Climbing style

[sgw]

Good thread, thanks all.

While I am not in the least a "sporting" rider, I am finding a greater consideration of technique goes a long way toward substituting for my reducing strength.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Jig-Sore mentions one very important point RELAX.
Important when sitting to completely relax the upper body and arms, let your legs and lower back take the strain.
The same is true when standing or 'Honking' on the pedals. Hold the hoods, but loosely, get nicely balanced to match the incline and relax your upper body. Keep the bike mostly upright, thrashing it around from side to side around energy. You can adopt slightly different positions when standing, from leaning forward fairly upright, to pitched-forward over the bars with the backs of your thighs almost rubbing the nose of the saddle. You'll get a slightly different effect in both positions and it's nice to give muscles some variation for a while.

It's possible to haul a bike up pretty steep inclines at very low rpms standing on the pedals! It's my fave way to climb, I guess as I rode fixies almost exclusively for nearly 20 years!

 

[sgw]

When sitting and spinning up hill I sometimes find I have a tendency to want to shift my feet forward on the pedals almost to having the pedal under my instep. Even temporarily uncliping if using SPD's. I have always thought this was going against all recommendations of foot - pedal position but have found it sometimes helps. I sometimes also slip back right to the seat tail and in effect gain a semi recumbant stance. (Not a roadie btw... xc, mtb and hybrid)

Is it just that I have got used to bad technique or is there anything in it?

 

[leaner learner]

"You can adopt slightly different positions when standing, from leaning forward fairly upright, to pitched-forward over the bars with the backs of your thighs almost rubbing the nose of the saddle."

Foodie - I have seen it written quite a lot that I shouldn't be too far forward because that just means I am pressing the bike down into the road making it harder to go forward up the hill. Would you disregard that and just say I should go with whatever feels most comfortable? Also with the relaxing thing - on a climb, once I have a gear I am comfortable turning I tend to sit with my hands on top of the bars just either side of the centre stem. When riding on the flat I am always concious that my shoulders are tense and kind of locked forward. I am forever trying to drop them into a more relaxed position but it never seems to last .

sgw - I believe going back in the saddle uses the hamstrings and glutes more and shifting forward focuses on the calves so switching between the the two helps to give one or the other a break....(I am no physio and stand to be corrected if that is phoney advice )!!

 

[Fab Foodie]

"You can adopt slightly different positions when standing, from leaning forward fairly upright, to pitched-forward over the bars with the backs of your thighs almost rubbing the nose of the saddle."

Foodie - I have seen it written quite a lot that I shouldn't be too far forward because that just means I am pressing the bike down into the road making it harder to go forward up the hill. Would you disregard that and just say I should go with whatever feels most comfortable? Also with the relaxing thing - on a climb, once I have a gear I am comfortable turning I tend to sit with my hands on top of the bars just either side of the centre stem. When riding on the flat I am always concious that my shoulders are tense and kind of locked forward. I am forever trying to drop them into a more relaxed position but it never seems to last .

sgw - I believe going back in the saddle uses the hamstrings and glutes more and shifting forward focuses on the calves so switching between the the two helps to give one or the other a break....(I am no physio and stand to be corrected if that is phoney advice )!!

Sounds like your sitting technique is fine, but by having hands close to the stem, you need to work harder to maintain control of the bars (less leverage), that could be why your shoulders are still hunched. I sometimes hold the tops (but closer to the brakes), but I prefer to hold the hoods. Wider hands help keep the chest open also.


Standing - I don't know that I agree with the 'pushing the bike into the road' thing, your centre of gravity is bound to be a way behind the front wheel. I'd start doing what feels comfortable and then experiment. Different techniques are useful for differing terrain and stretching tired muscles.

Most of all... practice! It's fun and you soon get to like the pain

 

[potsy]

I tried the advice given in this thread on my main hill this morning,normally sit and spin in 2nd to lowest gear at about 7mph,today I was out of the saddle for 3/4 of the hill and maintained a steady 10+mph,well chuffed with that and I wasn't any more tired at the top than usual.
Will do it again tomorrow in case it was a fluke

 

[Fab Foodie]

I tried the advice given in this thread on my main hill this morning,normally sit and spin in 2nd to lowest gear at about 7mph,today I was out of the saddle for 3/4 of the hill and maintained a steady 10+mph,well chuffed with that and I wasn't any more tired at the top than usual.
Will do it again tomorrow in case it was a fluke

Proud of ya Potsy!

 

[jimboalee]

Dropped racing bend handlebars don't offer the correct hand position for sustained climbing. Straight bars cut to the correct length with bar ends angled inwards do.

 

[PaulSB]

Ive started deliberately standing up to blast up the small rises in the road. the type of dip/rise where you would normally loose a couple of MPH and then quickly gain it back again. using these short sharp blasts im finding the transition between sitting and standing is getting smoother.

I'm no expert but this is exactly how I improved my standing climb. A few years back when I asked a good climber in my club how he did it his reply was simply "I've earnt it." in other words he had put in the miles to have the ability. I knew I couldn't devote the time in the way this guy and others had so made a decision to tackle every little lump as though it was a hill. Over time I've got better to the extent if I'm out with the club in a group of 12-14 I'm usually in the first 5-6 to hit the top of a long, hard climb. I'm not pulling up trees but have moved from last to in the middle!!

To begin with I could only get a few yards out of the saddle but with each week that went by I went a little further.

 

[BSRU]

In the days I rode with the local CC, I was OK on the flat, useless on descents and excellent on climbs. On our normal Tuesday night run everyone would burn me off on a very fast and twisty descent because they knew there was a tortuous climb coming up. Without fail I would always arrive at the top first, in the saddle, I always considered getting out of the saddle a sign of weakness/tiredness, unless I was trying to sprint up the climb. <br>

 

[jimboalee]

On a charity ride earlier in the summer, there was a group of guys who climbed the hills sat down and spinning.

I left my bike in a long gear and 'Honked'. ie Stood up and turned the cranks slowly, or slower than spinning.

They were puffing and panting, so I spoke a few words of encouragement like "Last one to the top buys the tea".

 

[MacB]

Stamina and practice, I couldn't stay out of the saddle for very long at first and worked at it. I can climb either way now and just do what I feel like. It also depends on how much attention I'm paying, sometimes I let the rpm get too low and changing ear could be problematic so I stand and honk.

As I don't have clips or cleats then I also vary my foot position, for a long seated climb I'll tend to move my foot forward and my bum back. If I'm getting out of the saddle then the foot would be in my normal riding position or even moved back slightly.

For reference my first efforts at honking saw me sitting back down inside 30 yards, knackered and having to change to an easier gear. I practiced on my commute to the point at which I could climb, out of the saddle, non stop for about 1.5 miles. Now I find I favour standing on shorter climbs and sitting on longer. but I'd also say that my posture and gear selection have improved significantly since those early efforts as well.

 

[Road_Rubber]

I'm the opposite way around, as soon as i start to struggle on a hill (usually at the latter end of the ride) i'm out the saddle straight away, i find it far easier to climb out the saddle. and maintain my MPH up the hill or only drop a couple. (note i always change 2/3 gears to get more resistance).

i'm not light though i'm the best part of 16.5 stone so i can really use my weight to push down when out the saddle!

 

[Davidc]

Good stuff on this thread, especially from FF. I've always found that out of the saddle using a gear several higher than I would in the saddle lets me climb with about the same effort as in the saddle. One big benefit is that I can get down to slower, walking type, road speeds if I need to. That sounds silly in that I could do as well getting off, but it allows faster and better adaptation to the slope. Another is that as jimboalee says it moves the effort over to different muscles - the stair climbing ones. At slow speed I find this an advantage.They seem to be better at grinding up the hills.

 

[lpjr]

Standing up is more tiring but it gives you a break from sitting down for a short while as mentioned. Do you change up a couple of gears when you go to stand, if not it will tire you out quicker by being in that lower gear you was whilst sitting as you will be spinning faster stood up and tire quick, soon as you sit down again drop back a couple of gears, break the hill up into segments between standing and sitting, or 20 revolutions sitting followed by 20 standing and do not look at the top. Also if your clipped up, point your toes downwards when standing, it uses less effort evidently, something to do with one less movement you have to make whilst pedaling which uses a lot of effort, I tried it and it does make it less tiring.

Hello, good thread this for us beginners. I was sitting in the saddle and plodding up the hill prior to reading this, but tonight I followed the above advice. On the approach to the hill I remained in a higher gear and stood up. I sat for the middle part of the hill and finished with a stand up spurt. It has made the hill easier and a lot quicker. Will work to stand up more on the hills.