Better Climbing

dghtrigeek44 said:

Hello everyone. I am in the market to purchase a new bike (s-works or cervelo soloist). and i want to climb the best i can so i can beat the 3 people still beating me to the top of the mountain. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what would help me climb better.

for example, do you think i should go with compact cranks? or maybe a bigger cassette?

any advice would be helpful thanks
d.

Cervelo R3 is a lighter frame if you are looking to build a pure climbing machine. The best way to get better at climbing, though, is to just go out and climb more. Start doing some hill riding on your own, and do not allow yourself to stand. Sitting will work the muscles much harder and help you to develop better technique when climbing.

dghtrigeek44 said:

Hello everyone. I am in the market to purchase a new bike (s-works or cervelo soloist). and i want to climb the best i can so i can beat the 3 people still beating me to the top of the mountain. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what would help me climb better.

for example, do you think i should go with compact cranks? or maybe a bigger cassette?

any advice would be helpful thanks
d.

Well, that's a rather open ended questionl.

Gearing: only you can determine what gearing you need. You need to see what gear ratios you have now, evaluate how they're working for you, and determine if you need new ratios. You can get new ratios by changing your cassette gearing and/or by changing chainring gearing or going to compact. If you need a different length crankarm or are in the market anyway for a new crankset, then going compact just might make sense. Only you can decide if going compact is worth buying a new crankset. FWIW, I live in a place where I do lots of climbing, and my bike sports a 50/36 crankset, with an 11-25 on the back. Today I test rode a bike up a 200 yard section of 25% grade with a 53/39, 12-25. That hill is much more comfortable with my 36-25, but it was doable--but painful--in 39-25.

Conditioning: the way to get better on the hills is to train on the hills. If you do a web search, you should find quite a few variations of interval training for the hills.

Mental Stuff: this is a big one. Climbs, especially long ones, can be tough mentally, especially if you have difficulty climbing or dislike it in general. I used to hate climbing, then I read that the way to get over that was to continually tell myself as I approached a climb and did the climb that I loved climbing. Eventually it worked, and I came around to liking climbing.

Technique: big one too. Seated pedaling is generally more efficient is typically the predominant tool on long climbs. Standing is great for short climbs, attacks, and surmounting sudden increases in grade. Work on your technique and figure out what works best.

unless you get the carbon soloist, the s-works will be a better climber. its a couple pounds lighter than the aluminum soloist. the soloist frame focuses more on aero than weight savings.

alienator said:

Well, that's a rather open ended questionl.

Gearing: only you can determine what gearing you need. You need to see what gear ratios you have now, evaluate how they're working for you, and determine if you need new ratios. You can get new ratios by changing your cassette gearing and/or by changing chainring gearing or going to compact. If you need a different length crankarm or are in the market anyway for a new crankset, then going compact just might make sense. Only you can decide if going compact is worth buying a new crankset. FWIW, I live in a place where I do lots of climbing, and my bike sports a 50/36 crankset, with an 11-25 on the back. Today I test rode a bike up a 200 yard section of 25% grade with a 53/39, 12-25. That hill is much more comfortable with my 36-25, but it was doable--but painful--in 39-25.

Conditioning: the way to get better on the hills is to train on the hills. If you do a web search, you should find quite a few variations of interval training for the hills.

Mental Stuff: this is a big one. Climbs, especially long ones, can be tough mentally, especially if you have difficulty climbing or dislike it in general. I used to hate climbing, then I read that the way to get over that was to continually tell myself as I approached a climb and did the climb that I loved climbing. Eventually it worked, and I came around to liking climbing.

Technique: big one too. Seated pedaling is generally more efficient is typically the predominant tool on long climbs. Standing is great for short climbs, attacks, and surmounting sudden increases in grade. Work on your technique and figure out what works best.

25% in a double:eek: That's pretty impressive. Please don't tell me you were seated for that effort.

jsull14 said:

25% in a double:eek: That's pretty impressive. Please don't tell me you were seated for that effort.

Nah. Seated was impossible since the LBS had the seat mast cut to high. Iffin I was on my bike with my 50/36 11-25, I could done a bit of it seated, but that would have been gruesome.

We actually have quite a few 20%+ hills around here. No matter who you are, those puppies hurt.

ToffoIsMe said:

Cervelo R3 is a lighter frame if you are looking to build a pure climbing machine. The best way to get better at climbing, though, is to just go out and climb more. Start doing some hill riding on your own, and do not allow yourself to stand. Sitting will work the muscles much harder and help you to develop better technique when climbing.

+1 for the climb more. With respect to frames, if it fits well, it can climb well. As stated by ToffoIsMe, losing weight off the bike helps, but buffing up your technique and conditioning works much better. That said, there's naught wrong with getting a lightweight frame. If you cut your bike weight by 2 lbs, then at the end of a day of 10,000 feet of climbing, you will have saved a decent chunk of energy.

Remember, though, that lightweight frame needs to be able to descent well, too.

If you're fancing a good climbing bike there's the already mentioned Cervelo; Cannondale System Six, Super Six, and CAAD 9; Colnago Extreme Power; Giant TCR's; the '08 Madone, probably; Parlee Z4 (very reasonably priced); Look 585 and 595's; several Times.........

dghtrigeek44 said:

Hello everyone. I am in the market to purchase a new bike (s-works or cervelo soloist). and i want to climb the best i can so i can beat the 3 people still beating me to the top of the mountain. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what would help me climb better.

for example, do you think i should go with compact cranks? or maybe a bigger cassette?

any advice would be helpful thanks
d.

In my opinion the single best inprovement you can make is to lower your body weight, A strict deit and training routine are the only way to do this so if your interested then get reading and arm your self with the right information. The mental conditioning helps alot too. Bike choice realy doesn't make much differance at all, as long as it fits you and its light. And lower gear ratios only help if your not a good climber.

Insaneclimber said:

In my opinion the single best inprovement you can make is to lower your body weight, A strict deit and training routine are the only way to do this so if your interested then get reading and arm your self with the right information. The mental conditioning helps alot too. Bike choice realy doesn't make much differance at all, as long as it fits you and its light. And lower gear ratios only help if your not a good climber.

Bollocks on the gearing comment. Gearing is not some generic offering. It needs to be tailored to a rider's needs and style. Someone who wants to spin rather than mash will be better served by lower gearing. And there's no point in grunting out high gears if you end up trashing knees in the process.

alienator said:

Bollocks on the gearing comment. Gearing is not some generic offering. It needs to be tailored to a rider's needs and style. Someone who wants to spin rather than mash will be better served by lower gearing. And there's no point in grunting out high gears if you end up trashing knees in the process.

Yes tru but if your actually a good climber you will be going faster and not need such low gears. if your a [censored] climber you'll need them just to get up the hill. I agree it is very important to tailor the gears exactly to your needs. unfortunatly though i can't be bothered writing a book on how to do that. Actually that raises a question, in the past rear clusters were sold as individual sprockets, now days it seems as though you can only buy 3 different generic gear sets?
does campag still sell them individually? and where do i get individual sprockets to suit my shimano 9s?

PS im not sure what this discussion has to do with bullocks plz explain