On Tue, 2009-07-07 at 19:30 -0700, GeorgeS wrote: > I should preface this question by saying that most of my bike riding > has been in pretty flat and/or rolling hill sort of country. I have > little experience on steep, long climbs. In Vermont I'm seeing quite > a few challenging (for me) hills. On the road I'm doing OK so long as > I don't talk myself into trying to "crush" the hill. Usually I can > get on my middle chain ring and one of the big sprockets and get off > the saddle after a bit and I'm getting to the top though I doubt that > Rabobank is going to be calling me anytime soon. The problem is on > gravel roads where I'm, out of necessity, riding substantially slower > so that I usually lack much momentum when I approach the hills. This > means I'm sometimes in the granny gear from the word go. But when I > try to break things up and rest my back a little by getting out of the > seat, I can't do it. My pedals are just falling away from me and I > immediately loose even more speed and have to unclip in a hurry to > save a ignominious fall. I'm afraid to try to upshift to the middle > chain ring while I'm climbing. What am I doing wrong?
When you go from sitting, pedaling in a low gear, to standing you need to increase the gear. Typically for me that means a rear upshift of 2 or three sprockets. Also, standing on gravel roads on hilly sections is especially problematic because of the limited amount of traction available. If it's just a general rest-opportunity you're after, you're usually better off waiting until you get to a relatively flat section to do it. There you may need to upshift into your highest, or next-to-highest gear. One other thought: your phrase "rest my back" makes me wonder about the way you're going about climbing. Sounds as though you're putting a lot of strain on your back that might be quite unnecessary and that doesn't contribute to putting power to the pedals. Are you pulling really hard on the bars? In general all that does is add some isometric strain you could do without. > I guess I > should also say that I'm on the wrong side of 65. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
