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need hill climbing advice



 
 
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  #21  
Old November 27th 08, 03:34 AM posted to rec.sport.unicycling
florida
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Default need hill climbing advice


The hills of Clermont Florida, I used a nimbus 29er with 125mm. Worked
fine but I paid dearly with leg cramps after 17.5 miles of a 35 mile
ride. I have a crank that I hamered in and now I can't take it out. Is
there a way without stripping the isis hub?


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  #22  
Old November 27th 08, 05:45 AM posted to rec.sport.unicycling
scott ttocs
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Default need hill climbing advice


Unicycle.com sells crank extractors.

http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=1230

Have you been using one of these tools, but it is still does not come
off?


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  #23  
Old December 26th 08, 01:19 AM posted to rec.sport.unicycling
Buck[_2_]
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Default need hill climbing advice


I am a 50 year old new rider. I started 26 Aug 08 I started riding after
becoming injured in an ultra marathon ( I tore my planter facious off my
heal) since then went from a 20" to a 24, then 26 and now I am riding
a coker . I love riding, it has added a lot to my life and at my age, as
other things are slowing down, it if fun to get better at something! My
goal is to ride the MS 150 mile bike ride on the uni. in June. I needed
to put longer cranks on because the shorter ones were too radical for
me. I hope to move down to smaller cranks as I become more proficient /
confident on the coker. I have been riding @ 6 to 10 miles a day and
plan to to longer rides, weather permitting, but need to do more. Any
good exercises you folks could suggest? Any one from the western PA area
looking for a training partner?


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  #24  
Old December 26th 08, 07:37 AM posted to rec.sport.unicycling
skilewis74
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Default need hill climbing advice


Welcome to the forums

Buck;1158020 wrote:
My goal is to ride the MS 150 mile bike ride on the uni. in June.

Any good exercises you folks could suggest?



Start saving up for a KH geared hub and looking for a machinist to
grind your bearing surfaces to 42 mm if they're 40 now on your 36".

Use every opportunity to increase leg strength. Eg. do walking lunges
around the office w/ a heavy backpack, do pistol squats while waiting
for the copier, etc.
Pistol Squat
I read about a semipro cyclist did stuff like this to make up for the
ridding he couldn't do because he had to work. After a couple of years
he went pro and quit his job and was still able to support his family
thanks to his new sponsors.


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  #25  
Old December 26th 08, 10:36 AM posted to rec.sport.unicycling
munimutant
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Default need hill climbing advice


I've only been at it about a year, but I love hillclimbs and have come
to notice something that makes a huge difference. There is a "sweet
spot" of balance, one that seems much more precise than when riding on
flats, and if you can stay in that spot, the level of effort drops
significantly. When I lose that little spot and have to fight to regain
it, I spend tremendous amounts of wasted energy. I know this sounds
obvious -(OF COURSE there is a sweet spot, that is what unicycling is
about!!)- but I'm talking about refining that sweet spot down to a
precise millimeter that brings nirvana. When I can hold that spot, it
feels like I'm in a granny gear on my mtb. I can relax my legs, take an
extra long pause here and there as needed, and pass bikers up 14-18%
grades.

The other thing that helps is to LIFT your legs on the upstroke. It
makes pedaling more efficient and easier. The ideal would be to do
"ankling" and pedal circles like bikers, but with my ability level right
now I'm lucky to just do mild pedal circles with an emphasis (especially
on hills) on the upstroke lift. Hope this helps the OP.


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  #26  
Old December 26th 08, 04:27 PM posted to rec.sport.unicycling
scott ttocs
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Default need hill climbing advice


Measuring Road Grade:

You can use Google Earth to measure the road grade. Use the line
measurement tool and set it to feet (or whatever unit the altitude is
listed as in your preferences.) Find the road of interest and click the
top and the bottom to measure the distance. With each click, measure
the altitude (listed at the bottom of the window.) Now subtract the to
altitude measurements--that gives you your "rise" and the "distance"
comes from the measuring tool. To get the road grade, just use the
formula:

rise/distance * 100 = road grade (percent)

I know a lot of you probably know how to do this measurement, but I am
posting this message for those of you who have not worked it out. My
guess is that the values are not meaningful for very short distances (
50 feet) because of the limits of Google Earth data.

I visited Baldwin Road in NZ (using Google Earth ) and did a few
measurements:

Full road: 17.9% grade.
Lower half: 11.6% grade
Upper Half: 23% grade
Top 100 feet: 30% grade

Ouch!

Next time you want to tell us that the road or trail you climbed was
very steep, use Google Earth to put numbers on it.


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  #27  
Old December 26th 08, 06:08 PM posted to rec.sport.unicycling
osmundo
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Default need hill climbing advice


I love hillclimbing on my 36er. Based on Aspen Mike's advice, I started
with 170s for major hillclimbs, but as I grew stronger and desired more
speed I started messing with the 150 and 125 mm positions. Now I can't
fathom using 170 cranks...they seem too long except for Coker Muni. I
use 150s with a geared hub now and I can climb anything in Colorado. I
don't use a brake and I think with proper spinning techniques brakes are
unnecessary, even on steep grades, unless of course you want to stop.
150s give me plenty of leverage for slowing down when I am geared
up and I kind of like the simplicity of not having a brake.
If I did not have a geared hub I'd probably work toward climbing with
shorter cranks. I recommend putting on a multi-position crankset on and
experimenting. I often would climb peaks and passes in Colorado in 150s
and descend in 125s. Now with my super Guni I just do everything in
150s. Riding geared up for hill climbs has made me a true believer.
There is nothing finer than reaching a summit and popping it into that
higher gear and pushing the limits on the descent. It has changed my
uni experience significantly and I cannot imagine going back to a single
speed coker.
By the way, the Mount Evans Hillclimb is the premiere hillclimb race
the state. 28 miles of climbing to the highest paved road in North
America, topping out at 14,000 feet. I would be great to have a crowd
of uni hillclimbers July 18 this year! Put it on your calendars!


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  #28  
Old December 26th 08, 06:18 PM posted to rec.sport.unicycling
U-Turn
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Default need hill climbing advice


harper;733651 wrote:
You're using 35% as the average grade. It's not, it's the peak grade.



By definition, the grade at the peak would be zero.


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  #29  
Old December 26th 08, 08:08 PM posted to rec.sport.unicycling
Bruce Dawson
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Default need hill climbing advice


One thing I didn't see mentioned was the importance of handlebars.
Depending on the length of your cranks and size of your wheel you will
at some point (probably between 12% and 24% grade) reach a point where
it is provably impossible to climb the hill without pulling up on the
seat.

If, for sake of argument, you have 6" cranks and a wheel with a radius
of 18" (i.e.; a Coker wheel) then when your pedals are horizontal and
you have all of your weight on the front pedal you will be in
equilibrium with the hill if it is a 1 in 3 grade (1 meter of rise for
every 3 meters of road distance). If the hill is any steeper then you
will roll backwards even with all of your weight on the forward crank.

And, remember that this point is when you have the maximum leverage.
With the pedals vertical you have no leverage, and the average leverage
over a full rotation is 2/pi of the maximum (the proof is simple and I
have scribbled it in the margin of my web browser). And, the weight of
the unicycle is dead weight and makes the leverage worse. Therefore the
steepest hill that can be climbed if you apply just your weight to the
pedals with 6" cranks on a 36" wheel is somewhat less than a 2/3pi grade
or 21%. Shorter cranks means you can't climb such a steep hill.

Expert riders routinely ignore this restriction, by grabbing on to
their seat and pulling up, thus letting them apply forces greater than
their own bodyweight to the pedals.

It's actually pretty amazing -- in order to climb a really steep hill
"all" you need to do is a series of one-legged squats while carrying
weights and while doing incredibly delicate adjustments so that you can
maintain your balance even through the dead-zone where you necessarily
decelerate.

A heavy unicycle makes this much trickier. Less than perfect riding
skills also complicated it a bit.


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  #30  
Old December 26th 08, 11:31 PM posted to rec.sport.unicycling
bungeejoe
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Default need hill climbing advice


Bruce Dawson;1158480 wrote:
One thing I didn't see mentioned was the importance of handlebars. ...

... Expert riders routinely ignore this restriction, by grabbing on to
their seat and pulling up, thus letting them apply forces greater than
their own bodyweight to the pedals ...




Use of handlebars on the left and seat pull on the right ...


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