know what gear I could use on what climb. I am fairly sure that my body would complain bitterly if I tried it. I have to be careful not to overstress myself or my heart rhythm gets affected, which is not good!


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## slowmotion (20 Dec 2014)

It's pretty easy. Not enough oxygenated blood gets to my legs, I start gasping, and I stop because I can't go on a yard further. It's entirely decision-free really.
I think Clint Eastwood said this after a pro-celebrity tennis match that he lost....
"My mind's writing cheques that my body can't pay".


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## dave r (20 Dec 2014)

When I can't turn the pedals anymore and its a case of dismount or fall over.

It happened here last winter about a dozen yards from the top

http://goo.gl/maps/NkXxD

I was coming back from the Lickey Hills


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## TheDoctor (20 Dec 2014)

When it's too steep or I fancy a change.
I walked up some of a few cols when I was Bromptonising Provence.


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## TheDoctor (20 Dec 2014)

FFS!! Forum software keeps dual posting everything...


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## ColinJ (20 Dec 2014)

TheDoctor said:


> FFS!! Forum software keeps dual posting everything...


No it doesn't - _you lot _are double-posting! (The pages are not refreshing so everybody is clicking 'Post Reply' lots of times. Just manually refresh post-post-posting until Shaun appears and fixes the problem. )


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## Arthur (20 Dec 2014)

When I can't turn the pedals any more, although I unclip one foot when I sense that point approaching. The older I get the less shame I feel about doing it.


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## DaveS (21 Dec 2014)

When my ego overrides my common sense and I put too big a gear on.


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## Twinks (21 Dec 2014)

Haha I got off and SOMEBODY ELSE pushed on Saturday!! Following hubby through the swollen stream at Rowarth on my hybrid my bottle went . Someone came along wearing wellies and offered to push it through for me and I jumped over the bank at a narrower bit. How humiliating.

Otherwise on hills its normally seconds before I have a compete strop and a sulk..... I hate being beat. However we live in the hills and its happening less and less so that's good


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## Old Plodder (29 Dec 2014)

YellowTim said:


> 1. When it's too steep to ride?
> 
> 2. Slightly before it gets too steep to ride, so as to save your legs for other hills later on


Obviously 2, otherwise you'd be knackered.


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## Smurfy (29 Dec 2014)

Old Plodder said:


> Obviously 2, otherwise you'd be knackered.


I suppose it depends where you are in the ride too.

If it's the last hill before home, I'm not too bothered about limping the last 5 miles home. If it's 10 miles into a 50 mile ride, it feels a bit silly to risk blowing up so soon.

There's a hill about 1/4 of the way into a 50-60 mile ride that I do, and I know it can't be ridden on my gearing, so I hop off quick rather than struggle for even 10 seconds longer. It seems more sensible than fighting something I know I can't win, and then struggling on other hills that would've been fairly easy if I hadn't battled the impossible.


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## jdtate101 (29 Dec 2014)

My fixed is 46/17 and I can get up most of the hills round my way up to about 15%. Can do steeper if they are short and I have a run up, but I'd prefer not to. 10% is about the limit for a longish climb without my kneecaps feeling like they want to fly off.


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## twitchboy (1 Jan 2015)

Only when I'm in seriously heavy traffic and I can't actually cycle do I get off and walk along the pavement.


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## simongt (7 Jan 2015)

And of course, many, many years ago, folk would tour on single speeds and a three speed derailleur was something a bit special - ! As a lad in the 1960s, a five speed road bike was something most of us could only dream of owning.


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## Smurfy (8 Jan 2015)

simongt said:


> And of course, many, many years ago, folk would tour on single speeds and a three speed derailleur was something a bit special - ! As a lad in the 1960s, a five speed road bike was something most of us could only dream of owning.


One of my relatives owned a 4 speed sturmey archer, and that was pre-WWII.


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## iandg (8 Jan 2015)

When I get to the cafe stop 

I rode 64" last summer and the only hills I walked up were 2 by Bosta beach which are probably about 15% (I'm not that powerful) When I have to I bail at the last possible moment I can before falling.


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## Tin Pot (8 Jan 2015)

When the train arrives at Cannon Street.


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## simongt (10 Jan 2015)

And one of the lads at school had a TEN speed on a Freddie Grubb frame with tubbed rims. How we envied him - ! No, we hated him - !


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## snorri (10 Jan 2015)

I find the road verges on steep hills invariably harbour some rare plant or insect species worthy of closer inspection.
It can be difficult getting going again after stopping so continuing on foot is my preferred option.


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## totallyfixed (16 Jan 2015)

Oooh! @ColinJ I have just seen this thread and I have a certain picture which I could be persuaded to publish, or not as the case may be for the right amount..........
I have never yet had to walk up a hill, however having said that I recced Colin's ride to see if I could get over The Trough of Bowland on 50 x18, I got about half way before having to turn around, a 48 front ring would have just made it possible although going down the other side doesn't bear thinking about.


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## Smurfy (16 Jan 2015)

Wait a minute! In my book:
Walking = Giving up
Turning around = Giving up


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## totallyfixed (16 Jan 2015)

YellowTim said:


> Wait a minute! In my book:
> Walking = Giving up
> Turning around = Giving up


Haven't read your book.


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## DaveS (16 Jan 2015)

YellowTim said:


> Wait a minute! In my book:
> Walking = Giving up
> Turning around = Giving up



Not on my reading list either


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## Ian H (16 Jan 2015)

Ted King, sometime president of CTC and a noted time-trialist once said, "I have never yet come across a hill that I can't walk up."
I used to be able to get up just about anything on 43/17, but those days are gone. Having said that, I live in Devon and still take the fixed for rides without only very occasional recourse to the 24" gear.


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## Old Plodder (18 Feb 2015)

simongt said:


> And of course, many, many years ago, folk would tour on single speeds ........


Some still do.......


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## simongt (18 Feb 2015)

Good for you Old Plodder - ! Far less to go amiss eh - ?


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## teddydove (12 Mar 2015)

YellowTim said:


> 1. When it's too steep to ride?
> 
> 2. Slightly before it gets too steep to ride, so as to save your legs for other hills later on


it is cyclings biggest sin.....let your muscles burn


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## GGJ (13 Mar 2015)

I've never had to get off yet and push the bike up a hill, although I almost had to a few weeks ago when cycling in the Highlands, a short sharp climb that took me by surprise, but I managed through sheer determination to stay on and zigzag up the blighter


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