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Hill Climbing Trike

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Hill Climbing Trike

Old 05-21-19, 06:38 PM
  #26  
Juan Foote
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I haven't one bit of experience with the type of hills you are talking about...however, I did own (2) Catrikes for several years and rode them extensively around my local area. It's REALLY flat in comparison to what you are talking about, but lots of what I would call rollers around. Short distance steep (to me) hills that my personal conditioning and physical issues caused to make unrideable.

To start the bikes had triple front and can't recall, whatever the stock selection on the back was. I opted to change the rear cassette out to a lower gear inch range and it still wasn't enough. I added a SRAM internally geared hub with a low, medium, and high setting on top of that. I ended up with gear inches such that pedaling at ~60RPM resulted in going all of about 2MPH. It made where I could have crawled up a vertical with the thing so long as I could keep rear wheel traction. The wife and I both appreciated it greatly. It ended up not being so much an issue of conditioning as patience.
I understand that in addition to that, you can add a "mountain drive" style crank system that has the ability to lower your gear inches even more. I would imagine that it would be possible to get an even lower speed at RPM with that setup.

Something else to keep in mind, while on a tangent about trikes. The musculature required for riding a bent/trike is completely different than riding a DF. People call it "bent legs". I would highly suggest you give yourself a good few months of dedicated riding on one before setting out on a journey.
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Old 05-22-19, 12:49 PM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by Juan Foote
Something else to keep in mind, while on a tangent about trikes. The musculature required for riding a bent/trike is completely different than riding a DF. People call it "bent legs". I would highly suggest you give yourself a good few months of dedicated riding on one before setting out on a journey.
Thank You.

BikeCalc.com has a neat gear chart versus speed. My "granny gear" 30x36 with a 26" tires gives 5.4 mph at 90 cadence. I can drop down to 40 (don't like doing that to my knees but can be done) which is 2.4 mph. You can get up long steep hills doing that if you have the stamina.

On a DF I don't use my calves as much, much more thigh work. Long hills I always rode out of the saddle as much better mechanical advantge — that and much easier to peddle on the upstroke. So riding the Catrike is quite a different experience and muscle groups. I did my bike-run yesterday, back in the pool today. I am trying to work out what muscles to use for what event to keep me going and not cramping. New workout, but good for me to keep pushing it.

I want to do the Ride Across Iowa. So tempted this year, not enough vacation time and need to keep at this swim-bike-run before Santa Cruz, CA in August. Still, 2020 should be a god and time to get my 'bent legs' used to long distance and a few hills. (In my youth I made that crazy Northern California Markleeville loops. Yes I was insane back then, too).
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Old 05-22-19, 02:37 PM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by roundrocktom
Thank You.

BikeCalc.com has a neat gear chart versus speed. My "granny gear" 30x36 with a 26" tires gives 5.4 mph at 90 cadence. I can drop down to 40 (don't like doing that to my knees but can be done) which is 2.4 mph. You can get up long steep hills doing that if you have the stamina.

On a DF I don't use my calves as much, much more thigh work. Long hills I always rode out of the saddle as much better mechanical advantge — that and much easier to peddle on the upstroke. So riding the Catrike is quite a different experience and muscle groups. I did my bike-run yesterday, back in the pool today. I am trying to work out what muscles to use for what event to keep me going and not cramping. New workout, but good for me to keep pushing it.

I want to do the Ride Across Iowa. So tempted this year, not enough vacation time and need to keep at this swim-bike-run before Santa Cruz, CA in August. Still, 2020 should be a god and time to get my 'bent legs' used to long distance and a few hills. (In my youth I made that crazy Northern California Markleeville loops. Yes I was insane back then, too).
Be aware also that prolonged trike riding leads to beards, bit of a gut, and goofy smiles. It's part of the package in which your bent legs arrive in.
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Old 05-23-19, 03:04 AM
  #29  
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Man, drop that 30t granny, get a 24t with Sturmey Archer CS-RF3 3 speed. Remember to breathe deeply when climbing on a trike. Breathe deeply, lay back as far as your seat will allow, gear down, and climb the hill.

Speed be cursed to the wind. Let the roadies have all the speed they want. I actually want to enjoy my ride uphill, stop and get video footage with my camera, not look at my chainrings all day.
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Old 05-24-19, 09:25 AM
  #30  
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I don't enjoy climbing and I want climbs over and done as soon as possible.
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Old 06-26-19, 10:55 PM
  #31  
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I wanted to be able to climb hills more efficiently, there's lots of steep and really steep hills in my area. I changed out the 30 tooth granny gear for a 26 tooth (26-42-52) on my Catrike Expedition and at the cassette (11-36) I installed a 42 tooth replacement gear, had to remove one gear, I chose the 17t....with this combination I can almost climb trees (haven't actually tried to yet) but slowly...low but slow wins the hill climb on a trike
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Old 06-27-19, 05:51 AM
  #32  
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The toothpick comes out clean; this thread is done.
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