Originally Posted by
Psychopasta
I’m a 65 year old rider getting back to cycling. I stopped when Covid hit and didn’t restart until now.
I’ve been reading a lot about zone 2 training and it makes a lot of sense to an old geezer who needs to lose weight and get fitness back. My problem is that I live in a very hilly area, and I can’t see me climbing some long steep hill, keeping to zone 2 and going fast enough to not fall off. What do other zone 2 peeps do when the road points steeply up?
One thing that's not to be taken for granted is having a low enough low gear. My road bike (2023 Trek Domane AL3) has a 1:1 low gear and for the really steep, long hills, it's not low enough for my weight, power level and muscle endurance.
When I was shopping for gravel bikes, I was leaning toward some with single (front) chainrings, but my one experienced cyclist buddy told me to look out for that. Sure enough, a lot of those bikes have a 1:1 low gear or just under. He changed gearing on his favorite road bike that he takes to Colorado every year to have something like a 0.75:1 low gear.
I wound up buying a belt-driven gravel bike with internal gear hub (Priority Apollo 11) and it was not easy to calculate the low gear, but my feeling was that it was a bit lower than my Domane, but not low enough. I ordered a smaller front pulley and fitted that, and now it'll do nicely.
The other option, (which you will get flak for here in the General forum), is an eBike. I have several and I love them. They make it so you work as hard as you want to. You want to really hit it? OK, just turn the motor off and you're pulling a heavier bike around. Exhausted and the headwind just picked up? Dial in some boost and at least maintain some minimum speed of your choosing. There are several members in my club who have gone to an electric road bike (usually some level of Trek Domane+) and they LOVE them. They allow them to keep up with the younger group they've been riding with for years and years. Or to be able to ride with ANY group, not just the slow & moderate groups.