need hill climbing advice

🙁

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since10
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since10 said:

🙁

Be patient man, you only posted just a few minuets ago.

Anyways, I am experienced with riding hills on a trials, basic 20" and
a coker.

Having long cranks will give more leverage to each pedal, so you'll get
more power to get up those hills. With shorter cranks, you can go
faster, but you'll have less leverage in the pedal to get you up the
steeper hills.

Its possible your out of shape a little, but keep unicycling and that
will change. =p

Also, when im riding up a hill, and once it gets hard for me, I put
weight down on the saddle with my hand, or both hands, and lean forward
a little more, then I really start to pedal. That always gets me up the
harder stretches. I'm almost standing up when pedaling, but only a few
hills around here have me doing that to get up them.

170s seem huge, I have never ridden with that size, so I cant tell you
how they feel. My coker has 152s and that is good enough for me to get
up the hills, and down.

Almost all my rides are as long as you have mentioned, usually a lot
longer. One of my routes, the first 5 miles is a long hill, then a
quarter mile stretch of flat, followed by 2 more miles of a even
steeper hill. Its a good route to train on.

And lastly, I don't use break on any of my unis, I haven't had the need
to, even on the steep steep stuff.

EDIT: Welcome to the forums!!! =p

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since10 said:

I have never been riding with another unicyclist so I have many
questions. When clinbing hills over 18% grade, What size wheels and
cranks should I expect to be using. My 700c with 170mm cranks is very
hard to climb these. On a 26 inch with 170's it is easier but the tire
only goes to 65psi and 80psi seems to be the minimum. Am I just an old
guy 50 pounds overweight and out of shape? Are other people climbing
up these types of hills easily? If so how are you doing it. What
should I expect to be climbing on my coker with 170mm cranks? When
other riders go for a hill climbing rides, are people going for 7-10
mile rides or more than that? Do riders use brakes on unicycles other
than their cokers. Is going down >18% grade without a brake standard or
foolish? THANKS FOR THE ADVICE

I'm a hill-climber. On my 36er, I've only used 150s which climb OK,
and now I have 125s, but they make the hills harder (duh!).

I've had the best success w/KH29 uni (29" wheel), Big Apple 2.0 tire
(maybe 45PSI) and 165mm cranks. The races I've done have not averaged
18% grade, but many of my training hills are over 20%. 'The uni record
on Mt. Washington was set with 29\" wheel/165 cranks, as well, by Mike
Tierney in 2005. He beat 200 bikers.'
(http://www.tinmtn.org/hillclimb/results_05/index.cfm)

Obviously the lighter everything is, the better, including you, the
rider. I'm 5'6", 150ish lbs, and the KH29 is around 14 lbs. I've
participated in several hillclimb bike races, which are linked down
below in my sig line.

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since10 said:

I have never been riding with another unicyclist so I have many
questions. When clinbing hills over 18% grade, What size wheels and
cranks should I expect to be using. My 700c with 170mm cranks is very
hard to climb these. On a 26 inch with 170's it is easier but the tire
only goes to 65psi and 80psi seems to be the minimum. Am I just an old
guy 50 pounds overweight and out of shape? Are other people climbing
up these types of hills easily? If so how are you doing it. What
should I expect to be climbing on my coker with 170mm cranks? When
other riders go for a hill climbing rides, are people going for 7-10
mile rides or more than that? Do riders use brakes on unicycles other
than their cokers. Is going down >18% grade without a brake standard or
foolish? THANKS FOR THE ADVICE

How long have you been riding, how hard are you riding, and what kind
of physical condition are you in? Hill climbing in my opinion is
definetely a workout, I have been practicing on some steep grades both
on road and off trying to build endurance and it is helping my overall
riding but I am nowhere near where I want to be yet but I am gaining
ground and it has taken a while. As for the 7-10 mile rides...the
answer is yes. I take my dog out 5-6 nights a week and do 4-6 miles on
my 36er but it is all flat ground, on the weekends (hopefully at least
1 day) I have been training primarily on hill climbing in preporation
for America's most Beautiful Ride
http://www.bikethewest.com/AMBBR.html
which is 72 miles around Lake Tahoe and those hills kicked my [censored] last
year and I only made approx 32 miles but this year I am on a mission to
make the full 72, hills and all.
Find a LONG hill with a medium grade and start off with maybe your 170
cranks and as you make the hill consistently drop to 150 cranks and try
again then maybe try a steeper longer hill or drop to 125 cranks, for
me hill climbing off road will kick my butt long before on the street,
so try longer rides and find some long hills and make a circle ride up
and down the hill til you cant go no more and if possible ride with
someone else either uni or bike, i think riding with others pushes you
more to not give up.
Good luck

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Cranks aren't your problem. You're using super long cranks, you should
be able to get up almost any road hill in the world on those.

Going up Arthur's Pass in New Zealand, with Ken Looi and Roger Davies.
This is a sustained 1 in 6 gradient (I think about 18%?) for a few
miles. I cranked up it slowly, with 150s on my 29er and just scraped
through. Roger went up on 150s on a coker. Ken climbed the last
section, which was one of the steepest bits, entirely on 114 cranks.
This was at the end of a 50 mile day.

Almost always (at least on road), if you can't get up a hill, it's
because of too much pie and not enough muscle, and the cure is to get
fitter and stronger. That's why Roger and Ken could get up there faster
than me, nothing to do with equipment. Darn them.

As for brakes, I ride brakes on my Schlumpf (45" equivalent diameter
wheel), but most of the coker riders on the SINZ tour were riding down
stuff as steep as you describe without brakes. Brakes are mostly for
going nutty fast on downhills and knowing that you don't have to keep
in control, because you have a brake to slow you down if need be. I
don't like riding down steep hills without a brake in high gear, cos
it's really easy to get out of control.

You should for sure find other unicyclists to ride with, it makes a
real difference to what you believe is possible, and what you'll have a
go at.

Joe

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Thanks Joe,

I tend to use shorter cranks than most people (I have short legs
though😄). On a Coker, most of my general riding would be on 110mm or
114mm cranks. That works well where I live, which is quite hilly.

On more sustained hilly terrain like on the Alps Unitour
(www.aut.unitours.org), I found 125mm cranks better. I recall quite a
few 10-20% gradients that kept on going and going!

On not so steep stuff the trick is to keep your cadence high and just
let the momentum carry you up.

For climbing really steep stuff (say 15% or more) the trick is to stay
relaxed and 'float' your way to the top. You'll waste energy if your
upper body is tense, or if both your legs and arms/head/upper body are
tense. Only the leg that's pushing down should be tense, and it should
relax as soon as it goes into the upstroke. You can get up just about
anything by 'floating' your way to the top. Also alternating from
sitting and standing position helps you keep the lactic acid from
building up.

On this years SINZ tour (www.sinzuni.org); on my first attempt riding
up Baldwin St (the worlds steepest street) I was so tense that I fell
off a meter from the top. My legs had turned to jelly from the lactate
build up- it was like doing the 100m sprint for 400m. On my second
attempt, I kept relaxed and just 'floated' my way up. Easy peasy if
you stay relaxed and don't go anaerobic 😉.

Ken Looi

p/s
Here's Tony floating up Baldwin St:

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Filename: Baldwin St gradient.jpg |
|Download: http://www.unicyclist.com/attachment/18032 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

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GizmoDuck said:

...Baldwin St (the worlds steepest street) I was so tense that I fell
off a meter from the top. My legs had turned to jelly from the lactate
build up- it was like doing the 100m sprint for 800m. On my second
attempt, I stayed relaxed and just 'floated' my way up.

OK, wow. That's a steep road. It's 800m long - what's the vertical
gain? That's awesome. I'd love to train on that thing.

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Ride, ride and ofter that ride more 😉 you'll get stronger and lose
weight at the same time.

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They are expensive because they use only the finest soft drink cans.

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When riding up really steep hills, do you go straight up or zig zag back
and forth? Straight up seems easier to me, than constantly changing
directions and grades. What do the hill climbing experts say?

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steveyo said:

OK, wow. That's a steep road. It's 800m long - what's the vertical
gain? That's awesome. I'd love to train on that thing.

Dunno if it's 800m long, what I was trying to do was compare a sprint
with something that is slightly more aerobic.
Baldwin St I think is probably closer to 400m long. Only the second
half is hilly. The peak gradient is about 35%.
http://www.ourshop.co.nz/baldwinstreet.htm

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Being able to get out of the saddle and stay in balance has helped me.
Learning to ride with the seat in front helped a lot --even practicing
on the flats helped on the hills. Really lean forward, and don't let
your knees stick out sideways, cowboy style.
I'm even older than you; I get to give worthless advice all I want.
Just ignore it, let me mutter to myself off in a corner, and we'll all
be happy.

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GizmoDuck said:

Dunno if it's 800m long, what I was trying to do was compare a sprint
with something that is slightly more aerobic.
Baldwin St I think is probably closer to 400m long. Only the second
half is hilly. The peak gradient is about 35%.
http://www.ourshop.co.nz/baldwinstreet.htm

35% - yummy.

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GizmoDuck said:

Dunno if it's 800m long, what I was trying to do was compare a sprint
with something that is slightly more aerobic.
Baldwin St I think is probably closer to 400m long. Only the second
half is hilly. The peak gradient is about 35%.
http://www.ourshop.co.nz/baldwinstreet.htm

Quoted message said:

Baldwin Street, at Dunedin's Northern end is reputed by the Guinness
Book of Records as being the steepest street in the world. 35%
gradient = 1:2.86 You are advised against taking a car up the street
so no cheating please. It is a very invigorating walk to the top on a
cold day. Only about a ten minute walk but you can sure feel it.
At its maximum, the slope of Baldwin Street is approximately (19° or
35%) - that is, for every 2.86 metres travelled horizontally, the
altitude rises by 1 metre.

If distance is 400m. then virtical rise is 139.9 m.

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skilewis74 said:

If distance is 400m. then virtical rise is 139.9 m.

You're using 35% as the average grade. It's not, it's the peak grade.

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im sure we have a steeper road over here. i went on it today and it was
horrendus.

how do i measure it to tell what the steepness is?

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On klass bills site i think he tells you how to make a clinometer.

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