Originally Posted by
Paul_P
It certainly was according to usual recommendations. I adjusted so that my leg was almost completely straight and the foot down at the bottom, but without any hip rocking. So at the bottom of each stroke a final push with the foot (pushing at the ball of my foot). I found it easier to pull up (starting with the foot) from the very bottom this way, harder with the leg more bent. I was far from being able to put my heel on the pedal at the bottom. I was pretty comfortable in this manner and it felt powerful and I could ride like this for hours at a time. What I meant by it not being suitable for higher rpm is that there is a lot going on and it's harder to synchronize everything properly (though practice would certainly improve things).
Spinning faster, my body wanted to close up / tuck in more so I lowered the seat and moved it forward and tried it that way for a few rides. That put too much weight on my hands so I moved the seat all the way back to where it was.
All of this is geared towards getting up hills (as much as possible) with four panniers, a smallish rear rack bag and a handlebar bag. I'm in pretty good shape but my knees are a bit fragile from having been too exuberant running downhill in the rough convinced that I was still young and able.
I appreciate the help.
Yeah it sounds like too tall of a seat position enabled you to use muscles like walking up stairs. You might have knee problems if you continue that technique with the seat at the correct height. Try little adjustments maybe monitoring your breathing which is an easy marker for efficiency and effort. Dial the effort back so that pedaling at a slightly higher cadence is the goal, not applying the same torque AND higher cadence. Not knowing what kind of bars or angle your back is maybe try stetching out and suspendimg your back a little more so that your hands aren’t dead on the bars and you can hold the bars in a light grip. All this is experimenting to see what needs to loosen up for a higher cadence. Again I’m not talking about 90 rpm although that would be a fun thing to try sometime. This all playing around to see what little details add up to making hills more doable. I can say that doing the same thing faster/harder doesn’t work if the issue is technique.