Originally Posted by
Mista Sparkle
I would just like to say that as someone from Illinois who has never gone up anything more than a short bump at more than a couple %, this thread is making me very uncomfortable. I'm used to 10' a mile, 15 is hilly...
Best of luck to you on this insanity!
Yes.
I grew up on the Jersey Shore, this is very flat. I moved to NE PA a while back 16 years ago. Right after moving I tried to ride my road bike in my neighborhood, just a few miles turned out to be an epic fail. So the extremely small amount of bicycle riding I did going forward was on the flat trails.
Got back into riding a year and a half ago, did a little bit of riding then thought what the heck and went on an organized 35 mile road ride. Three times I had to get off the bike and walk. This was June 2019. I then went back to riding flats.
Over the winter I started using a fluid trainer and a VR program. After about 3 weeks into this I started doing VR hills. Each week more and more. I was worried how that would translate into riding outside and was very concerned during my first ride in the spring. I'm doing 8-10% grades with a triple CR 52-42-30 and 11-26 freehub. I can do the 8-9% and even a bit harder using my 42-26 which is great because that gives me a 30 chain ring in reserve. For me at 62 it is heart pounding but quite satisfying. When I'm on a local hill and recall that just a year ago I would have never even tried to ride it it is a great feeling of accomplishment.
One thing I haven't figured out is going from my 42 chain ring to the 30 gracefully.