Hi guys,
I joined recently (around 1 year and a half) the biking sport and i own a hybrid/city bike, Giant Escape 1 fitted with GP5000 700CX28mm clinchers (upgraded from the 32mm Giant stock tires), which im using for touring/exercising. At the beginning, it was very hard to ride on hilly areas and surely after quiet some time, it started to get a bit easier. I currently feel comfortable with a 40 to 60 km uphill ride, where the altitude gain ranges between 1500m and 1800m.
The problem is that im stuck on my lowest gear combination (26 tooth chainring and 34 tooth sprocket) as soon as i hit a climb of 10% gradient or more, whereas im capable to use a 36/34-30 combination when facing a 4 to 8% climb.
So my main question is what exercises will help me use say a 36 tooth chainring with a 34 or 30 tooth rear cog when going into a 10% gradient climb? In other terms, what will help me get out of my slowest gear combination when attacking "steeper" climbs.
P.S.
- The bike is equipped with a Shimano Acera 26/36/48 chainring and with a Shimano HG30 11x34 9 speed cassette.
- The bike weight is around 11kgs and i weigh a hefty 85 kgs (i know loosing weight will help me a lot during biking, especially climbing, but lets omit this option for now
)
-Cant switch to road bikes due to lower back pain issues.
Waiting for your valuable inputs.