While "tacking" to climb up a steep hill, I found some moves different from
normal cycling to help me get up the hill easier: swinging my shoulders
sideways up the hill, and using my arms to "sweep" my wheels directly
sideways toward down the hill. It enabled me to survive a long steep hill --
and doing it made the climbing sorta fun.
By "tacking" I mean turning my bike diagonally off my overall direction of
forward motion, then turning my bike again to go diagonally toward the other
side, and repeating to make a sort of curved zig-zag path. Of course I would
only do this when I have lots of road-width available with no other vehicles
using it. Using a "tacking" path can make it easier to climb up a steep hill
by spreading a fixed vertical gain over a much longer horizontal distance --
effectively reducing the hill's steepness, and so reducing the minimum power
output required to climb up it with losing control or stopping.
The zig-zag path also offers some different opportunities to _add_ more
propulsive work and power for the climbing. I found this out when I wanted
to do this long steep climb on a rental bike that didn't have low gears.
There was supposed to be an exciting descent on the other side that I wanted
to try, but I knew I was going to have to "cheat" to get to the top without
lots of walking. It was a remote area on a mid-week day with little car
traffic, so I decided to try some "tacking". And that helped make it easier,
as expected.
In the midst of the climb I got the idea that I could take some burden off
my leg muscles by directly "throwing" the weight of my upper body up the
hill. While riding mostly sideways across the hill, just as I started my
turn to go the other way, I swung my shoulders sideways up the hill. And
that made it easier to pedal thru the turn -- which is the tough part of
tacking up a steep hill. This worked for me while pedaling either standing
or sitting. So I did those upper body move lots more. Then my abdominal
muscles got tired from doing all that the sideways "tossing" -- it's not
something I trained for. So I went back to simple pedaling, then did some
more sideways tossing again later.
With this new tool, now I can take on even steeper climbs, I thought. So the
next day I decided to try the east side of Colle dell'Agnello on the
Italy-France border. It's the third-highest paved mountain pass in Europe,
used in the Giro d'Italia recently, sustained steeper than Stelvio (and much
steeper than Alpe d'Huez), also an automated time-trial course. Until that
day it was unimaginable that I could survive climbing it on a rental bike
lacking ultra-low gears. I started early in the morning, very little
traffic, and when I reached the sustained steep part I started tacking
again, and some of the "sideways shoulder-tossing" move -- and then I
thought to try another move:
While pedaling sitting going diagonally across the road, just at the start
of the turn to go the other way, I pushed my hand down on the uphill end of
the handlebar, and pulled my hand up on the downhill end of the handlebar --
which pushed my wheels directly sideways in the direction diagonally down
the hill -- sort of "sweeping" the wheels under me from the uphill side to
the downhill side (thus toward the outside of the turn I was going into). It
definitely helped me get thru the zig-zag turn more easily. It felt really
different to be pushing the wheel directly sideways. And it was fun to play
with: different timing of the start and finish of the move relative to the
turn, mixing it with the "sideways shoulder toss", standing versus sitting,
tighter higher-frequency zig-zags. I was the first rider up to the pass, and
I felt so good I rode part of the way down the other side into France and
climbed back.
This second "wheels side-sweep" move is different from tilting the bike from
side while standing, because that purpose of that standing move is to add
more force thru the _legs_ pushing on the pedals and drivetrain to help the
wheels roll forward. This "wheels side-sweep" move also works while pedaling
sitting, and transmits force thru the frame and axles directly to the wheels
to push directly sideways, not thru the chain and cogs to roll forward. The
physics is more like _skating_ than normal bicycling.
On my descent I went by the other cylists climbing the "correct" way,
straight up the road in low pedaling frequency, and there was no doubt it my
mind that cheating with those strange moves was just more fun.
Ken