Cycling technique advice - it worked!!

[TonyEnjoyD]

Reading another thread yesterday and thought I would try some advice from Fab Foodie on hill climbing

Climbing hills is a matter of technique:
Most important... RELAX, especially the upper body.
Select nice low gear where you can spin your legs around at a comfortable pace.
Sit back on the saddle.
Did I mention to RELAX the upper body and arms?
Drive with your legs and lower back.
Gently wind yourself up the hill.

Many people make the mistake of 'attacking' the hill and wrestling the bike up, this wastes an awfull lot of energy that is better used by just the legs and back.

Part of my daily commute to work involves a half mile 50ft climb invariably against the wind - following Fab Foodie's advice I started a littler matra of "relax, relax, relax and breath easier" over and over again.
I found that I managed the hill and the rest of my commute much easier and even did the hill 2mph and 2 cogs better than previously at my usual cadence of 77cph and wasn't out of breath.

I will use this technique for building my hill climbing ready for tackling the Coast to Coast (Workingtion to Tynemouth - 140 miles) in June over two days!

Amazing what a little tutoring can do!

Fab Foodie - THANK YOU

TonyEnjoyD

 

[gbb]

Good advice from FF...another thing i found, albeit not related to hill climbing, is to take the first 5 miles of a ride steady. Not slow, but dont go out all guns blazing, so's to speak.
I's usually find the first 5 miles quite hard, then you get your legs and breath.
Take it steady for that 5 miles, you dont suffer, and it makes precious little difference to your overall ride time when cycling 30 or 40 miles. Much more enjoyable.

 

[nilling]

Changing down a gear whilst the chain is under load will cause you to loose crucial momentum - better to be in lower gear and spin.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

On the relaxing the upper body thing, shrugging your shoulders can help take tension out of your arms and shoulders. I find I tend to grip the bars very tightly if I'm climbing a hill unless I'm paying attention to relaxing (surely a contradiction!!) and shrugging helps.

 

[jimboalee]

Shimano changers – Sora, Tiagra, Ultegra etc allow you to change down-ratio on the cassette 1, 2 or 3 cogs at a swipe. When you feel its becoming too hard going, a gear change can be done while relaxing your torque. Speed will be lost, but the 3 cog downchange will be the correct ratio for the reduced speed.

Changing down on hills is a matter of experience, especially with derailleur systems. Sturmey and other hubs are a lot easier. Best policy is to change down 1 ratio before you need to and spin until you sense another change is required.

Excuse me for this, but… 50ft in half a mile is merely a gentle slope. Just under 2%. It requires 17% extra effort and your speed should reduce by 7%.

 

[cheadle hulme]

Don't concentrate too far up the hill either, just enough ahead to be safe. And once you've found a rhythm, put as little effort as possible into maintaining it.

 

[ed_o_brain]

Reading this thread is making me want to go out and find a hill to climb.

...it's been a while since I tackled a decent hill. Of course a slightly different technique maybe required on a fixie.

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Excuse me for this, but… 50ft in half a mile is merely a gentle slope. Just under 2%. It requires 17% extra effort and your speed should reduce by 7%.

Aw Jimboalee, please be kind to an older feller (ish at 46) who is 2 stone over ideal weight and not as fit as I would like to be and only recently taken up cycling again.
This last hill is near the end of a short 5 mile commute and total climb is 185ft and a "sittie down" hill as opposed to a "stand up and pound the crap out of my crank" hill

 

[gbb]

Of course, hills are all relative to your experience. The short hills round here are minute compared to some, but unless you continuously go up them...they dont get much easier. Your fitness is dictated by the hills available to you.
I occasionally do the opposite to normal...that is honk up the shorter hills, really feel the burn, then take it steady at the top and recover. I found i could up my average speed by doing that.
You work much harder....but that's the bonus, it's the pushing yourself that increases your fitness.

 

[jimboalee]

There has been a thread similar to this regarding hill climbing. The outcome, as I remember, is to go out there and conquer them. If not first time, you will eventually.

Five quid says "When you start your Coast to Coast, you will be quietly embarrased you called 2% a 'hill'."

 

[Maizie]

Ha, I call anything with a vaguely upward incline which is hard work a hill.
If, in time, it becomes less hard work, then I will might longer call it a hill. There's one on my route to work already, a former hill which is no longer considered such, just somewhere the road isn't quite entirely flat. I'll never be embarrassed that I once found it hard work because why be embarrassed about it? There are always things that are difficult, just because some become easier doesn't mean you were wrong previously.

There's one really horrible bit of road which is a *real proper hill*. And I'm not going to work out percentages, or worry about what jimboalee would call it. Or the fact that on the Essex/Herts border, there's not really anything anybody could call a hill.
I'm calling it a hill, cos it goes upwards and it's horrid and at the top I can just about breath, and I always promise myself I can get off and push if I need to. So ner.

Maizie - champion of the fact that (1) there are no rules; except for (2) you are you and someone else is someone else, so you can't compare

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

I like the Rules of Maizie.

 

[jay clock]

In spite of knowing everything about cycling, I have learnt something. Also 46, also 2 stone over where I should be, but very fit through cycling and more lately triathloning, I am crap at hills. I just gave FF's technique a go and it seemed good. Hold the bars loosely so you are almost letting go. Good stuff

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Maizie rules rules OK

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

In spite of knowing everything about cycling, I have learnt something. Also 46, also 2 stone over where I should be, but very fit through cycling and more lately triathloning, I am crap at hills. I just gave FF's technique a go and it seemed good. Hold the bars loosely so you are almost letting go. Good stuff

Nice one mate but I am no good at TRiathlon as I swim like as fish...ing net - straight to the bottom


T