45 minutes ride each way on a 10 year old Priority Classic with belt drive, 3 speeds and a coaster brake. Throwback setup.
Hills. Hills. Hills. One huge hill with walk of shame each way.
I'm in semi-rural N. Wisconsin. Commute includes a brief required excursion onto a dirt road to get onto the main road, then a paved hilly road around a lake. Then eventually get to town after going through a no- shoulder construction area.
I was fairly decent middle aged female olympic weightlifter with a masters' state record, but my "career" ended with a shoulder and hip injury with only boring gym workouts now, so have been trying new stuff, mainly mountain biking weekends and days off when it's nice. I'm not totally out of shape, in other words.
Decided to bust out my city bike that was covered in dust and give it a little love.
Guys… I dunno if I want to do a max effort cardio and quad burner workout every day bc need significant power to get up the hills, but I liked the general feeling of being on the road, listening to music in one ear, feeling alert and ready to go when I got to work, etc. There is no real way to avoid the worst hills due to construction and highways/ safety. My work day is 10-11 hours, so it's hard to exercise on my work days.
Should I
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Suck it up and pray for better fitness
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Get a low-wattage front wheel ebike conversion kit for the hills and this bike so I don't just give up (belt drive, needs front wheel kit)
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Get some other kind of lighter bike
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Drive and just mountain bike because wtaf
by EggosWithWine
4 Comments
It sounds like you love fitness and the feeling of biking so no need to quit now!
1. Fitness will definitely come
2. Real hills are no joke and you likely just need more gears to make it easier
3. Any option to sell this bike and use the funds to grab something used on marketplace that has more gears or ride your mtb?
4. Any reason why riding your mtb is unpleasant as your commuter? Is it the type of terrain? The bike isn’t comfortable? Etc?
I got an aventon soltera 2.5 to bridge the gap between wanting an old school bike and not wanting my quads to be on fire before my 12 hour work shift. I’d go for the e bike conversion or get a light ebike
Started as a normal commuter, lots of hills where I am. Kept ending up where I’m going covered in 💦. Decided to get a cheap e bike with some gears. Turned out to be a blast the bike stopped helping at 22 mph and I could get my workout getting it up to 25 to 28 mph. Made getting around hills soooo much more bearable. I ended up just hitting all the stuff that slowed me down before just to see. Definitely recommend. I now have a kind of diy kit that has been a blast. Definitely want more gears and low rolls resistance tires if u wanna stay anolog with big hills. The lighter the better. Gl!
The Priority Classic has a 46/22 cog setup with the Nexus 3 rear hub. The lowest gear is 42 gear inches (1.53 gear ratio) which isn’t the easiest to climb hills with. This is a suitable bike for flat areas with minor slopes.
You can certainly suck it up but getting a more hill ready bike might be worth looking into.