GhostRider62

hour long steady 15% climbs are vry rare. I can only remember a couple in my whole life, they are out there.

if you could find one, doing it on a trike with a 7 inch gear would be a piece of cake. You could stop, lock the brake, have lunch, and continue on spinning at 90 rpm without any worry about balance. Can only speak for myself, this would be a zone 1 effort. Slow but the hill would be easy. How do you get such a small gear? Small wheels, large cog in the back and a Schlumpt mountain drive up front. Pretty common on trikes. The guy flaming the 84 year old should be given a time out by the mods. Ignorant and unnecessarily rude even for BF

rsbob 

Good to see you back at it. May have missed when you were able to get back on the bike, but it’s good that your health is permitting it.

canklecat

Yup, after nearly a year off the bike, I resumed riding this summer, once or twice a week for up to an hour. My mileage is way down, from up to 6,000 miles in previous years to 1,200 miles in 2021 and 600 miles this year. Even my jogging mileage is way down, although I'm walking more to compensate.

After raising the stems and handlebars on most of my bikes, I can sometimes manage 90 minute rides before the neck gets uncomfortable. But it's not so much the drop between saddle and handlebar as the alignment of my neck and back. If I didn't need to look up at the road occasionally I could handle my road bikes with slammed stems and 3" or more drop. It's the slight craning upward of my head that causes pain.

I might switch my Ironman back to the 90mm stem Robbie Tunes sent me a couplafew years ago. About two years ago I replaced that with a 120mm stem, but even with the bar raised nearly to saddle height it starts to get uncomfortable after an hour or two.

InTheSticks

Not that I am a billy goat, yes I have... we have an event locally called Horrible Hilly, I run a 11-26 and the last climb to the finish is long enough that I have had to get off to stretch and walk a few times, it was in my part pushing it too hard early on in the ride, not enough food/hydration to finish strong.
So I have no issue seeing anyone walk, been there myself.

BTinNYC 

Once, on the steepest part of a local hill (19%) I felt the front tire lift. The bolt of terror was memorable and I was WAY over the bars for the last bit of adrenalin fueled climbing.

adlai

Oh that is very interesting for me because that is precisely the kind of hill that I have in mind for ebikes.

And a Bosch mid should be ideal for that sort of hill. So you're saying that the gearing is not low enough? You mean the cassette?

fooferdoggie 

right the bike came with a 11-42 cassette but for the commuting and such I do the 11-32 has much better spacing. I wanted to try this hill with that cast but I have been too lazy its also like 900 feet of climbing with a lot of it 16 to 18% grade to get to it. a 2.5 mile right with 900 feet of climbing all of it in a mile or so. I have been debating on putting on a 42t chain ring so I can climb more efficiency but I don't really need it. I can do a 18% grade in tour and do 14mph if I feel good.

Carbonfiberboy 

I have walked up 2 hills, both of them when my wife and I were doing loaded touring on our tandem. One was steep gravel and the rear wheel just spun though we didn't fall. The other was 19% and we just blew up. The interesting thing to me in both cases was how hard it was to move the bike uphill, actually much harder than riding it had been, but because we were going so slow walking, our HRs were lower. We noticed other riders, not touring, who were walking their bikes up hills we had ridden up. This was in our mid-60s and neither of us is a strong rider. We just ride a lot. We did a pass climb between the Czech Republic and Germany, Pass Strasse, 15% IIRC. We just stopped every few hundred yards until our HRs became slightly reasonable, then had at it again. That said, it's way easier to start on a hill with a tandem than a single.

It also helps a lot to have good pedaling technique. An excellent training aid is to practice climbing some moderate hill in a huge gear, so that you are pedaling very slowly, say 50 cadence, and not moving your upper body or prying on the bars, just your feet going around. When I was training on a SS, I'd climb really steep hills at a 35 cadence, seated. Of course that means foot retention. No foot retention and you're walking.

Anyway, as I'm sure other have already said, gear your bike so you don't have to walk. On our tandem at 150 y.o., we have a 26 X 40 low gear. On my single, I have a 26 X 30 low gear. These are totally reasonable gears. I have a 24T granny ring for the tandem, but don't need to put it on . . .yet. The trick for gearing is to use a small chainring so that your cassette won't have huge gaps. IIRC, Machka once posted about riding loaded up a mountain pass in Colorado at 1.5 mph. That's probably a lower limit! It's still faster and easier than walking the bike. Bicycle calculators are very useful for figuring out what gear combo will enable you to climb That Hill seated.

rollagain

Yes. There are a few hills in my neighborhood that are so steep they should have stairs cut into them. They're not really hills, actually; the geniuses who laid out the roads around here just went straight up and down the sides of ravines, in one stretch, three or four in a row. It could qualify as a roller coaster. One has a name: Blister Hill.

adlai

I would think that the mid drive would mean that it could climb the hill on the 32t cog. I have a 34-42 low gear for hills like that but it is my pedal bike.

What happens when you try to pedal up? And the small front ring is 42 or something?

It seems even worse to also have to push an ebike up a hill.

GhostRider62

I walked 5 hills on one 300k brevet and that was in a PBP year. IIRC, I finished first. It was 100F with high humidity. Life is not always simple and sometimes a little compromise helps.

When I was young and foolish, I refused to walk until I hit a 25% hill in Wales when touring with 100 pounds. I came to a stop. Fell off. Rolled down the hill. It was raining and the road was slick. A motorist stopped and asked why I did not walk or take the road around the hill. The proper response would have been that I am young and dumb

fooferdoggie 

I climbed it I had to put out 450 wats if I could not keep it at 70 rpms and 520 or so if I could keep it at 70. my older Bosch I could only do 450 watts. I have a 46t chainring. I may put a 42 on it later. but I don't have the bike geared to spin on that steep of a slope. you need to put at 70 rpms to max out the motor.
I have a 18% grade thats about 1 block I go up daily. I can go up it fast and be lucky to hit 400 watts. I can go up it in eco or tour really well with my gearing.

adlai

450 watt from your legs or from the motor?

About what speed do you go up the hill in the photo?3

rsbob 

In Washington state, it is illegal to walk your bike up a hill if you have shaved legs.

fooferdoggie 

me I did 450 and 520. 520 about did me in going up that hill. heart got to 170bpm. it would be interesting using one of those calculators to figure total watts to climb such a hill then you can see how much the motor is doing. when I do around 520 I hit the max the motor can put out over time. I can do really short 600 to 700 bursts and it does not feel like the motor ran out but thats for only 10 seconds or so.. But I bet the motor is putting out 350 watts thats its nominal rating.
I forgot about speed. on the one bike when I did 450 watts I could only peddle about 40 rpms and went up around 5mph or so. at 520 I think it was 7 or 8 spinning at 70 rpms. somewhere around there.

tcs

Top hill walking tip: MKS or Wellgo quick-release pedals. Dismount, pop that pedal off and walk normally, close to the bike, ankle-bruise-free with no awkward lean.

Brocephus

I've recently found that I enjoy walking uphill a bit during rides. But, it's not because I cant ride it, but that the backs of my legs sometimes get really tight, and I've found that walking uphill, even just a few yards, stretches everything out and gives me brand new legs!! So lately, I'll recognize it, and maybe 1-2× per ride, just hop off on a steep incline,and walk up just a little ways, and all that tightness and discomfort goes away (it's almost bizarre how much even 20-30 seconds walk can help). Its probably age related (pushing 60 now), and my racing and hard training days are well behind me ,so im just riding for fun and cardio/weight control, with nothing to prove, so it works for me.

spelger

wait, you are doing 450 watts and the motor is doing 350 on a 22% grade and your only going 5 mph? I have experience climbing but something does not add up. I'll be the first to admit that my 22% experience is slim though.

adlai

It is something that I often think about while climbing a particular hill. It is about 40 meters I would say and the grade is like 30 in one section. I actually measure my fitness level by my ability to climb the hill in a bike. And since it sucks so much I've thought a lot about it.

I walked it today and overall I think it was okay. I didn't feel out of breath or very strained. My bike was light enough that I didn't mind pushing the bike. I think the physics have something to do with fighting backward roll of gravity making pedaling inefficient compared to walking.

tornado60

I walk at least one and maybe two most days on my commute. i can't afford to burn out and be slow for the rest of the ride.

PeteHski

5 mph is very hard work on a 22% slope. Bike calculator suggests it requires around 500W for an 80 kg rider on a 15 kg bike. People tend to over-estimate their climbing speed on bikes.

spelger

if i recall correctly i used a bike calc and found teh speed to be ~9mph @ 800W with similar weights. that made more sense to me.maybe the rider is a bit heavier.

PeteHski

Bike Calculator gives 9 mph for 800W with a 70 kg rider on a 15 kg bike. Speed drops to 8 mph for an 80 kg rider. That part is pretty simple physics and I see your point. 5 mph would seem slow for a genuine 800W output

In my limited experience of e-bikes they tend to stall out on very steep climbs, so probably not contributing 350W at that very low cadence. The above physics certainly suggests he is not making 800W total. Seems more like 500W unless weight is very high. My friend has an e-bike (Orbea road bike) and his definitely struggles on gradients above 20%. While he can easily cruise away from me on a typical 7 or 8% slope, I can actually pass him on very steep slopes above 20%.

1989Pre 

I'm just getting over corona-virus, so for my first time, I had to get off the bike (Rudge Sports) on a few hills last week. No problem. "Reality used to be a friend of mine..."

1989Pre 

"No! Thanks! I'm just letting the rest of the group catch up with me!"