[steelmole]

Can anyone give me advice for climbing hills. I'm absolutely awful at it, even little ones.

[Olyy]

Easiest gear, don't look down (as cliched as it sounds, i read this in a magazine, and tried it on a massive hill, and made it to the top)
Just push yourself to keep going, as if you stop you've got no chance of restarting properly
Also, try and get into gear before the hill, don't change on it

[Ducki]

Thread was a bit quiet, thought I'd shake the cage a wee bit.

Tour de France starts next week doesn't it?

[mdcrisp2000]

Set a new PB today

[Olyy]

49mph?
That's bloody impressive!

[Ducki]

49mph? I'd bottle it big style at that speed. If you have a spill, its like motorcycle injuries

I hope you weren't wearing white bibs

[BIG BAD BOB]

where were you riding to hit speeds like that?
I get the wobbles at about 25+.

[Ducki]

(Original post by BIG BAD BOB)
where were you riding to hit speeds like that?
I get the wobbles at about 25+.

Downhill, with a really really really small cassette.

[mdcrisp2000]

It was on the way to Tunbridge Wells from London (75 mile round trip).

It was down a pretty steep hill and it was me and my brother slipstreaming each other... you can get about an extra 5mph doing that. I beat him by 1mph . With 3 of us, we'd have easily hit 50. I was just spinning my pedals though... ran out of gears at about 45

My previous best was 47.8 in the Pyrenees.

Edit: If you look on google maps, find the A225 south of Sevenoaks; it finishes on a straight bit with a big roundabout at the end. I did it on the straight bit, going south.

[mdcrisp2000]

(Original post by Ducki)
Downhill, with a really really really small cassette.

I isn't that small... just a standard road bike cassette. I wanna invest in something smaller though. I wanna hit 60

[Ducki]

(Original post by mdcrisp2000)
I isn't that small... just a standard road bike cassette. I wanna invest in something smaller though. I wanna hit 60

Go for it. What cassette you running at the moment? I'm stuck with a (not that) cruddy Shimano Sora, and I run out of gears at about 38-40.

[mdcrisp2000]

I've got tiagra components. The rear cassette's 25/12 and the front crankset's 50/39/30. Anything better requires forking out a fair bit of cash and I have other stuff to waste my money on at the moment, so it'll be a while. I just need to find some steeper hills for now

[Keith Lemon]

I've been 54mph down a huuuugggee hill on my mtb, was pretty scary and was quite sure I was going to fall off , but didn't..

[mdcrisp2000]

(Original post by Keith Lemon)
I've been 54mph down a huuuugggee hill on my mtb, was pretty scary and was quite sure I was going to fall off , but didn't..

54 on fat tyres musta been pretty hairy!

[Keith Lemon]

It was! And the road later turned into a dirt track which was pretty rutted to my suprise, hahaha, so the brakes were pretty warm at the bottom, lol.

[jose]

Count me in for any soc/this pre soc thread. I mainly do road, which is a shame as i have a grands worth of marin full sus in my shed which never gets used But have been virtually sedentry for the last 6 months finishing uni/dissertationing etc. Now i plan to get into good shape over the summer and possibly try a race or two next year..

(Original post by Ducki)


Thread was a bit quiet, thought I'd shake the cage a wee bit.

Tour de France starts next week doesn't it?

Yay! It should be good this year with a very hilly route. Key men to watch are Cadel Evans, Valverde and Cunego with Andy Schleck as a bit of a wildcard. And Mark Cavendish from the Isle of Mann will be right up there in the sprints, and possibly challenging for the green jersey if he doesn't drop out to prepare for the olympics. If anyone else follows pro-racing then also count me in for banter, predictions, race reports etc..

(Original post by m i l o)
My brakes suddenly "adjust" themselves when I'm in the middle of cycling. Also when I'm on the very top gear the gears are so noisy it's unreal. It's a new bike too. Anybody familiar with this?

Gears on new bikes often need adjusting after a month or two (+/- months depending on how much it gets used) as the cables stretch. Usually decent shops offer a free first check up to do this kind of stuff so it might be worth taking it back to the shop. Or you could start messing around with the little screws on the front mech using a guide like this but i'd probably go for the shop route.

(Original post by steelmole)
Can anyone give me advice for climbing hills. I'm absolutely awful at it, even little ones.

Ride more hills! They always hurt but the more you ride them the better you get. Also, choosing a gear which allows you to ride sitting in the saddle is probably the most efficient way to go about it, but stand up every so often to stretch your legs. And try to ride smoothly and stay relaxed rather than flailing around. But the first one is the key, ride as many hills as you can if you really want to get better and ride them at different speeds and in different gears to find ones that suit you.

[wizard710]

(Original post by mdcrisp2000)
Set a new PB today

WOW, wish I could beat it but I don't have any hills big enough and long enough to get that fast

[Ducki]

(Original post by wizard710)
WOW, wish I could beat it but I don't have any hills big enough and long enough to get that fast

You can always pedal faster

[SoundDevastation]

*bump* as this has been approved as an official society whooooo.


now join!

click

[Ducki]

Joined!