I was just wondering what constitues good technique for climbing. I used to think that involving the hamstrings in pulling the pedal on the upstroke would be more efficient, but this article says otherwise:

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/technique-uphill-battle-27049

(Don't Pull, Pedal)

So should I focus solely on the downstroke and let the upstroke take care of itself, or should I make a conscious effort to exert a pulling force on the upstroke?

I also did a bit of experimenting recently, and found that my average speed on a ride increased if I didn't attack climbs. If I sat and span, and changed gears down earlier, I could crest the hills and keep pedalling straight on, whereas if I attacked the hills more agressively I was more likely to need to back off to recover at the top.

Probably sounds obvious to many, but often my attitude would be 'I can't change down a gear, changing down is failing!', and then i'd burn myself out. It turns out that for me, changing down earlier and/or to lower gears seems to be beneficial (i'm more spinny than grindy).

Any more climbing advice?

Moving your upper body is wasted energy, the number of people you see with their shoulders bouncing around all over the place is ridiculous! Stop wrestling the bike!

Spinning is good, although it's a happy medium I reckon, going at 120rpm in the granny ring will leave you just as tired. About 85-90rpm seems to work quite well for me.

Any more climbing advice?

Climbs lots and loose weight until you are ripped with a six pack. Spending money on your bike before this is futile 😉

I always try and anticipate the hill, change into an appropriate gear before/as I get to it and spin, rather than try and crank up in an inaproppriate gear. If I crank up hills, I just end up overloading my lungs, running out of leg power, panting like a heavy breather and it makes me much slower overall.

You can still attack a hill and spin…..you don't have to spin slowly.

I try and think of making smooth circles with my legs and keeping a steady rythmn.
If it's a steep hill, particularly a technical one then I will have my weight right forward on the nose of the saddle and perhaps drop my elbows so I am pulling downwards on the bars….

The article seems to imply that there should be no upward pull which isn't what I think though I rarely pull up much really – my view is that it's about pedalling in circles rather than pushing down in a more linear pumping way but not an expert.

As for attacking on climbs – I think that's down to fitness; the fitter you are the faster you'll recover after a hard climb.

I thought pedalling in circles was the best idea.

As for attacking – attack AND keep the power on over the hill. Just don't kill yourself on the climb so you leave enough in reserve. As for gears – they are there to help you get your power on the road. Use them appropriately 🙂 A cadence of what, 70-90 is good, for climbs as well as flats.

Climbs lots and loose weight until you are ripped with a six pack

muscle is heavy, you really want to just be skin and bone!

My best advice for how to climb fast is to get a good race face/war face:

pedalling is no different climbing or elsewhere, try pedalling in circles, a while on a fixed bike will help.

And yes pacing yourself so you don't expire before the top helps.

If you are serious about it get a road bike, some boks, do some training adn race a bit, you'll learn loads.

It's more just about unweighting your trailing leg rather than using it to pull up in order to deliver more power during the stroke. Unweighting it means you're not using the other leg to lift it whilst also trying to propel the bike forward.

If you're really serious, try riding with a PowerTap, it's quite interesting how hard you tend to go at the bottom of a hill without realising it!

I've recently started riding with flats, after 45 years of having my feet connected to the pedals.

I can't say I've noticed a lot of difference, either geared or singlespeeding, except for those wrenching thrutches trying to get up a 45 degree slope in 32:16.

Yeah, I guess my single biggest revelation was that by not trying so hard I could go faster – which is nice!

Unfortunately my upper body is a little heavier than the ideal cyclist physique so I don't think i'm ever going to challenge the whippets on our group rides.

muscle is heavy, you really want to just be skin and bone!

Quiet, don't tell anyone the secret. How on earth will the bike companies sell there machines with "goat like climbing ability" if that cheeky little fact gets out!

😀

-Make circles with your feet don’t push/pull the pedals try to keeps a steady sustainable smooth pace; choppy pedalling will just waste energy and eventually get you off balance.

-Use the gears (Assuming you have them), no point having them if you don’t actually make good use of them, yes you’ll look like He-Man pushing the big ring, till your Quads explode and you fail to get to the top…

-Don’t forget to breath, sounds simple but a vast number of people seem to hold their breath when doing tricky or very steep sections, climbing requires muscles power, which in turn use oxygen, probably best not to shut off the air supply when you need it most then…

-Read the terrain ahead, you wouldn’t plough into a downhill section of singletrack with your head down and just pray to get through would you? It’s same going up, pick the line that gives you optimum traction/minimal resistance, thus making smarter use of your energy…

I read that article. IIRC it said it was useful but only for the proper riders where the extra gains are worth seconds in a race; ie: not most of us. For us, there are loads of other more substantial gains to make first……

However, i think the article was more geared towards road cycling where traction / breaking traction is far less relevant. Off road a smooth pedalling stroke in the right gear will imho get more consistent power through the tyre and then less tendency to wheelspin on rough stuff. Which then indicates pedalling circles instead of stamp stamp stamp.

Try riding along on the flat with one foot only; that will show you how much you don't currently use your legs on the upstroke and also how you don't really need to pull up as much as 'scrape the dogs**t off' through the bottom of the stroke so the momentum carries the pedal back up. And also demonstrates a bit of when / how to pull on the upstroke, to extract a bit of extra power when at stalling point on steep stuff which might be the difference to keeping things moving. But i find that last technique very hard on the hammies, and can't do it for any prolonged period so it really is like the emergency button, to be used only when absolutely necessary.

If you pull up you're just exacerbating the power peaks that will lead to spin out in low grip, as said spin the pedals.
And make sure you are in the right gear, if there's a techy bit coming up get in the right gear before you get to it shifting mid climb can cause probs (even with RR mechs 🙂 ) At STW weekender last year people hit the skills climb fast in a big gear then struggled halfway up. I approached it slowly, spinning like mad, I looked silly but I was already in the right gear when it got proper steep a the top.

And as for attacking climbs it's just like pacing yourself anywhere else, go at it too hard and you'll burn out and loose speed later – like those guys in TDF yesterday, they were in a breakaway near the end then the peleton caught them, was funny watching them die, the peleton came passed them so fast it looked like they were riding backwards. When practicing hit the climbs harder than usual and try and ride out at the top and recover, in races pace yourself so you don't collapse at the top (I can't, I "race" about once a year and kill myself)

I find heels down on the down stroke and heels up on the upstroke useful. You're not really pulling up but this action helps unweight the upstroke pedal and encourage pedalling in smooth circles. I believe the old roadies used to call this 'ankling'…

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/ankling.html

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2009/05/efficiency-of-pedal-stroke-ankling/

Find the Megarange gears from Shimano never fail when it comes to climbing and a nice torquey Shimano Nexus 33 tooth chainset

except for those wrenching thrutches trying to get up a 45 degree slope in 32:16

If it makes you feel better you won't be able to pedal up anything that steep in 32:16 at all, flat pedals or not! In fact even 22/34 would probably not be enough! Hills are never as steep as one would like to think they are!

sofatester – Member
Climbs lots and loose weight until you are ripped with a six pack. Spending money on your bike before this is futile

I hear this can take upto 4 weeks?