Do people like to grind?

[ColinJ]

Problem is I'm not massively fat
So it's not like I could lose 3 or 4 stone
I once was in the early 14 stones and folk were telling me I looked ill

Are you very tall then? I'm 6' 1" and currently still pretty flabby at 13 st 7 lbs! Even at 12 st 4 lbs I had 3 inches of fat round my waist.

Climbing quickly is all about power-to-weight ratio. If you don't think you can do much about the weight then you will have to concentrate on increasing your power!

 

[bondirob]

I'm 6'1 also carrying a bit but I'm a big lad large frame. If I was 13/7 I'd look like a rake.
Not too worried about my climbing ability despite my age and size I'm comfortably the top third or above in most of the climbs round here on strava and after today most of the people up Holme Moss are slower than me too.
Getting back to the op I think the vast majority of use are using the wrong gears for climbing. We aspire to be like the pro's but non of them at the front are grinding and neither should we.
Spin to win

 

[Buck]

I've been up The Moss a couple of times and I always grind away on any hill. I'm not a spinner at all. Mind you if I was to lose a few pounds then it might be a little easier but I'm sure I'd still be grinding away!

Do you have a link to your strava?

Edit:

First time I took 25 mins to get from the bridge to the top (had only just started cycling)

Second time I got it down to 18 mins which puts me in 10632nd place on Strava

 

[ColinJ]

I'm 6'1 also carrying a bit but I'm a big lad large frame. If I was 13/7 I'd look like a rake.
Not too worried about my climbing ability despite my age and size I'm comfortably the top third or above in most of the climbs round here on strava and after today most of the people up Holme Moss are slower than me too.
Getting back to the op I think the vast majority of use are using the wrong gears for climbing. We aspire to be like the pro's but non of them at the front are grinding and neither should we.
Spin to win

I am more of a medium build. I think my ideal cycling weight would be about 11.5 stone, and my ideal non-cycling weight 6 or 7 lbs more than that.

I agree with you about the gears. Fair enough when somebody is fit enough to fly past on a much higher gear, but I sometimes see people really struggling to turn the cranks on steep climbs and wonder why they don't just gear down and spin!

 

[nickyboy]

I tend to be most comfortable climbing at a cadence of something like 60. I've tried easier gearing and climbing with a cadence of, say, 80 but it results in lower watts and thus slower climbing. Just me I guess

Up Holme Moss I would probably be in 34-27 (I'm not as fast as Skolly) which is fine although a bit of a struggle on the steepest bit to keep the cadence up

 

[screenman]

Problem is I'm not massively fat
So it's not like I could lose 3 or 4 stone
I once was in the early 14 stones and folk were telling me I looked ill

People told me that when I dropped from over 16 stone to 11, funny thing is most of them were obese or close to it. It was never proper sized people that mentioned it.

 

[kiriyama]

[QUOTE="bondirob, post: 4347783, member: 39804] we aspire to be like the pro's but non of themconserveront are grinding and neither should we.
Spin to win[/QUOTE]

Contador likes a good grind and hes pretty good!

i find it easier to pace myself and conserve energy out of the saddle on long steep climbs. A friend i ride with prefers to spin. We are both very evenly matched. Last time we did holme moss bridge to top i did it in 10:45. He just beat me at the top with a sneaky manouver by 3 seconds. Everyones Body works differently.

(my phone messed the quote up!)

 

[bondirob]

I've been up The Moss a couple of times and I always grind away on any hill. I'm not a spinner at all. Mind you if I was to lose a few pounds then it might be a little easier but I'm sure I'd still be grinding away!

Do you have a link to your strava?

Edit:

First time I took 25 mins to get from the bridge to the top (had only just started cycling)

Second time I got it down to 18 mins which puts me in 10632nd place on Strava

Strava link below



https://www.strava.com/activities/626482533

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Not being from anywhere near those parts , I had to use the Strava page and Google Maps with terrain and then street view, to see what the fuss is all about. Sounds like a fun climb.

 

[Markymark]

I like to move it move it.

 

[Venod]

Never an easy climb up Holme Moss for me, when younger 42 x 24 made it hard then 42 x 28 still hard, now in my autumn years (old) I have done it on 36 x 30 and 34 x 30 its still hard, I like to spin nowadays but I am not spinning as quickly as I'd like up the Moss.

 

[Poacher]

@Fnaar assures me that Miss Goodbody loves to grind.

 

[Smokin Joe]

That surely can't be good for your knees?

That's a myth. Walking upstairs three or four times a day puts more strain on the knees than a climb of the Tourmalet.

 

[nickyboy]

Strava link below



https://www.strava.com/activities/626482533

Just to show how evenly matched most cyclists are, my PB is 36 seconds better than yours (with a tailwind I will admit)....but I'm 1,100 places above on the leaderboard. There must be a heck of a lot of folk grinding/spinning it up at our pace

Interesting pacing thing....you're 30 seconds faster than me on the hairpin section where I try to hold a bit in reserve. I'm a minute quicker on the long drag after that up to the summit

 

[Racing roadkill]

I always go towards the grind, never the spin.