Climbing

Not more than ten minutes into my morning commute, there's a short,
steep hill to climb (maybe 100 meters or so and up to 15% grade). It
was usually fairly easy in low gear (40:28) on my road bike (700Cx28)
out of the saddle.

Later I started using 2nd gear (40:24), and eventually replaced the
14-28 freewheel with a 13-24. This has been going all right, but I
began to worry about no bailout gear in case I ever lost my mojo or
something. So I determined to try it in 2nd gear (now 40:21) again.

Today I approached as usual in 5th gear on the big chainwheel (52),
downshifted to 4th a little early, thought for a moment about what I
was doing, didn't come to any conclusion, then downshifted to 3rd
(chain didn't want to shift and I had to lean on the lever a bit)...
then 2nd (again with the difficulty getting ti to shift)... (I'll bet
some of you already know the end of this story :-)... and finally to
1st gear. The difficulty shifting into the lower gears bugged me a
bit, but then I remembered my intention to climb in 2nd gear, and
shifted back up to 2nd.

I had expected the 21-tooth to be more work than the 24, but man I
really had to pull the cranks over the top and slalom up the hill.

As I finally crested the hill and sat down for a drink, I figured I'd
eventually have to see about switching to a triple crankset. Then I
put the water bottle down and shifted up to 3rd... then 4th... then
reached for the front shifter and... what's this?! It's already in
high? I had forgotten to move the chain onto the small chainwheel at
the foot of the hill.

Well, at least now I know the chain is long enough.

On Sep 13, 12:55*am, Dan O wrote:
Not more than ten minutes into my morning commute, there's a short,
steep hill to climb (maybe 100 meters or so and up to 15% grade). *It
was usually fairly easy in low gear (40:28) on my road bike (700Cx28)
out of the saddle.

Later I started using 2nd gear (40:24), and eventually replaced the
14-28 freewheel with a 13-24. *This has been going all right, but I
began to worry about no bailout gear in case I ever lost my mojo or
something. *So I determined to try it in 2nd gear (now 40:21) again.

Today I approached as usual in 5th gear on the big chainwheel (52),
downshifted to 4th a little early, thought for a moment about what I
was doing, didn't come to any conclusion, then downshifted to 3rd
(chain didn't want to shift and I had to lean on the lever a bit)...
then 2nd (again with the difficulty getting ti to shift)... (I'll bet
some of you already know the end of this story :-)... and finally to
1st gear. *The difficulty shifting into the lower gears bugged me a
bit, but then I remembered my intention to climb in 2nd gear, and
shifted back up to 2nd.

I had expected the 21-tooth to be more work than the 24, but man I
really had to pull the cranks over the top and slalom up the hill.

As I finally crested the hill and sat down for a drink, I figured I'd
eventually have to see about switching to a triple crankset. *Then I
put the water bottle down and shifted up to 3rd... then 4th... then
reached for the front shifter and... what's this?! *It's already in
high? *I had forgotten to move the chain onto the small chainwheel at
the foot of the hill.

Well, at least now I know the chain is long enough.

seated climbing in the big ring is a good way to test your position
for power and tweak if necessary- sounds like you're dialed in.

Dan O wrote:
Not more than ten minutes into my morning commute, there's a short,
steep hill to climb (maybe 100 meters or so and up to 15% grade). *It
was usually fairly easy in low gear (40:28) on my road bike (700Cx28)
out of the saddle.

Later I started using 2nd gear (40:24), and eventually replaced the
14-28 freewheel with a 13-24. *


*I had forgotten to move the chain onto the small chainwheel at
the foot of the hill.


That's a good tale that many of us can relate to. But unless you're
using a 6-speed freewheel and are trying to avoid gaps, why limit
yourself to a 40:24 if you have to deal with grades up to 15%?

I guess we all tend to use the gears we have, and get a little "lazy"
at times if we have low gears. But I prefer that to struggling when
tired or when I encounter a new monster hill.

Art Harris

Art Harris wrote:

Not more than ten minutes into my morning commute, there's a short,
steep hill to climb (maybe 100 meters or so and up to 15%
grade). Â*It was usually fairly easy in low gear (40:28) on my road
bike (700Cx28) out of the saddle.

Later I started using 2nd gear (40:24), and eventually replaced the
14-28 freewheel with a 13-24. Â*

Â*I had forgotten to move the chain onto the small chainwheel at the
foot of the hill.

That's a good tale that many of us can relate to. But unless you're
using a 6-speed freewheel and are trying to avoid gaps, why limit
yourself to a 40:24 if you have to deal with grades up to 15%?

I guess we all tend to use the gears we have, and get a little
"lazy" at times if we have low gears. But I prefer that to
struggling when tired or when I encounter a new monster hill.

I think there is a preoccupation with gears and similarity between
humans and motor driven vehicles. As Long as the legs can turn the
pedals, it's the rate of climb that determines speed because that is
what work on a bicycle is in the absence of significant (wind) speed.

Local bicyclists have participated in a common hill-climb (on Old
La Honda Rd.) and achieved the same ET in 20% differing gears. This
underscores that it is ft-lbs/sec elevation gain that counts.

My experience is the same for a local ride over Mt. Hamilton to
Livermore and back to the start with 7800 ft of climbing. Since a
gear enthusiast once told riders they needed especially low gears for
Mt. Hamilton, I ride the same 50-15t gear without shifting for the
entire route. The first time, gear-friend rode his motorcycle up the
main grade to the observatory, as I rode with some friends, to see if
I really used a corncob 5-speed cluster (13-14-15-16-17) and was
suitably rewarded. That was 30 years ago but it still worked
yesterday.

http://www.rntl.net/mthamiltonlookout.htm
http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/public/pictures/snowpics/
http://tinyurl.com/58yfbp

Jobst Brandt

writes:

Art Harris wrote:

Not more than ten minutes into my morning commute, there's a short,
steep hill to climb (maybe 100 meters or so and up to 15%
grade). Â*It was usually fairly easy in low gear (40:28) on my road
bike (700Cx28) out of the saddle.

Later I started using 2nd gear (40:24), and eventually replaced the
14-28 freewheel with a 13-24. Â*

Â*I had forgotten to move the chain onto the small chainwheel at the
foot of the hill.

That's a good tale that many of us can relate to. But unless you're
using a 6-speed freewheel and are trying to avoid gaps, why limit
yourself to a 40:24 if you have to deal with grades up to 15%?

I guess we all tend to use the gears we have, and get a little
"lazy" at times if we have low gears. But I prefer that to
struggling when tired or when I encounter a new monster hill.

I think there is a preoccupation with gears and similarity between
humans and motor driven vehicles. As Long as the legs can turn the
pedals, it's the rate of climb that determines speed because that is
what work on a bicycle is in the absence of significant (wind) speed.

Well, of course, if the legs can turn the gears. I'm not sure what you
are trying to say here.

Humans can stall, like an engine, as well as do permanent damage to
joints if they try to show off and push too high a gear under
load/uphill.

Henny-Penny wrote:

Not more than ten minutes into my morning commute, there's a
short, steep hill to climb (maybe 100 meters or so and up to 15%
grade). Â*It was usually fairly easy in low gear (40:28) on my
road bike (700Cx28) out of the saddle.

Later I started using 2nd gear (40:24), and eventually replaced
the 14-28 freewheel with a 13-24. Â*

Â*I had forgotten to move the chain onto the small chainwheel at
the foot of the hill.

That's a good tale that many of us can relate to. But unless
you're using a 6-speed freewheel and are trying to avoid gaps, why
limit yourself to a 40:24 if you have to deal with grades up to
15%?

I guess we all tend to use the gears we have, and get a little
"lazy" at times if we have low gears. But I prefer that to
struggling when tired or when I encounter a new monster hill.

I think there is a preoccupation with gears and similarity between
humans and motor driven vehicles. As Long as the legs can turn the
pedals, it's the rate of climb that determines speed because that
is what work on a bicycle is in the absence of significant (wind)
speed.

Well, of course, if the legs can turn the gears. I'm not sure what
you are trying to say here.

Humans can stall, like an engine, as well as do permanent damage to
joints if they try to show off and push too high a gear under
load/uphill.

If you stall, then the legs cannot turn the gear. THat is what I
said. It's the ground speed at which the gears can be turned that
varies, and I mentioned the TT results to underscore that.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/eft/eft21.htm

Jobst Brandt

On 14 Sep 2008 19:16:45 GMT, wrote:

Art Harris wrote:

Not more than ten minutes into my morning commute, there's a short,
steep hill to climb (maybe 100 meters or so and up to 15%
grade). *It was usually fairly easy in low gear (40:28) on my road
bike (700Cx28) out of the saddle.

Later I started using 2nd gear (40:24), and eventually replaced the
14-28 freewheel with a 13-24. *

*I had forgotten to move the chain onto the small chainwheel at the
foot of the hill.

That's a good tale that many of us can relate to. But unless you're
using a 6-speed freewheel and are trying to avoid gaps, why limit
yourself to a 40:24 if you have to deal with grades up to 15%?

I guess we all tend to use the gears we have, and get a little
"lazy" at times if we have low gears. But I prefer that to
struggling when tired or when I encounter a new monster hill.

I think there is a preoccupation with gears and similarity between
humans and motor driven vehicles. As Long as the legs can turn the
pedals, it's the rate of climb that determines speed because that is
what work on a bicycle is in the absence of significant (wind) speed.

Local bicyclists have participated in a common hill-climb (on Old
La Honda Rd.) and achieved the same ET in 20% differing gears. This
underscores that it is ft-lbs/sec elevation gain that counts.

My experience is the same for a local ride over Mt. Hamilton to
Livermore and back to the start with 7800 ft of climbing. Since a
gear enthusiast once told riders they needed especially low gears for
Mt. Hamilton, I ride the same 50-15t gear without shifting for the
entire route. The first time, gear-friend rode his motorcycle up the
main grade to the observatory, as I rode with some friends, to see if
I really used a corncob 5-speed cluster (13-14-15-16-17) and was
suitably rewarded. That was 30 years ago but it still worked
yesterday.

http://www.rntl.net/mthamiltonlookout.htm
http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/public/pictures/snowpics/
http://tinyurl.com/58yfbp

Jobst Brandt

Dear Jobst,

So why do the overwhelming majority of riders use low gears to climb?

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On Sep 14, 1:54 pm, wrote:

So why do the overwhelming majority of riders use low gears to climb?

Define low gears.

On Sep 14, 10:02 am, Art Harris wrote:
Dan O wrote:
Not more than ten minutes into my morning commute, there's a short,
steep hill to climb (maybe 100 meters or so and up to 15% grade). It
was usually fairly easy in low gear (40:28) on my road bike (700Cx28)
out of the saddle.

Later I started using 2nd gear (40:24), and eventually replaced the
14-28 freewheel with a 13-24.

I had forgotten to move the chain onto the small chainwheel at
the foot of the hill.

That's a good tale that many of us can relate to. But unless you're
using a 6-speed freewheel and are trying to avoid gaps, why limit
yourself to a 40:24 if you have to deal with grades up to 15%?


The bike was originally a six-speed (14-16-18-21-24-28). Now it has a
seven-speed (13-14-15-17-19-21-24). This is a greatly improved
configuration for my needs. I now have a higher top end *and* finer
gradation.

There are always trade-offs. Maybe someday I will get a triple
crankset.

In consideration of advice received here, I have recently been willing
to downshift more readily and work with a little higher cadence
sometimes (something made far more practical by the tighter gear
cluster). I *am*, however, also getting a lot of good use from that
13-tooth ;-)

On Sep 14, 12:54 pm, wrote:
On 14 Sep 2008 19:16:45 GMT, wrote:



Art Harris wrote:

Not more than ten minutes into my morning commute, there's a short,
steep hill to climb (maybe 100 meters or so and up to 15%
grade). It was usually fairly easy in low gear (40:28) on my road
bike (700Cx28) out of the saddle.

Later I started using 2nd gear (40:24), and eventually replaced the
14-28 freewheel with a 13-24.

I had forgotten to move the chain onto the small chainwheel at the
foot of the hill.

That's a good tale that many of us can relate to. But unless you're
using a 6-speed freewheel and are trying to avoid gaps, why limit
yourself to a 40:24 if you have to deal with grades up to 15%?

I guess we all tend to use the gears we have, and get a little
"lazy" at times if we have low gears. But I prefer that to
struggling when tired or when I encounter a new monster hill.

I think there is a preoccupation with gears and similarity between
humans and motor driven vehicles. As Long as the legs can turn the
pedals, it's the rate of climb that determines speed because that is
what work on a bicycle is in the absence of significant (wind) speed.

Local bicyclists have participated in a common hill-climb (on Old
La Honda Rd.) and achieved the same ET in 20% differing gears. This
underscores that it is ft-lbs/sec elevation gain that counts.

My experience is the same for a local ride over Mt. Hamilton to
Livermore and back to the start with 7800 ft of climbing. Since a
gear enthusiast once told riders they needed especially low gears for
Mt. Hamilton, I ride the same 50-15t gear without shifting for the
entire route. The first time, gear-friend rode his motorcycle up the
main grade to the observatory, as I rode with some friends, to see if
I really used a corncob 5-speed cluster (13-14-15-16-17) and was
suitably rewarded. That was 30 years ago but it still worked
yesterday.

http://www.rntl.net/mthamiltonlookout.htm
http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/public/pictures/snowpics/
http://tinyurl.com/58yfbp


So why do the overwhelming majority of riders use low gears to climb?


Path of least resistance?