First cycling vacation coming soon

[Suz]

I'm taking a fully supported bike tour June 20-27th in Oregon and am excited and nervous. Mainly nervous about hills and rain (we don't get much rain here). Any pointers on hills would be greatly appreciated.

I've been practicing the hills in my area and while I'm getting better I pretty much hate every moment of the climb. I typically stay in the reclined position until I get close to the crest of the hill, then for the last bit pull myself forward to engage my upper body to finish the climb. This seems to work unless I need to lower myself back into the seat then I get wobbly. Also if I am in too low of a gear I can't maintain a straight line - but I've resolved this unless I forget, am tired and drop a gear. Oops.

Any other tips to mastering hills? I know practice is key and am hoping one day I'll enjoy the climb instead of wanting to punch the engineer that built the road.

I'm also wondering if I should change out my tires for the rain in Oregon? They are so smooth ... Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[JOSEPHWEISSERT]

I rode with some teammates a few weeks ago on a hilly course, fast, in the rain, before changing to short cranks, on my V. I'm using smooth tires - they did just fine in the rain - no slippage at all. I was running around 100 to 110 PSI in a 28 mm tire (measuring 26.5 mm). I was surprised how well the tires handled on wet pavement on hills on a V. Another advantage of riding in the rain on a V is that I didn't get road spray from my tires as I would have on a DF.

The gearing is important - you want to be able to shift down enough so that you aren't mashing (spin at 90 RPM or higher if you can when on long climbs to prevent knee pain). I used to do an annual 3-day hill-fest for hundreds of miles with my team on a DF and always eventually had knee pain. It seemed to be worse on a recumbent. Short cranks and elliptical chain rings seems to have solved that problem fortunately, but spinning (as opposed to mashing) is still important to reduce force applied to the knees on long climbs.

These are just my opinions. There are guys in this forum that ride in the mountains regularly that can probably give better advise.

 

[ratz]

There is one hill technique that applies on any bike. If the hill is big enough that you can't sling shot it then you need to down shift sooner than you think. When climbing you can't waste your watts in a gear that is too big. The people that pop going up hill are the ones that down shift too late waiting each time until the gear they are in gets too hard. Instead down shift early and spin up the cadence. You will keep pace just fine with mashers, then as you near the crest you can actually up shift to a harder gear and apply your reserved power and you will find yourself pulling away from the mashers that wasted all their energy at the bottom of the hill in too large a gear.. Practice matters, available gearing matters, but all other things being equal what matters most is the correct and active use of your grey matter during the climb, anyone can suffer, be the person that suffers with a plan.

 

[MrSteve]

Walk when you're done climbing.

In rainy seasons, shady roads are often very slippery.
Damp patches often support moss, mold and other super slick life forms.
Then there's perpetually damp silt and or clay that looks like safe, wet tarmac
but acts like black ice.

Have fun!
...And stay safe.

 

[LarryOz]

I live in and ride around the mountains of Western NC. Lots of hill climbs. Actually you can't really go anywhere without encountering a grade of some kind.
All of what Joe and Ratz said is top notch stuff.
For the gearing you almost need to "test" yourself on the steepest grade you are likely to encounter. If you need more gearing, you will probably have to invest in another cassette or at the very minimum as smaller small chain ring
Go for a test ride on the "steepest" grade. See if you can keep your cadence up. I like to stay around 100, but I think anything above about 85 will greatly help reduce any knee pain or damage.
If you ride/train with power (or HR), you also need to stay within your limits, regardless of gearing or cadence. If you expend yourself to heavily you will "bonk" and then even when it's flat it feels like a 6% grade (with flat tires)!
That's my 2 cents!

 

[Rick Youngblood]

There is one hill technique that applies on any bike. If the hill is big enough that you can't sling shot it then you need to down shift sooner than you think. When climbing you can't waste your watts in a gear that is too big. The people that pop going up hill are the ones that down shift too late waiting each time until the gear they are in gets too hard. Instead down shift early and spin up the cadence. You will keep pace just fine with mashers, then as you near the crest you can actually up shift to a harder gear and apply your reserved power and you will find yourself pulling away from the mashers that wasted all their energy at the bottom of the hill in too large a gear.. Practice matters, available gearing matters, but all other things being equal what matters most is the correct and active use of your grey matter during the climb, anyone can suffer, be the person that suffers with a plan.

What Bob said, very good advice. That's exactly what I do on the long climbs, just settle in and save energy for the long ride. Shift down into a lower gear to until you find a somewhat easy spin that you can sustain for the duration of the climb. Suz if you are going to an area where you are going to do a lot of long climbs, you may want to look over some of the threads where we talk about the monster hill gears. For wet surfaces, slow down some, and let a little are out of the tires for better traction.

Sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[Charles.Plager]

As has been said, sit back and spin. Long hill climbs are where I put my arms behind my head and just relax. I've been asked if I was awake...

 

[1happyreader]

Suz, don't tell but I use a song in my head to keep my pedals spinning at a sustainable cadence on climbs.
hooked on a feeling, by Blue Swede is my favorite.
When I feel I am mashing I switch to the backup singers part and become the "little engine" till I get back in the groove. LOL

 

[LarryOz]

I use a "metronome" app on my phone - I play it by itself and with music. I just set it too 100 and forget it. Eventually it just gets in your brain and then you pedal that fast!

 

[battleaxe0]

Letting a bit of air out helps, as does making sure that you make slow wide turns if you're unsure of the slipperiness. Unclip if you know it's slippery for the extra stability and the ability to catch yourself.

 

[Abbott Smith]

Here's my two cents as I work on building my climbing skills with the V20:

1. Spin rather than mash is good advice. But the trick is to find a good spinning cadence for this bike. I'm finding that a touch of resistance really helps with the balance. I trained myself years ago to spin at 90-100 rpm. This doesn't quite work for me on hills with the V20. If I slow it down to 80-85 rpm and get just a bit more bite in the gears, I'm better able to maintain both my line and my heartrate. (I'm running round chain rings and standard length cranks. I spin them just fine on the V20.)

2. ratz's advice about downshifting early is great. I'd add the following caveat, plan for the hill to be longer than you expect. Better to conserve your energy than power over a crest. Each power move in climbing will sap a bit of your reserves for the whole day. Parcel those out parsimoniously. This also helps when you hit a false flat. There are times when you will need power like at a stoplight crossing a busy street. Don't spend it foolishly.

3. ratz gave me a piece of advice in another thread that resonates. You can probably walk your bike at 3.5 mph uphill. If you hit a steep section and you're killing yourself to creep along, swallow your pride and walk.

4. The CB geometry requires some upper body relaxation to ride well. If you 'pop', your heartrate and upper body exhaustion will make it difficult to ride straight. Keeping your heart rate in check is a good gauge of your climbing technique for a given hill.

5. Don't expend energy on the descents and bottom of climbs when you don't have to. These bikes coast very well. I find that if I let her coast, Sigr-D flies casually alongside of DFs who are pedaling on descents. Coast as far as you can up the next hill until you can begin getting bite at a good cadence in an appropriate gear.

5. Learn what gear to start a climb in from both a standstill and a coast. Over spinning too small a gear or getting trapped in too large a gear at the bottom of a climb both sap your reserves.

6. Not all roads are good for newby Cruzbike climbers. Narrow shoulders on a busy road is a recipe for fear and exhaustion. The combination of worry, increasing instability and building exhaustion compound in these scenarios. Walk if the conditions warrant walking and if you are becoming a hazard to the other riders. I've found this is necessary in some event rides.

7. Learn to gauge your spacing. Sigr-D is the best bent I've ever ridden among DFs. But she is not a DF. There is a rhythm to riding her effectively among DFs. My goal isn't to leave the DFs in the dust. My goal is to learn to ride with them. I find I need to leave the right gaps going into and out of climbs.

8. Judge the type of hill. Long steady grade or varying pitch? Downshift before pitch changes.

9. Finally, climbing is a mental game. Sing, go to your happy place, shorten your focus to ten feet ahead of you or anything else that can help you get your head in a positive space. Attitude really matters. Fake it until your fitness improves. Tell yourself that you've got this. Truth is that you do.

I walked up a steep slope in an event ride last month. At the top, a DF rider congratulated me. I told her I walked most of the climb. She looked at me and said, "You got up that hill under your own power. Who cares whether you did it pedaling or walking? You conquered that hill. Have fun on the ride down. You've earned it."

 

[Charles.Plager]

(Continuing Abbott's list):

10. Starting on a steep hill can be really, really hard. In one case, a friend of mine offered me a push and that actually helped a lot. You can waste a lot of energy trying to restart.

(My bikes are geared really low (less than 17"). In my case, I need to shift to a harder gear to start on a hill because being in too low a gear means that when my left foot has made a revolution, the bike has hardly moved and I don't have time to get my right foot up in the lowest gears).

 

[Abbott Smith]

(Continuing Abbott's list):

10. Starting on a steep hill can be really, really hard. In one case, a friend of mine offered me a push and that actually helped a lot. You can waste a lot of energy trying to restart.

(My bikes are geared really low (less than 17"). In my case, I need to shift to a harder gear to start on a hill because being in too low a gear means that when my left foot has made a revolution, the bike has hardly moved and I don't have time to get my right foot up in the lowest gears).

Great addition Charles.

Along the same line, a note on clipping in when starting on an incline. I'm very left handed. I always start by clipping into my left pedal first and positioning the crank at the start of the power phase of my stroke.

I'm finding that the best tactic on inclines is to start pedaling and put the arch of my right foot onto the pedal and get the cranks revolving before I try to clip in the second pedal. Splitting getting going and getting clipped in into two distinct actions has really helped me with my uphill standing starts.

 

[Rick Youngblood]

(My bikes are geared really low (less than 17"). In my case, I need to shift to a harder gear to start on a hill because being in too low a gear means that when my left foot has made a revolution, the bike has hardly moved and I don't have time to get my right foot up in the lowest gears).

True...I might add, there is a happy medium to not spin out and slip the the front tire. This takes a little work, too low of a gear can spin you because of too much torque, and too high of a gear can spin you if you push to hard.

...and one other tip - it's a standard recumbent start. I call it the rock-N-roll.

I'm right footed, so I clip my right foot in on to the power position as Abbott recommended. I then rock back and forth a couple times with my left foot to catapult myself forward and simultaneously pushing with the right clipped foot. it give a little momentum. I use this on flat too some times if I need to get a fast start.

And here is the sure fire hill start: get off bike, push up hill to more flat starting location. !

 

[battleaxe0]

And here is the sure fire hill start: get off bike, push up hill to more flat starting location. !

Or look for a flatter part of the hill to get started on. Sometimes there will be intersecting paths/roads that are less steep than the incline you're trying to climb that you could get started on then turn onto your climb.

 

[castlerobber]

I'm finding that the best tactic on inclines is to start pedaling and put the arch of my right foot onto the pedal and get the cranks revolving before I try to clip in the second pedal. Splitting getting going and getting clipped in into two distinct actions has really helped me with my uphill standing starts.

I use this technique on pretty much any start, regardless of terrain, or whether I'm riding a DF or Cruzbike.. It's an old habit carried over from riding bikes with toe clips.

I'm right footed, so I clip my right foot in on to the power position as Abbott recommended. I then rock back and forth a couple times with my left foot to catapult myself forward and simultaneously pushing with the right clipped foot. it give a little momentum. I use this on flat too some times if I need to get a fast start.

Discovering this improved my starts tremendously. I rarely wobble off into the grass/across the other lane any more.

[off-topic] I sure do like this forum software. It's easy now to write one reply responding to two or more posts in the same thread, without having to copy and paste. Thanks, Admin!

 

[Suz]

Ah, so many great pointers! I downloaded a metronome app, will try that tonight. I don't currently focus on spinning on the hills so I'll start practicing that. I mainly focus on surviving.

When I was learning to ride my sofrider and stopped on a hill, I got stuck every time until I pointed her back down the hill and did a half circle back up the hill. However this only works if there is zero possibility of traffic.

Since I got my Silvio, it's much easier to start on a hill than the sofrider and I haven't been stuck yet. But need to practice uphill starts regardless. Will work on tips given here.

anyone can suffer, be the person that suffers with a plan.

Great words to live by.

Tomorrow will be my first metric century with some friends. Should have lots of time to practice. I'll be the one singing hooked on a feeling.

 

[Suz]

I'm finding that the best tactic on inclines is to start pedaling and put the arch of my right foot onto the pedal and get the cranks revolving before I try to clip in the second pedal

I started doing this as well and it has helped tremendously. I also boost myself up on the seat back just a bit, then slide down once I start moving which seems to help my balance on take offs. I was playing around with left vs right foot starts because I'm so right handed that when I started with my right foot I overpowered my steering and found it better to start with my weaker left foot. However ... I'm back to starting with my right foot and most of the time I'm steady. Must be a balance/practice thing?

So many great things to try thanks for all the advice CB team!!

 

[battleaxe0]

Ah, so many great pointers! I downloaded a metronome app, will try that tonight. I don't currently focus on spinning on the hills so I'll start practicing that. I mainly focus on surviving.

If you use cyclemeter on your phone for tracking rides and have a cadence sensor, you can create a cadence zone and she'll bug the daylights out of you if you don't stay in that zone. I've been doing it with heart rate lately, and she's keeping me honest.

 

[super slim]

The CB geometry requires some upper body relaxation to ride well. If you 'pop', your heartrate and upper body exhaustion will make it difficult to ride straight. Keeping your heart rate in check is a good gauge of your climbing technique for a given hill.

VERY good advice, which explains some of my falls when trying to ride up a hill that was too steep for me!!!