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Bike - How to know if its for hills or flat?
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09-06-2011 09:45AM#1Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 16,716 Mod ✭✭✭✭Join Date:Posts: 15155
Lads
Sorry for the noob question but I changed bike there 2 months ago.
I had a Giant Defy 4, sound bike, had it for a year + and it was grand.
I changed to a carbon bike there then and what I have noticed is that going up the hills I now seem to be "looking" for gears. I see the other lads, not on granny wheels, spinning up the hills.
Any idea if I would know if mine is suited more to flats? Its just murdering me on the hills when I am out on the group sessions where we take in a lot of hills.
I have started "pulling up" on the pedals as I wasn't doing this, but the bike/me is grinding to a halt on occassion on the big long climbs.
Maybe I just need to "harden up"
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Yep, just HTFU.
Chances are your gear ratios have changed, so you have less gears available on the new bike than your original one. Probably changed from a triple on the defy (3 chainrings at the front) to a compact double (two chainrings on the front) on the new bike.
If that's not the case, then your cassette has changed, say from 26 to 23.
What's the new bike?
The benefit of a double over a triple is that you can realistically have a bigger top gear (i.e. more speed), plus they're lighter and tend to suffer less from your chain popping off. But a triple makes climbing much easier.0 -
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Maybe I just need to "harden up"
Perhaps, but that only part of the equation. There is no route over about 10k (IMO) in this country that doesnt include hills, so you just have to get used to it and deal with them tactically - do go into the red to early, for starters. The carbon bike should be lighter and thus 'better' for climbing, but is probably only about 10% of the weight you are trying to haul up the hill...
Tell us more about the groupset on the bike (compact, triple or standard chainrings; cassette details), your weight, your average speed on say a 40k spin including a mix of hills/flat sections.0 -
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A little bitThisRegard wrote: »I'm on a compact now with with apparently a 26t for my max sprocket, 12t for the minimum. Does it make me a wuss ?
The largest sprocket you'll easily get for a road bike will be 27 or 28, which is practically no different to the 26 for all intents and purposes.
A standard triple has a 30T minimum chainring, a standard compact is 34. The difference is actually quite small, however the 34 represents a 14% jump, so if you were using the 30/26 combination to just about get up some climbs, then you will definitely find the 34/26 combo noticeably more difficult.
One eternal truth about climbing is that when you hit the hills, you will use the lowest gear that you have. I have yet to find a hill that defeats me in my 34 (and I'm not a strong climber), but I know for a fact that if I had a triple, I'd be climbing those same hills in the lowest gear and saving myself that 14% effort at the expense of speed.
I don't know about anyone else, but when I started riding I always found that it was either my legs that failed me in the climbs, or my lungs/fitness, but rarely both. So I found that by sitting down while climbing, my legs could practically go forever or until my heart wanted to explode. If I stand up for anything more than a second or two to stretch my legs, I'm finished. In the early days I would take a brief stop (like 120 seconds) before a serious climb to take a drink and let my HR drop. Now I just bull on, deep slow breathing, keep the legs moving, focus on the immediate road ahead rather than looking upwards on the climb. Stopping mid-climb is not an option, it's impossible to get going again.0 -
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A little bit
The largest sprocket you'll easily get for a road bike will be 27 or 28, which is practically no different to the 26 for all intents and purposes.
A standard triple has a 30T minimum chainring, a standard compact is 34. The difference is actually quite small, however the 34 represents a 14% jump, so if you were using the 30/26 combination to just about get up some climbs, then you will definitely find the 34/26 combo noticeably more difficult.
One eternal truth about climbing is that when you hit the hills, you will use the lowest gear that you have. I have yet to find a hill that defeats me in my 34 (and I'm not a strong climber), but I know for a fact that if I had a triple, I'd be climbing those same hills in the lowest gear and saving myself that 14% effort at the expense of speed.
Mmm, I think I may have under sold myself there, the spec sheet I got those figures from are the min and max capacity for the groupset, not what's actually on the bike, on further investigation I'm on a 26t on the rear and 52-39T on the front, am I much harder now 0 -
Undercover Elephant wrote: »Is it just me, or does anyone else on that route get up to 12m (Portmarnock Strand?) and think "whee, look how high I am"?
No? Just me? Never mind.
No, I think "thanks be to god that suffering is over.... now for the down hill"
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Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 16,716 Mod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 15155
Hi
Sorry the Giant was a double with 8's on the back.
The Merida Theroma is the new bike, it also has a double, with 8's. I checked it there and the large on the back has 23 "teeth" so maybe the Defy was 26.
I am just over 14.5 stone myself. Avg speed last night on the clubs 40km leisure spin was 32kmph.
I would have good mileage in the legs, but was just really surprised at how much harder I found it over the same hills on the new bike
It is though as said much more rapid on the flats.0 -
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Hi
Sorry the Giant was a double with 8's on the back.
The Merida Theroma is the new bike, it also has a double, with 8's. I checked it there and the large on the back has 23 "teeth" so maybe the Defy was 26.
I am just over 14.5 stone myself. Avg speed last night on the clubs 40km leisure spin was 32kmph.
I would have good mileage in the legs, but was just really surprised at how much harder I found it over the same hills on the new bike
It is though as said much more rapid on the flats.
You're going to really notice a difference between a 23 tooth and a 26 tooth sprocket on the cassette. That, and the fairly high average speed on the spin (28/29kmph would be more the 'norm' for intermediate/sportif riders) probably account for the difference you're feeling. In addition, if your smallest front chainring is a 39 and perhaps you previously had a compact (smallest = 34) you could be near doubling the effort to keep up the same pace on climbs.0 -
Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 16,716 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 15155
TheBlaaMan wrote: »You're going to really notice a difference between a 23 tooth and a 26 tooth sprocket on the cassette. That, and the fairly high average speed on the spin (28/29kmph would be more the 'norm' for intermediate/sportif riders) probably account for the difference you're feeling. In addition, if your smallest front chainring is a 39 and perhaps you previously had a compact (smallest = 34) you could be near doubling the effort to keep up the same pace on climbs.
I did a quick count on the smallest, I think its a 38 or 39.
Ok so the lesson here is work harder
Another daft question, but once I "master" the climbs on this bike, will it be of any benefit or am I just going to be fighting the whole time.
The bike so is more suited to flats.0 -
I did a quick count on the smallest, I think its a 38 or 39.
Ok so the lesson here is work harder
Another daft question, but once I "master" the climbs on this bike, will it be of any benefit or am I just going to be fighting the whole time.
The bike so is more suited to flats.
39-23 is a bitch of a gear. Buy a new cassette, e.g. 12-27.0 -
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