On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:14:03 -0700 (PDT), DennisTheBald
wrote:

There’s another hill right by my house (at the top of the hill)
Lately I’ve been making it to the top of that one, but by then I’m in
the lowest gear and I’m almost to a full stop, not to mention out of
breath. I’d rather not get into that situation while away from
home.

Yeah, a recent change in routes has me going up a hill that made me
stop at the top and catch my breath the first couple times. But after
only a couple weeks I

One thing you can do on very hard hills until you get them conquered
is to pull into a side street about halfway up, or when you feel
overexerted. Then ride down the side street a few yards (they're
usually flat) and recover and turn around. Tthen pull back out onto
the hill with a bit of momentum and complete the hill.

I have a long 4 mile hill that I sometimes get calf cramps riding, and
have had to use this tactic a few times. It usually only takes about
20 seconds to recover and get going again.

HTH