MTB for hill climbs?

[Boris Bajic]

My middle boy's club ends the year with a hill climb.

He only started to do the odd 10-mile TT after his O-Levels this summer, so this is really a toe-in-the-water half season for him.

The good thing is, he enjoys it. No real training yet, but he likes the friendly atmosphere around the TTs and the fairly brutal rule of the clock.

So... To finish the year there'll be a short but very steep hill climb. We tried it (for a giggle) on our 39/53 road bikes with quite narrow-band cassettes.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! We were doing 3mph in places and going almost backwards. it was silly and it hurt.

Question: Just for a laugh, could we use MTBs for the hill climb?

I've stuck some non-knobbly tyres on a couple of old MTBs and brushed the worst of the caked mud off them. Is it cool to use these? Is it frowned upon? Will gearing more than compensate for the added weight?

This is not being done for any serious reason... It's just to see if he likes racing.

Answers?

 

[endoman]

The one hill climb I have done so far had a couple of peeps on MTB's, so I see no reason why not.

 

[captainhastings]

I think the tyres will sap a lot of energy though

 

[albion]

Put the MTB cassette on.

With luck it will work in 39/34.
53/34 may half destroy the bike so you would need to be very careful or use the MTB dérailleur too,.

3mph is the norm for me on a series of 20% climbs.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Depends on the club. Some get sniffy about 'non-standard' bikes others welcome everyone with open arms.

Hill climbs are silly and are meant to hurt btw.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Thanks for the replies.

He and I went to the hil in question today with slick-shod MTBs.

It was comical. I nearly had a coronary.

He's decided to do it on his over-geared road bike. I think he's right.

 

[Rob3rt]

Can't you buy or borrow a different cassette for the road bike?

Maybe someone in your club can loan you one.

As for hill climbs, they are meant to hurt like hell, it's essentially a time trial, shorter distance (usually), less time spent (usuallly) but greater effort. You should arrive at the top absolutely spent!

Just to satisfy my curiosity. What is the hill? How long? Average gradient? Steepest gradient? Total elevation gain? etc Thanks.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Aha! I just found a Campag 9-speed with a 26 on the big end.

That beats the 23-tooth biggest sprockets we both currently use.

The gain will be marginal, but I think I'll make the switch anyway.

So that's it. He'll ride with a lowest gear of 39/26 on 700x 23c. 39.4 gear inches. Hardly perfect, but better than a 79" single-speed.

No-one said it was meant to be easy.....

I hope you'll forgive me not giving the course. I quite like the anonymity of the Interweb. It's short and it's steep and in the winter people jump of it with skis. Probably.

 

[Rob3rt]

No need to give the actual route, just curious as to the stat's of the route, i.e. average and max gradient, length, total elevation gain etc

 

[black'n'yellow]

I hope you'll forgive me not giving the course. I quite like the anonymity of the Interweb. It's short and it's steep and in the winter people jump of it with skis. Probably.

He asked where the course was, he didn't ask you for your name, address, bank account and PIN number..??

 

[Smokin Joe]

Aha! I just found a Campag 9-speed with a 26 on the big end.

That beats the 23-tooth biggest sprockets we both currently use.

The gain will be marginal, but I think I'll make the switch anyway.

So that's it. He'll ride with a lowest gear of 39/26 on 700x 23c. 39.4 gear inches. Hardly perfect, but better than a 79" single-speed.

No-one said it was meant to be easy.....

I hope you'll forgive me not giving the course. I quite like the anonymity of the Interweb. It's short and it's steep and in the winter people jump of it with skis. Probably.

The gain will be a lot more than marginal, three more teeth on the back make a hell of a difference.

 

[Rob3rt]

He asked where the course was, he didn't ask you for your name, address, bank account and PIN number..??

I understand where Boris is coming from, but this post still gave me a laugh!

 

[Boris Bajic]

The gain will be a lot more than marginal, three more teeth on the back make a hell of a difference.

You're quite right. I did the maths and it does make a difference.

Psychologically there will be some gain, too.

The second-largest cog on the cassette is a 23, the same as the largest on the other cassette - so I could compare with a flick of the thumb.

I switched and flicked between the two, but there was not a great sensation of change even though the improvement is 10%-ish.

Anyway, the boy is pleased and it further adds to his conviction that the right tool is a road bike.

My reticence on the location made me laugh too, but I thought it rude just to ignore a perfectly polite request.