Is uphill muni really this difficult or am I just

Am I just a wimp and need to suck it up and practice, practice,
practice. I've been riding my muni on a local mountain bike loop for a
little over a month. Avoiding the steep stuff, just mild, rolling
single and double track cross country.

The learning curve for downhill has been pretty good, but riding up
what I consider to be minor grades stops me dead. I have been able to
go up a few sections that I couldn't last month but they are very minor
slopes and it is discouraging.

Do you never see muni vidios of riders going up because it is not any
fun to watch or because they walk up?


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What size are your cranks and wheel?

I've been out on muni trips with my 20" (because that was my only uni)
and it was tiring. And I couldn't go uphill.


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I am on a 26 with 165's


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It's fun to conquer a hill. There are quite a few around here that I'm
still working on. I actually get more excited about making it up a
steep hill than riding down one. When I first started muni, I bought
some longer cranks (165s on my 29er) so I would have some more leverage
when stomping on the pedals. After about a year I was able to retire
the 165s and am back down to 150s.


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Uphill is hard, but with practice you can climb most things that you
could climb on a bike. The exception is short very steep slopes, where
on a bike you'd need a massive run up to get speed up, whilst on a
unicycle you can't get the speed required.

The bike still has a bit of an edge on really steep stuff, but not
massively.

Learning to ride uphill will help you on the downhill too with
increased fitness, better strength for control, some riders do always
walk the uphills, but every really good rider I've met will ride as
much uphill as they possibly can.

I know when I started, I used to attempt to ride a long uphill stretch,
about 1km and 150m of ascent in total, on a ride I did most weeks. To
start with it was completely impossible, and it took me about a year
before I rode it the first time. Last time I was back there, after a
few years gap, during which I've ridden quite a bit in other places, it
was easy.

Joe


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The stronger hill climbers I've seen always seem to use shorter cranks
and a constant "zippy" cadence for the ups. Or at least just a "zippy"
aggressive cadence, the terrain probably dictates the crank size.

Edit: Also "standing" on the pedals and pulling up on the seat seems to
leverage a little extra power on the uphills.


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Are you more used to shorter cranks? I know that when I got my 29" with
170s, I didn't know how to ride it at all after being too used to my
20", 125mm configuration.

I agree with BluntRM - standing on the pedals helps because you're
forcing your weight on the pedals. Another reason might be that you're
too afraid to fall off to lean forward enough.


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mtnjeffe wrote:
Do you never see muni vidios of riders going up because it is not any
fun to watch or because they walk up?



We ride as much up as down here in the northern part of California.
Most of us prefer 150s, but some on these boards will argue that 165s
or 170s are better because of increased leverage.

Climbing uphill is definitely a unique technique to be learned. Try to
relax. Hold onto the handle with one hand. Stand up or sit down,
which ever is most comfortable at the moment. On steeper stuff, your
pedal strokes will be half a revolution at a time. When you get
better, you can actually take mini breaks by still-standing if the
grade isn't too steep.


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Riding uphill is a combination of technique and fitness. Technique
being the more important part. No amount of fitness will get you up
challenging climbs if you don't have the technique.

It is also about learning to pace yourself so you don't blow up during
the climb.

If the climb is steep enough that you need to stand on the pedals you
need to switch over to a technique that is more efficient for that
style of climbing. If you're standing on the pedals you need to smooth
out the pedaling so you don't get stuck at the bottom of the pedal
stroke. I do a little bounce technique where I flex my foot to point
the toes down at the bottom of the pedal stroke. That gives a little
bounce at the bottom of the pedal stroke and keeps you from losing
momentum at the bottom of the pedal stroke and wasting energy. You
want to dance on the pedals and not mash them with Frankenstein style
steps.

For longer climbs you can also learn to pause briefly while the pedals
are horizontal so you can pace yourself and catch your breath.


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I feel that it is almost easier to climb the steep hills on my usual
route with 125mm cranks compared to 170mm. As BluntRM says the shorter
cranks allows more of a flow uphill. With the 170s the larger movement
counteracts the increased leverage, breaking the "flow" and hurting my
knees (I'm 170cm/5'7").

I am going to mount the 150mm cranks again some day soon. Hopefully
they will get me up the last few hills. Technique and fitness improve
with practice so just keep at it!


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