Hi Community. This is a ride I did past weekend after snow melted here in southern Ontario, Canada. Weather at the day was hovering around 0 +/-, very windy with wind around the 40 Km/h mark and occasional sleet at times.
My bike is a Trek Checkpoint ALR5. GRX group set with cranks having a 46 / 30 teeth and cassette being an 11 speed, 11 to 34 teeth.
That route had one somewhat short but very steep climb where I couldn't make it all the way up without dismounting, and the other fairly steep climbs I found myself zig-zagging a bit to help myself. Since I faced that 40Km/h wind, it didn't help either as even on a standard street uphill section I had to drop to the lowest crank range to be comfortable midway through the ride.
I'm an overweight 115 Kg guy, average rider as I commute on the bike everyday and occasionally go out for longer rides. But this is my first ride on my Checkpoint. I did this same ride before on my previous bike, Giant Talon hard tail. Since the mountain bike had a lower ratio, the climbs were tough but not as hard. Also, I had far less wind when I did it almost a year ago.
My question is: Should I just grow stronger legs and suck it up, or is there anything as tips to cope with steep hills?
Also, I'm curious if the strong wind was what ruined the uphill sections and helped drain my energy. I wasn't expecting this ride to feel so exhausting as it felt. I did longer rides before on mountain bikes that did not felt the same.
Should I also consider changing my cassette (Shimano 105 HG700-11) to go as high as a 40 or 44 teeth?
by Outrageous-Ground-41
8 Comments
The headwind doesn’t help, but weight is the biggest factor when going up hill. Hill climb racers will spend hundreds of dollars to save a gram or two here and there.
Gearing will help. You’ll have more mechanical advantage.
My advice would be to lose weight. Easier said than done, but if that’s a goal you have, make it a priority. It will make the biggest difference. Much more so than gearing or headwinds when going uphill. Short of that shift into your easy gears early and spin fast. It may feel uncomfortable but your lungs can outlast your legs.
You can’t officially get better gearing now because of your 2x chain wrap capacity, but you could maybe sneak an SLX 11-36 on there
Lose weight and bike more.
Throw a granny gear on there.
The nice thing is that you have a baseline now. Keep riding, and do this same section in a few months. You will see progress.
I’ve got the same GRX setup with a SRAM 11-36 cassette…major improvement. From there you have to jump up to an 11-40, which the derailleur will support. You’ll need a new chain for either.
As a fellow large 110kg rider with the same bike climbs are going to be pretty rough. Doing it more and building strength will help offset it but losing weight will make the biggest difference.
It took me a few months of training doing hill repeats etc…to get proficient at climbing to a point where I didn’t have to grind or walk them.
As others—and yourself—have said, lose the weight you can. Don’t change your bike until you do that.
This ride would be considered flat where I’m from. The wind is definitely a battle, but I don’t think it’s worth spending money until you have some sort of base level training and have shed some kilos. A few months from now this will be considered an easy ride.
Not to sound cliche but don’t overdo it in the training and don’t stress that you rode it in x amount of time one day and haven’t been able to repeat.
You still have to enjoy getting out or it’s not sustainable long term.
Hey I can see my house from here