grinding up the uplift track at gawton last night in 22-32, nose on the bars and going about walking pace, I did wonder why I was bothering. it probably would have been quicker and easier to walk.

at what point do you reckon a bike loses its mechanical advantage over walking.

i think this track is at least 1:4 maybe steeper in place.

I'd say if you can ride it then it'll be easier. Pushing/carrying a bike up a steep hill is hard and you'll go slower than 'walking pace'

just as efficient to get off and walk

For me, this misses the point. I'm out for a bike ride. The very fact that I can get a bike up it means I should, even if it means slower or the same as walking pace, because then I've ridden it.

I can appreciate that competitive people who are watching the clock and DH monkeys that don't like the effort involved would think differently though.

t'other day when out I was going slower uphill than a couple of folk pushing their bikes and I was riding ! 2 mph riding

Dunno about efficiency – but I guess at around the point at which walking is quicker.

Walking is one thing, walking pushing a bike is something else.

But at the end of the day, you are out for a bike ride. You MTB because you like challenges, and completing a tough climb is a challenge. So MTFU and have some pride 🙂

not the third time up it. I was getting bored…

I think you always have a mechanical advantage when riding a bike, tbh.

If somewhere is just about possible to ride, then I always prefer to try and ride it, even if it ends up no faster than walking or running with the bike. I always find pushing or carrying a bike harder work than riding the thing anyway.

I still have to push up a few places that I can't get a singlespeed up but it's not the end of the world.

I have no issues walking, way quicker, heart rate lower, uses different muscle groups. Never pushed a DH bike uphill though.

surely (if it's not a technical climb, just steep) it's easier to ride than walk?

i was doing a 33% hill on the roadbike last week; getting off would've involved faffing around taking shoes off as there's no way you can walk up 33% in carbon soles and speedplay cleats 😉

Do you know it's also faster to drive than cycle? 🙂

On the stuff where I have to walk, my HR is barely lower than when riding. Also stretches my hamstrings a lot.

>Walking is one thing, walking pushing a bike is something else.

But at the end of the day, you are out for a bike ride. You MTB because you like challenges, and completing a tough climb is a challenge. So MTFU and have some pride<

Depends on the ride really – a lot of big mountain routes require some element of pushing – either because the terrain is simply too steep or soft or technical or a combination of any or all of these. Or, where the effort required to 'prove a point' is simply outweighed by the benefit of conserving energy for a long day ahead.

You've alway got a mechanical advantage when you are on a bike. It might briefly feel easier when you get off and push becuse you are using different muscles but you are probably using more energy.

I try and ride up everything as well no matter how slow I'm going!

On a normal ride, I try to ride everything that's what I'm there to do. On monster mile ride where I wanna pace myself I start walking when I have to crouch over the nose of the saddle to keep going (and HR rockets). Even if you can ride it you're expending way too much effort (silly steep + loose/technical)

Exact same dilemma fell running. Sometimes it's easier, quicker and gives you a break to walk …so I do that in races. When I'm training I'll push on running with the most ridiculous vertical shuffle, achieving very little, just because it's 'good for you'. Same on a bike, ride if you like a challenge, walk if it's about efficiency.

Edit, most of my riding is on big Scottish mountains so its a relative question.

We rode up Warrens Hill on Sunday while Rich walked (he had a sore knee from a fall). We didn't have to wait long before he arrived!

If I think I can ride up it, I will try. But I can see why you switched to pushing up the track on the 3rd go.

If I wanted to go for a walk I would leave the bike at home

Surely its all about the down.
Most of the best big mountain routes involve hike a bikes etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71958789@N00/4537486634/in/set-72157623770296923/

Ive often wondered and come to the conclusion it is mechanically more efficient to ride, but I walk when my HR goes over 185 for more than a few mins. (for me thats pretty much my limit).

I like the challange of the climb, but it really depends on the day.

I hate it when some jogger overtakes me though 🙁

If you are riding up a steep hill then your walking pace will drop dramatically on the same terrain. A reasonable speed unloaded on flat ground is 4mph, when I've done hikes with kit (similar tocarrying a bike) it drops down further.

The only time I get off and walk (jog) is in races where it just becomes quicker to push. This normally involves a large technical element that is easier to carry over than ride.

If I'm out for "fun" then I try and ride everything even if I end up trackstanding and getting my very very limited trials skills involved.

The answer is a gradient of 15%

I don't think anybody has mentioned under wheel conditions – if it's very bumpy or soft it can be quicker to get off and walk/run. On a flat smooth uphill bit, it's generally only faster to walk at the point you run out of gears anyway. If you're still doing 3mph, do you really think you can walk uphill pushing a bike faster than that? 2mph pushing a bike is likely to be quite tough on the sort of climb you can't ride in bottom gear.

foir those people here who've never been to gawton….ive never ridden up it and never will, and as for dh monkeys not liking the effort then try to ride my 224 up the uplift track and see how far you get.

When you drop it on the granny ring then you should walk and hold your head in shame.

Get rid of the granny ride, MTFU and hurt yourself.

The next time you will be stronger.

In a race I run as soon as I think it would be faster to get off, run, get back on than ride. It's the first man past the finish not the first one that didn't walk past the finish, all sense of "pride" goes out the window.

Iain

Interesting thread.

I'm relatively new to all this. Perhaps it's different for the 'seasoned pros' but for me it's about picking my battles.

We went for a ride round Rivington at the weekend, first time I've been out on anything taxing for a couple of weeks. At one point there's a reasonably lengthy road climb (signposted "17%"). I rode most of it, and by what I thought was the end my quads were burning like hell. The road levels out and then starts climbing again. By this point, I'd nothing left. If I'd carried on, I would have struggled to finish the ride out. I wasn't having fun and, frankly, saw no point in being a martyr for the sake of it. So I got off and walked the last bit. It was either that or stop for a while whilst my legs recovered. By walking I might be technically 'less mechanically efficient' but I'm using a different muscle set so hopefully that should give my legs chance to dissipate some of the lactic acid swilling round my muscles.

My pride is intact because, frankly, I couldn't give a rat's danglies what anyone else thinks. For me, even if I walk it, I'm still ahead of the other 99% of the populace who are sat at home in front of the telly with a microwaved curry. Other cyclists have been riding longer than me and hopefully should remember what it was like when they started out, and if they don't then the failing is theirs so f'k 'em, who cares what they think.

Don't get me wrong, I try to ride everything and usually do, getting off and walking is rare. But I see absolutely nothing wrong in shanking it for a bit if it means I can ride twice as far as a result. I'm sure that over time as my stamina and lycra content improve I'll have to do it less if at all, but getting to that point isn't an instant procedure.

>Edit, most of my riding is on big Scottish mountains so its a relative question. <

Exactly. Many of my favourite descents / circuits in the Higlands include some element of hike-a-bike. In fact, these are often the parts that separate the men from the boys so I consider it a badge of honour 😉

I only recently realised that to roadies getting off and walking is a shameful thing.
What a load of arse.

for the record, i wasn't really on an XC ride. I was at the DH track on my five and trying to pack as many runs in an hour as I could. takes 3 mins down, 15 mins back up. rest for a minute or two and do it all over again. way more fun than an hour on the road bike.

its a non-technical bastard steep fireroad. there are a couple of sections where it probably would be quicker to push/run but last night is the first time I've been stubborn enough to ride it all every time.

Living in the lakes and riding the stuff we do there is an element of waking in nearly EVERY ride……..nowt wrong with that!!!

The OP asked about efficiency

It will take the same total amount of energy riding or walking – same mass thru the same height. The faster you do the climb the more energy per minute you use.

Your body has a cadence at which it is most efficient. if you are grinding in granny gear at a low cadence your leg muscles might be more efficient walking as you can take shorter steps to get the cadence back into the most efficient speed.

its only a guess really but if you can keep your leg cadence high enough to be in the efficient zone you are probably more efficient on the bike, if you are grinding slowly then walking might be. However the efficiency gains will be marginal.

As others have said – on long days out I don't push too hard to ride steep bits – not worth the energy expended cos you can walk up slower which is easier and does not dig into your reserves

Some of you that decry walking or granny rings need to come and ride some of the big hills up north. Carn Ban mor for example – a cracker of a descent but a swine of a climb. To get up it without walking you need to be very fit and not to use granny gear shows madness/ extreme fitness/stubbornness beyond reason.

Some of you that decry walking or granny rings need to come and ride some of the big hills up north

You're not the only person who rides big hills 🙂

To get up it without walking you need to be very fit and not to use granny gear shows madness/ extreme fitness/stubbornness beyond reason

One could argue that riding a bike round a great big loop over big hills is also beyond reason. Ergo, we can make our own minds up about what we want to do on a bike 🙂

I have often challenged myself to get up something without using the granny ring. It's fun.

I've never found a hill I couldn't climb on a roadbike so if I get off it's for a rest rather than to push although I never wear roady clothes and use skate style SPD shoes so walking would look fine.
on an XC ride, as long as it's not a short rise on undulating trail I get off and push at the point where pushing is just as quick.
If riding DH as Jambo was I'd get off and push up almost everything that I couldn't ride effortlessly. DH is very physical and riding it knackered is quite simply shit.
BMX I never get off and push.. but often used to see young guys walk their BMX to the trails/park to ride then walk them back.

I think quite the opposite to many of you it seems. Often if I'm out at a trail centre for example that has a steepish fireroad climb I'm happy to walk to conserve energy – if it's just a flat track there's little fun or challenge.
Wheras a technical climb can be enjoyable and is a challenge, so usually something that should be attempted.

If you walk I see it as defeat, that's not to say I won't stop and have a breather than carry on pedalling, walking is d last resort to me. I have no problem with those who do walk though, its a personal goal for me

MTFU and hurt yourself.

Lol. CTFD and get over yourself :-p

Ride, walk, whatever. No one's keeping score.

the way i see it, if i get off and walk, the next time i get off and walk , it will be exactly the same speed, but if i ride it, then the next time i will be quicker, more efficient and practised.

Don't know why but it's stuck in my mind from an article I read a very* long time ago the 3mph is the break point for riding – below that it read that walking is the more efficient, biomechanically speaking.
Wether it is more fun – only you, your legs and lungs can decide!

*we're talking 'no-suss' and rim brake era here… I've slept and drank a few times since then so, please feel free to pull my memory apart – I have nothing to defend it with … 😉

rOcKeTdOg – Member
If you walk I see it as defeat

I once walked every climb in an XC race and still finished above mid place. how would you see those that rode the whole thing but finished behind me?