Re: Gear ratio for climbing

#97731

Might be gearing, although your gears sound pretty low to me — certainly a lot lower than anything I ride.

These days I am more of a roadie than a hard core mtn biker, but my idea is that there is no reason to ride any differently on the road or trail, on hills vs flats, from a bio-mechanical perspective anyway (there may be different compromises for aerodynamics, comfort or bike handling reasons, of course). That means, assuming you have the available gears, riding at the same cadence, and same degree of exertion on climbs as on the flats. So, if you are most efficient at a fast cadence, you may well need some lower gear options. For me, I am most efficient at a relatively slow (60-70) cadence and seldom get into my lowest available gears, whether on the road or trail. But it seems most people do better at a faster cadence.

I suggest you use your bike computer and a heart rate monitor, and find a moderate, steady grade that makes you work fairly hard. Start with whatever gearing feels most natural to you, note your speed and heart rate. Then, while maintaining constant speed, shift to bigger and smaller gears and note the change in heart rate. Keep this up until you determine what gearing gives you the lowest hr for that speed, and then measure your cadence. Repeat this under other conditions to verify that this is the cadence at which you are most efficient.

A lot of what you probably need is just more practice on hills, in part to learn how to best pace yourself, what cadence works best, etc. Of course, weight is the big enemy for climbing, so getting the kilos off of your body and your bike are what really helps. One of the reasons I still ride an old ti framed hardtail.