shifting gears on a hill

Shift into a gear that lets you spin at the cadence you want, and shift into a smaller rear cog when about to stand.

Do you want to keep cadence up because of lactic acid buildup or you're reaching your unaerobic treshhold?

The only way I know personally is to accelerate like mad and make the change to a lower or higher gear. It depends how steep the hill is. If I know the terrain well I'll work my way up in the highest gear that's comfortable, accelerate and change down as it gets steeper.
I hate getting caught out by unfamiliar terrain though. In such cases I have to turn round, descend, lower the gears and then turn back round again and carry on.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by uncle al
need some ideas on shifting gears while into a hill that will continue for more than ten minutes. Would like to keep cadence up as much as possible. Let's hear it🙄 😕

Agree it's good to keep cadence up on the long climbs. I'll shift into the lowest gear I plan to use before the start. If I find I'm spinning easy with the top in sight, can always shift up to a bigger gear. Having a triple helps a lot here, since it makes for a lower, tighter set of climbing gears, as well as easier shifting while seated.

Of course, in my old bike, 39/26 bottom, there were no decisions on long grades.....just go into low, stand up and grunt it out.