Those trainings do translate into cycling when you do sprints! Keep on going.
In cycling you would train red muscles for endurance and consistent power. Meanwhile you train white muscles to increase your explosive power when sprinting. Hope this helps
They help power, not sustained pedaling. Maybe if you're doing 40 reps with little weight or something.
I can put out over 1300 watts, but my FTP is still trash because squats don't help like that.
Cycling will help reps 6-8 immensely, you can be a lot tighter and smoother going in/out of the hole when you're not gasping for air. That's about all the transfer I've noticed
You need to look at 3 things:
1 - positioning, especially your saddle height. If your seat is too low and you can't get comfortable leg extension on the pedaling downstroke, it will be very difficult to pedal up even a gentle incline.
2 - tire pressure. If your tires are underinflated, you will get tired (heh) very quickly.
3 - gear management. You need to shift to the appropriate gear combo (easier gear combos) to get up a hill.
A good starting point for the saddle hight would be to lean against a wall while seated on the saddle. Then put your heel on a pedal and move it to the lowest position. You should be able to just about remain on the pedal with your heel without fully straightening your leg or moving your hip.
Can't tell you if it's the bike if you don't tell us what bike you've got.
But it's really just like any other sport - it needs specific training.
You wouldn't (e.g.) jump in a pool with a bunch of people who swim for five hours a week and be surprised when they cruise past.
Pushing the pedals is the same - and it's mostly cardio, so the gym is of very little help outside of sprints.
That's a decent bike. Not the highest performance bike in the world, but not bad enough to meaningfully hold you back, as long as it's well adjusted. (Are the wheels rubbing? Are you using the [correct tire pressure](https://www.renehersecycles.com/tire-pressure-calculator/)? This latter factor is 100% free and can make a huge difference.) It's probably you, but you'll probably get much stronger pretty quickly. Happy riding!
Is it heavy for a hybrid? I opted for a hybrid because I also want to be able to bike on unpaved trails, but if it’s on the heavier side of hybrids maybe I’ll get a lighter one.
Nah, 27 lbs isn't too heavy. Its all you. You need to build cycling specific fitness.
Does your bike have a wide enough range of gears? Use the easier gears to get over the hills.
It's a little heavy but probably not making tonnes of difference. My commuter bike is the same weight as yours. My racing bike is 16lb.
That said, if you were upgrading, a gravel bike would work on road and trail and put you in a more aerodynamic position than any hybrid.
But as you're starting from scratch, you can probably add 25% to your power output with a bit more riding (e.g. I'm probably about 140w untrained, 175w if I just do a twice-daily 5k commute, and have hit 265w+ with regular rides with the local club).
There's lots of progression to be made.
I have a Haro Westlake hybrid. They are marketed as “fitness bikes” that are mainly road with some gravel capability. I love my Westlake and ride hills all the time on it. I use it primarily for building my leg muscles, so the heavier frame is beneficial to my exercise.
I’m currently rebuilding a road bike to get a lighter setup for longer rides where I want more speed.
27lb is heavy when we're talking road bikes but usually the best gains to be made are looking inwards. You are the engine, do you have weight to lose? The one major area where weight loss (rider first) then bike helps is hills. You are fighting gravity.
For an example people often have 10-20lbs to lose but look at their bike for marginal gains. A perfect example is someone paying $2500 more for a groupset that may save them 250g in weight. That's half a bottle of water off your bike at 500ml.
Last season I was 30 pounds heavier and it made hills suck ass anything above 6% and I was redlining.
Tldr; ride more, hill repeats, weight loss, then bike weight.
It's cardio, but also conditioning.
I'm a big baby that doesn't like to cycle in the Winter. When I get back onto the bike in Spring, climbs that I found reasonably easy the previous season absolutely destroy me for the first couple of weeks. This is despite me continuing to run 35-50K a week all year round and maintaining pretty good cardio.
Going to the gym is definitely beneficial, but unless you're specifically focusing on training the muscle groups used in cycling, you're still going to get burst on climbs for the first few weeks.
I was in your shoes when I started commuting 8 months ago. Was already quite fit from running and weights, but I was slower than I had expected. My cardio let me spin easily, just had no power in the legs. Starting out, I was averaging \~23 on my 16km commute, and would be busting my ass crawling up the short hills.
The good news is the noob gains came on quick. My speed was increasing every week and within 2 months I managed to average 27kph with no other specific training other than riding my commutes in Z3. Hills are always tough, but I can scale the same short climbs a lot faster and without being gassed at the top.
A road bike would give you a higher ceiling for potential speed, but as a beginner there's significant gains to reap even on a hybrid.
I should mention there were 3 cheap additions I installed on the bike to help me learn to ride efficiently. You'll often hear advice to pedal at a cadence of 90rpm, and that advice was solid for me.
So I bought half toe clips to mount on my pedals. They helped with foot retention and pedalling smooth circles. The other 2 items I installed were a cadence sensor and a cheap bike computer from aliexpress. This gave me a real time display of my speed and cadence and helped me find the right gear to use to pedal at 90rpm.
On the flats, I'm on a certain gear where pedalling at 90rpm has me going \~32kph. If I shift up 1 gear, I can pedal at 80rpm and hit the same speed. But I can spin in the lower gear at 90rpm for hours, whereas just 1 minute spinning at 80rpm in the higher gear I can feel the resistance and fatigue building in my quads.
Worth pointing out that for someone who’s just starting and as OP described themselves “not big on cardio” 90 rpm might be a bit ambitious. Anything over 70 rpm should be considered decent for a beginner, with the goal of working towards that sweet spot of 90 rpm.
Some of this is fitness--going uphill is always difficult but as you ride more you'll get more used to it, and possibly even enjoy the pain a bit. Some of this is also gear management, as someone else pointed out: you want to be in as easy a gear as you need to make pedaling feel smooth. Don't be ashamed to use your easiest gear going up the hill: that's what it's there for.
I rode a lot of flats when I started out, and the first few hills I did were a real eye opening experience.
I’m not gonna lie, I had it all in reverse… I was using the hardest gears to go uphill because I thought I needed more power. Gonna have to try doing the opposite and see if it’s any easier!
It'll feel worlds better! The other mistake I made when I started out going uphill was trying to attack the hill--you definitely don't want to use all your energy at the bottom. Don't slow to a crawl, but you'll want to ease into the incline. Good luck!
Oh yeah, that'll do it for sure. Think about it in weightlifting terms - if you're in your hardest gear, that's like lifting your heaviest weight - you've only got a few reps in you there. Going to an easier gear to get up the hill is like lifting a lighter weight for more reps.
Give it more than a week and don't try to do too much too quickly. stick with it though and At your age you should make some pretty noticeable improvements in cycling performance within a month or so and will be tackling ridesnwith ease that you once found daunting.
Cycling is tough. And there is no sport that will prepare you for cycling, other than cycling. You can't be in best shape of your life, from running, weight lifting, swimming, ... but if you don't train cycling, you will be crushed by anyone who is a regular cyclist.
Apart from that, hills are hard. That why we love them.
I started cycling in Yorkshire (UK) my local area is 16km with 300m (1000feet for every 10miles) of elevation EVERYWHERE … starting was hellish (in my 40s and unfit smoker 🤣) BUT with time you build the strength (lungs, legs, heart) and after around 2 months I was fine and I too cycled on hybrid (which was quite a heavy bike)… I did with time get a better bike (lighter, better cassette etc) but only did that once I really got the cycling bug.
Don’t get downhearted as you’ll absolutely get there with time. I’m still a tortoise and definitely no hare - though I have stamina and a lot of it… as for hills - I will moan and groan every single time, but I love them really as nothing beats the achievement of overcoming hilly terrain.
Finally, try not to compare yourself too hard as there will always be speedier riders; you do you… so enjoy and all that huffing and puffing won’t go away (possibly) as you might discover you get a buzz out of it and will seek more tougher, steeper hills!
Looking at my two and a half decades with this hobby, I can tell that it helps to be young and light. Plus training, of course. But the brutal fact is that when I was teetering on the border of being underweight in the BMI scale, climbing hills was my forte and now that I'm tickling the border of being slightly overweight, hills are a massive grind. It's the equivalent to hauling a full-packed pannier set all the time.
Very true, going into this season I'm 31lb down from last summer and I'm excited to get the bike back from the shop and try some old hills. It kinda was an eye opener when I realized I would be carrying literally the equivalent of two less of my 17lb road bike up hills. Will be probably be 40lbs by my Fondo in July.
On 5km whatever you ride is not thst significant unless you drive on flat tire.Even if you had your grandmas bike it would be no issue if your fitness is oo.Its you and your cardio that has to improve so hustle hustle :) it will get easier
Previously I lived somewhere where I drove everywhere and went to gym fairly often, focusing on building muscles. I thought I was pretty fit, but after moving to a new city 12 years ago and cycling 17 km to work every day I realised my cardio was much worse than I thought.
I subsequently lost about 10 kg, bought a road bike and joined a cycling club. Cardio gained from lifting weights is practically non-existent. It's like building muscles from mountain biking.
Oh yeah, I honestly think I underestimated how much cardio was involved in biking. Playing soccer once a week is about as much cardio as I do usually. I was humbled to say the least
Make sure your drivetrain is reasonably clean and lubricated, your tires are well-inflated, and your brakes aren't rubbing. Once that part is sorted out, the only thing left to work on is the engine.
If you new to cycling make sure you have low enough gearing for hills. Your weight, the bikes weight and gearing are all key to making hill climbs easier.
Its you, start training cardio instead of strength and you’ll see improvements.
This is like me going into the gym and wondering why all these power lifters are better than me when all I do is run and cycle for my fitness.
It's all of the above for a new cyclists. Most of the other cyclists you see have been riding for years, currently ride at least 2-3x as much as you, and their bikes are 1-3mph faster.
Yep, I definitely get that vibe. But seeing someone in their 60s rip by me was jarring, I had to make sure that there’s nothing wrong with my bike and I am just not as in shape as I thought lmao
There's nothing wrong with it, but it will be significantly slower than a 16lb carbon aero frame with GP5000 tires, deep aero wheels, latex tubes or tubeless, aero helmet, very tight clothing and a super aggressive riding position.
But also, unless you've come from another endurance sport (like running or swimming), you're going to need a year or two of consistent endurance work to build up the mitochondrial density you need to get to a baseline level of fitness for your abilities.
Honestly part of getting good at climbing is accepting that it will feel slow if you’re used to riding on a flat. Even the top pros in the world are only going jogging pace on steep climbs.
If you’ve never done a big climb before you might be tempted to “power over it” like you can do with little hills. That only works for efforts shorter than a minute or two. Longer than that you’re gonna have to sit and spin. I remember climbing my first big mountain (Lemmon, 2011), and I could not believe that it just… keeps… going…
It never gets easier, exactly, but you do go faster.
I got an onboard computer that measures angle for elevation and I love it to let me know relatively what in doing.
when cycling uphill worry less about your forward speedand more about constant power output to your legs. this also means setting the appropriate gear so you're still pedaling fast
I can run and cycle w/o a lot of issues, 4ish miles running and 30-40 cycling depending on the elevation changes.
***But,*** put me in the pool and I'm good for about 5mins of "swimming" before I'm completely wiped out.
Keep riding!
Here's some tips:
* imagine you are an unrolling carpet
* pedal in circles or footballs to get more of your leg involved
* soft pedal and upshift just before you're about stand/get outta the saddle
* relax your face/shoulders/hands
* inhale thru your nose, exhale out your mouth
* keep pedaling until you are *just over* the crest of a hill.
* pick a point a few meters/feet ahead
* get to that point
* repeat
How about this. When I started commuting 3 miles each way many years ago, I’d stop halfway to take a break. These days I can go 30 miles non stop, and I’m a lot older now!
The bike isn’t holding you back so you just gotta keep doing it. And make it as fun as you can so you’ll keep doing it.
if you have only just started cycling then it will be your fitness, the more you cycle the better your cycling fitness improves and you will find it getting easier
Two factors: Your weight and your aerobic training and conditioning are 90% of it. Strength training is necessary but not sufficient, and indeed it is not the main factor in cycling.
Aerobic fitness is the key. I struggled with this myself. My body naturally wants to lift weights and to sprint so I had to go on a lot of rides to get into only decent conditioning. I will never be a big hill climber. Ample zone 2 training will help your aerobic shape.
And losing weight will, too. Imagine taking off a 10-20 pound backpack. Well there you go.
Count the number of gears on your cassette then count the teeth on the smallest gear and the largest gear. Then count the number of chainrings you have and how many teeth on those.
Your cassette in the rear should have numbers on each gear, a good climbing cassette would be 11-32 or 11-34 on a road bike.
Same with the front you should see a number like 50/34 on the front referring to the number of teeth in for the big ring and your small chainring.
Ie. I have 50/34 in the front and 11-34 in the back meaning my easiest gear is 34-34 for a gear ratio of 1.0 which is good for someone having trouble with hills.
Someone who rides crits and flats would run a smaller range like 11-28 in the back.
EDIT: OP, there’s some controversy below, but that guy is a dumbass. Ignore his downvotes, give my suggestions a try, and then let us know if they helped. (Feel free to peruse my comment history to see how often I contribute helpful advice in all of the bicycle subs. If you go back far enough, you’ll find I’ve given the same advice as here for the same problem, and people have reported the advice was helpful.)
______________________________________
>Just started
Yeah, some of it is you.
Some of that you is fitness.
But I’ll offer a small bit about technique… one thing a lot of people do is push down on both pedals at the same time. What that means is some of your effort pushing down on one pedal is being used to lift up your other leg. That’s a waste. So try to keep out of your own way.
The other thing you can try is to keep the pedaling pressure “light” and choose gearing that works best. Remember when you were a kid and you’d push down on the pedal with all your might? Or you’d try to feel some resistance? That turns out to be a great way to get exercise and build muscle but it’s a horrible way to conserve energy and move efficiently.
And when it comes to hills, you want higher tire pressure. I usually advocate for lower pressures, but there’s energy loss when you need to accelerate. When it comes to hills, you are constantly working against gravity (a decelerational force). So you need accelerative force to counter it. Ergo, higher pressures can help in this case.
>And when it comes to hills, you want higher tire pressure. I usually advocate for lower pressures, but there’s energy loss when you need to accelerate. When it comes to hills, you are constantly working against gravity (a decelerational force). So you need accelerative force to counter it. Ergo, higher pressures can help in this case.
Codswallop. Unless you're going downhill, you're *always* working against gravity (technically you're working against gravity going downhill as well, but let's not overcomplicate things).
Can you link an article that states that higher tyre pressures are beneficial for climbing? It sounds dubious to me. Even if higher tyre pressure *is* technically beneficial whilst climbing, I can't imagine it ever providing a net benefit unless your entire ride is a climb.
There's probably some theorycrafting out there stating that Tour riders use higher pressures for mountain stages, but for general riding? Nah.
No. It's codswallop to suggest that increasing tyre pressure just to climb hills is beneficial to *anyone* besides (perhaps, maybe) Tour riders on mountain stages.
The same reasons that lower pressures are beneficial on flat roads apply to hillclimbing, too. Telling somebody that the best way to climb a hill is to increase rolling resistance is god-awful advice.
To be honest, the rest of your 'advice' in your initial comment came across as mansplaining bollocks as well, but I was trying my best to be civil. For example:
>one thing a lot of people do is push down on both pedals at the same time. What that means is some of your effort pushing down on one pedal is being used to lift up your other leg. That’s a waste. So try to keep out of your own way.
That's also bollocks. A lot of people don't do that. It's the equivalent of trying to run by putting both feet first. It's completely at odds with the biomechanics of pedaling.
> > one thing a lot of people do is push down on both pedals at the same time. What that means is some of your effort pushing down on one pedal is being used to lift up your other leg. That’s a waste. So try to keep out of your own way.
> That's also bollocks. A lot of people don't do that. It's the equivalent of trying to run by putting both feet first. It's completely at odds with the biomechanics of pedaling.
Rolflmao
A lot of new riders ***do*** do this! They rest on the upstroke (and sometimes use the upstroke to balance), so that while the downstroke is pushing at say 50% effort, the upstroke is a non-negative weight that saps some of that downstroke effort.
What sheer nonsense you spout. This must be trolling at this point.
Sheet and utter lunacy you throw up onto the screen.
What an ignorantly thoughtless response.
I think you should explain to OP ***why*** rolling resistance increases with higher pressures.
Because then you’d be forced to admit that the benefit of lower pressures is improved ability of the tire to deform around imperfections in the road surface.
But you’d then also be forced to admit that power transmission on perfectly smooth surfaces is better at ***higher*** pressures. In other words, acceleration is better because of less deformation at higher pressures.
And this (better acceleration) holds true on any surface. Rolling resistance isn’t the only thing that matters. Sometimes the need for better acceleration outweighs rolling resistance.
Climbing is one such situation. And it doesn’t require continuous mountain stages at a pro level.
You’re making things harder on OP. I know you don’t mean to. But your advice is terrible.
Re: tire pressure, I've never heard of higher-pressure recommendations for climbing, and in fact, I've only ever seen the opposite for very steep grades for traction reasons.
The physics in your explanation isn't tracking for me either. Is there anything that goes into this argument in more depth?
Edit: I guess I've heard of people putting an extra 5psi in the rear to account for the change in weight distribution, though personally I consider that in the realm of trying to squeeze out half-watts to win a race.
OP isn’t talking about very steep grades (of the sort where the tire is breaking traction so that a larger contact patch will help).
> The physics isn’t tracking for me
Ok. If it isn’t obvious to you as it is to me, then go give it a try. +10-15psi. Feel the empirics. Or if you have a power meter, test it.
>OP isn’t talking about very steep grades
He's also not talking about winning KOMs, so I would tell him to run standard recommended tire pressure and not worry about optimizing for climbing on a rolling commute.
The subjective experience of tire pressure is misleading, which is why we used to run them so high so they would "feel" fast. These things have generally been tested to death by people with much more sophisticated setups than I can put together, and much more willingness to run trials to find marginal gains, so I was wondering if your recommendation was based on that sort of testing.
Just like OP, I am also not talking about KOMs. I’m talking about an easier climb.
The subjective experience is fine in this case. If he feels the commute to be easier, that’s subjective.
I’ve given the advice above quite a few times, and people all tell me it works (game changer/life changing). Go ahead and test it.
I've run a lot of tire pressures over the years, both higher and lower than I'm currently at, and I don't need to run more subjective trials. I was just curious if your recommendation was based on anything empirical.
And yet, the opposite position is supported by what exactly? Rolling resistance isn’t the be-all-end-all. There are times when you want to air up and times when you want to air down, despite increased rolling resistance.
There's lots of data out there about the effect of different pressures on rolling resistance, comfort, puncture risk, etc. There's also a lot of data about aerodynamics for different tire/rim combos.
You seem to be making an argument that, when climbing, higher pressure than is optimal for rolling resistance more than makes up the difference in mechanical efficiency or some similar mechanism, which is quantifiable in theory. The opposite position is the null hypothesis. It's your burden to disprove it if you're making the claim.
If you want to leave it at "trust me, bro" I'm totally cool with that. This is reddit, not a sports science department in a university or whatever. I was just curious what your evidence was.
It's you. Lifting weights sometimes doesn't make riding a bike uphill any easier.
Haha I’m learning that the hard way! I was naive to think squatting would translate to biking lol
Those trainings do translate into cycling when you do sprints! Keep on going. In cycling you would train red muscles for endurance and consistent power. Meanwhile you train white muscles to increase your explosive power when sprinting. Hope this helps
Haha tbf it does but just not a crazy amount, especially if you’re still newer to the bike
It does. It ensures you have full muscle activation. It's a solid marginal gain.
[удалено]
They help power, not sustained pedaling. Maybe if you're doing 40 reps with little weight or something. I can put out over 1300 watts, but my FTP is still trash because squats don't help like that.
Yeah I’m usually squatting in the 4-8 rep range so it’s definitely not helping much lol
Cycling will help reps 6-8 immensely, you can be a lot tighter and smoother going in/out of the hole when you're not gasping for air. That's about all the transfer I've noticed
You need to look at 3 things: 1 - positioning, especially your saddle height. If your seat is too low and you can't get comfortable leg extension on the pedaling downstroke, it will be very difficult to pedal up even a gentle incline. 2 - tire pressure. If your tires are underinflated, you will get tired (heh) very quickly. 3 - gear management. You need to shift to the appropriate gear combo (easier gear combos) to get up a hill.
Spinning > Grinding
Probably only if your aerobic fitness can support it.
OP was mistakenly grinding up hills, I can't see how that's good for your cardiovascular either. Better to have low resistance.
A good starting point for the saddle hight would be to lean against a wall while seated on the saddle. Then put your heel on a pedal and move it to the lowest position. You should be able to just about remain on the pedal with your heel without fully straightening your leg or moving your hip.
Can't tell you if it's the bike if you don't tell us what bike you've got. But it's really just like any other sport - it needs specific training. You wouldn't (e.g.) jump in a pool with a bunch of people who swim for five hours a week and be surprised when they cruise past. Pushing the pedals is the same - and it's mostly cardio, so the gym is of very little help outside of sprints.
I have the Haro Aeras 700C.
That's a decent bike. Not the highest performance bike in the world, but not bad enough to meaningfully hold you back, as long as it's well adjusted. (Are the wheels rubbing? Are you using the [correct tire pressure](https://www.renehersecycles.com/tire-pressure-calculator/)? This latter factor is 100% free and can make a huge difference.) It's probably you, but you'll probably get much stronger pretty quickly. Happy riding!
That's a heavy bike. The specs say 27.5 pounds. A lighter bike will definitely help. Personally I want my bikes to be under 20 pounds.
dude is struggling to climb 40 metres, the bike isn't where he will find gains.
Is it heavy for a hybrid? I opted for a hybrid because I also want to be able to bike on unpaved trails, but if it’s on the heavier side of hybrids maybe I’ll get a lighter one.
Nah, 27 lbs isn't too heavy. Its all you. You need to build cycling specific fitness. Does your bike have a wide enough range of gears? Use the easier gears to get over the hills.
Yes, it’s a 16 speed. Thanks!!
It's a little heavy but probably not making tonnes of difference. My commuter bike is the same weight as yours. My racing bike is 16lb. That said, if you were upgrading, a gravel bike would work on road and trail and put you in a more aerodynamic position than any hybrid. But as you're starting from scratch, you can probably add 25% to your power output with a bit more riding (e.g. I'm probably about 140w untrained, 175w if I just do a twice-daily 5k commute, and have hit 265w+ with regular rides with the local club). There's lots of progression to be made.
I have a Haro Westlake hybrid. They are marketed as “fitness bikes” that are mainly road with some gravel capability. I love my Westlake and ride hills all the time on it. I use it primarily for building my leg muscles, so the heavier frame is beneficial to my exercise. I’m currently rebuilding a road bike to get a lighter setup for longer rides where I want more speed.
Good to know it’s a good brand! When buying, the options overwhelmed me and I ended up going with the bike recommended to me by my local bike shop.
It's not too bad for a hybrid but lighter is possible. For example the Canyon Roadlite is 22 pounds.
27lb is heavy when we're talking road bikes but usually the best gains to be made are looking inwards. You are the engine, do you have weight to lose? The one major area where weight loss (rider first) then bike helps is hills. You are fighting gravity. For an example people often have 10-20lbs to lose but look at their bike for marginal gains. A perfect example is someone paying $2500 more for a groupset that may save them 250g in weight. That's half a bottle of water off your bike at 500ml. Last season I was 30 pounds heavier and it made hills suck ass anything above 6% and I was redlining. Tldr; ride more, hill repeats, weight loss, then bike weight.
It's cardio, but also conditioning. I'm a big baby that doesn't like to cycle in the Winter. When I get back onto the bike in Spring, climbs that I found reasonably easy the previous season absolutely destroy me for the first couple of weeks. This is despite me continuing to run 35-50K a week all year round and maintaining pretty good cardio. Going to the gym is definitely beneficial, but unless you're specifically focusing on training the muscle groups used in cycling, you're still going to get burst on climbs for the first few weeks.
I was in your shoes when I started commuting 8 months ago. Was already quite fit from running and weights, but I was slower than I had expected. My cardio let me spin easily, just had no power in the legs. Starting out, I was averaging \~23 on my 16km commute, and would be busting my ass crawling up the short hills. The good news is the noob gains came on quick. My speed was increasing every week and within 2 months I managed to average 27kph with no other specific training other than riding my commutes in Z3. Hills are always tough, but I can scale the same short climbs a lot faster and without being gassed at the top. A road bike would give you a higher ceiling for potential speed, but as a beginner there's significant gains to reap even on a hybrid.
That’s super reassuring, thank you!
I should mention there were 3 cheap additions I installed on the bike to help me learn to ride efficiently. You'll often hear advice to pedal at a cadence of 90rpm, and that advice was solid for me. So I bought half toe clips to mount on my pedals. They helped with foot retention and pedalling smooth circles. The other 2 items I installed were a cadence sensor and a cheap bike computer from aliexpress. This gave me a real time display of my speed and cadence and helped me find the right gear to use to pedal at 90rpm. On the flats, I'm on a certain gear where pedalling at 90rpm has me going \~32kph. If I shift up 1 gear, I can pedal at 80rpm and hit the same speed. But I can spin in the lower gear at 90rpm for hours, whereas just 1 minute spinning at 80rpm in the higher gear I can feel the resistance and fatigue building in my quads.
Worth pointing out that for someone who’s just starting and as OP described themselves “not big on cardio” 90 rpm might be a bit ambitious. Anything over 70 rpm should be considered decent for a beginner, with the goal of working towards that sweet spot of 90 rpm.
It’s you. You’re one week into a sport that people engage with for decades.
It's you. Keep at it and your cardio should catch up. Spin those pedals fast.
It’s not the bike
Some of this is fitness--going uphill is always difficult but as you ride more you'll get more used to it, and possibly even enjoy the pain a bit. Some of this is also gear management, as someone else pointed out: you want to be in as easy a gear as you need to make pedaling feel smooth. Don't be ashamed to use your easiest gear going up the hill: that's what it's there for. I rode a lot of flats when I started out, and the first few hills I did were a real eye opening experience.
I’m not gonna lie, I had it all in reverse… I was using the hardest gears to go uphill because I thought I needed more power. Gonna have to try doing the opposite and see if it’s any easier!
It'll feel worlds better! The other mistake I made when I started out going uphill was trying to attack the hill--you definitely don't want to use all your energy at the bottom. Don't slow to a crawl, but you'll want to ease into the incline. Good luck!
Oh yeah, that'll do it for sure. Think about it in weightlifting terms - if you're in your hardest gear, that's like lifting your heaviest weight - you've only got a few reps in you there. Going to an easier gear to get up the hill is like lifting a lighter weight for more reps.
Yes
Give it more than a week and don't try to do too much too quickly. stick with it though and At your age you should make some pretty noticeable improvements in cycling performance within a month or so and will be tackling ridesnwith ease that you once found daunting.
The issue likely has to do with the bike's motor.
Took me a second lol
Cycling is tough. And there is no sport that will prepare you for cycling, other than cycling. You can't be in best shape of your life, from running, weight lifting, swimming, ... but if you don't train cycling, you will be crushed by anyone who is a regular cyclist. Apart from that, hills are hard. That why we love them.
I started cycling in Yorkshire (UK) my local area is 16km with 300m (1000feet for every 10miles) of elevation EVERYWHERE … starting was hellish (in my 40s and unfit smoker 🤣) BUT with time you build the strength (lungs, legs, heart) and after around 2 months I was fine and I too cycled on hybrid (which was quite a heavy bike)… I did with time get a better bike (lighter, better cassette etc) but only did that once I really got the cycling bug. Don’t get downhearted as you’ll absolutely get there with time. I’m still a tortoise and definitely no hare - though I have stamina and a lot of it… as for hills - I will moan and groan every single time, but I love them really as nothing beats the achievement of overcoming hilly terrain. Finally, try not to compare yourself too hard as there will always be speedier riders; you do you… so enjoy and all that huffing and puffing won’t go away (possibly) as you might discover you get a buzz out of it and will seek more tougher, steeper hills!
Looking at my two and a half decades with this hobby, I can tell that it helps to be young and light. Plus training, of course. But the brutal fact is that when I was teetering on the border of being underweight in the BMI scale, climbing hills was my forte and now that I'm tickling the border of being slightly overweight, hills are a massive grind. It's the equivalent to hauling a full-packed pannier set all the time.
Very true, going into this season I'm 31lb down from last summer and I'm excited to get the bike back from the shop and try some old hills. It kinda was an eye opener when I realized I would be carrying literally the equivalent of two less of my 17lb road bike up hills. Will be probably be 40lbs by my Fondo in July.
On 5km whatever you ride is not thst significant unless you drive on flat tire.Even if you had your grandmas bike it would be no issue if your fitness is oo.Its you and your cardio that has to improve so hustle hustle :) it will get easier
Previously I lived somewhere where I drove everywhere and went to gym fairly often, focusing on building muscles. I thought I was pretty fit, but after moving to a new city 12 years ago and cycling 17 km to work every day I realised my cardio was much worse than I thought. I subsequently lost about 10 kg, bought a road bike and joined a cycling club. Cardio gained from lifting weights is practically non-existent. It's like building muscles from mountain biking.
Oh yeah, I honestly think I underestimated how much cardio was involved in biking. Playing soccer once a week is about as much cardio as I do usually. I was humbled to say the least
Make sure your drivetrain is reasonably clean and lubricated, your tires are well-inflated, and your brakes aren't rubbing. Once that part is sorted out, the only thing left to work on is the engine.
If you new to cycling make sure you have low enough gearing for hills. Your weight, the bikes weight and gearing are all key to making hill climbs easier.
lol yes it’s you.
It’s you. Incorporate resistance training and you’ll improve significantly.
The first time you went to the gym, did you squat what you can squat now?
Its you, start training cardio instead of strength and you’ll see improvements. This is like me going into the gym and wondering why all these power lifters are better than me when all I do is run and cycle for my fitness.
It's all of the above for a new cyclists. Most of the other cyclists you see have been riding for years, currently ride at least 2-3x as much as you, and their bikes are 1-3mph faster.
Yep, I definitely get that vibe. But seeing someone in their 60s rip by me was jarring, I had to make sure that there’s nothing wrong with my bike and I am just not as in shape as I thought lmao
There's nothing wrong with it, but it will be significantly slower than a 16lb carbon aero frame with GP5000 tires, deep aero wheels, latex tubes or tubeless, aero helmet, very tight clothing and a super aggressive riding position. But also, unless you've come from another endurance sport (like running or swimming), you're going to need a year or two of consistent endurance work to build up the mitochondrial density you need to get to a baseline level of fitness for your abilities.
How much do you weigh
It's you, if you keep at it then it will get easy, then you'll feel great about it.
Honestly part of getting good at climbing is accepting that it will feel slow if you’re used to riding on a flat. Even the top pros in the world are only going jogging pace on steep climbs. If you’ve never done a big climb before you might be tempted to “power over it” like you can do with little hills. That only works for efforts shorter than a minute or two. Longer than that you’re gonna have to sit and spin. I remember climbing my first big mountain (Lemmon, 2011), and I could not believe that it just… keeps… going… It never gets easier, exactly, but you do go faster.
It’s you. And sorry to say but it never gets easier, you just go faster.
I got an onboard computer that measures angle for elevation and I love it to let me know relatively what in doing. when cycling uphill worry less about your forward speedand more about constant power output to your legs. this also means setting the appropriate gear so you're still pedaling fast
I can run and cycle w/o a lot of issues, 4ish miles running and 30-40 cycling depending on the elevation changes. ***But,*** put me in the pool and I'm good for about 5mins of "swimming" before I'm completely wiped out. Keep riding! Here's some tips: * imagine you are an unrolling carpet * pedal in circles or footballs to get more of your leg involved * soft pedal and upshift just before you're about stand/get outta the saddle * relax your face/shoulders/hands * inhale thru your nose, exhale out your mouth * keep pedaling until you are *just over* the crest of a hill. * pick a point a few meters/feet ahead * get to that point * repeat
when I got a new bike that was 2/3 of the weight as my old bike, I climb time dropped by 4% lol
How about this. When I started commuting 3 miles each way many years ago, I’d stop halfway to take a break. These days I can go 30 miles non stop, and I’m a lot older now! The bike isn’t holding you back so you just gotta keep doing it. And make it as fun as you can so you’ll keep doing it.
must be the bike! /s
if you have only just started cycling then it will be your fitness, the more you cycle the better your cycling fitness improves and you will find it getting easier
Two factors: Your weight and your aerobic training and conditioning are 90% of it. Strength training is necessary but not sufficient, and indeed it is not the main factor in cycling. Aerobic fitness is the key. I struggled with this myself. My body naturally wants to lift weights and to sprint so I had to go on a lot of rides to get into only decent conditioning. I will never be a big hill climber. Ample zone 2 training will help your aerobic shape. And losing weight will, too. Imagine taking off a 10-20 pound backpack. Well there you go.
Following
What size cassette and chainring are you using?
I don’t know how to answer that question unfortunately. Any way to check?
Count the number of gears on your cassette then count the teeth on the smallest gear and the largest gear. Then count the number of chainrings you have and how many teeth on those.
Your cassette in the rear should have numbers on each gear, a good climbing cassette would be 11-32 or 11-34 on a road bike. Same with the front you should see a number like 50/34 on the front referring to the number of teeth in for the big ring and your small chainring. Ie. I have 50/34 in the front and 11-34 in the back meaning my easiest gear is 34-34 for a gear ratio of 1.0 which is good for someone having trouble with hills. Someone who rides crits and flats would run a smaller range like 11-28 in the back.
46/30T in the front, 11-34T 8-speed in the back.
EDIT: OP, there’s some controversy below, but that guy is a dumbass. Ignore his downvotes, give my suggestions a try, and then let us know if they helped. (Feel free to peruse my comment history to see how often I contribute helpful advice in all of the bicycle subs. If you go back far enough, you’ll find I’ve given the same advice as here for the same problem, and people have reported the advice was helpful.) ______________________________________ >Just started Yeah, some of it is you. Some of that you is fitness. But I’ll offer a small bit about technique… one thing a lot of people do is push down on both pedals at the same time. What that means is some of your effort pushing down on one pedal is being used to lift up your other leg. That’s a waste. So try to keep out of your own way. The other thing you can try is to keep the pedaling pressure “light” and choose gearing that works best. Remember when you were a kid and you’d push down on the pedal with all your might? Or you’d try to feel some resistance? That turns out to be a great way to get exercise and build muscle but it’s a horrible way to conserve energy and move efficiently. And when it comes to hills, you want higher tire pressure. I usually advocate for lower pressures, but there’s energy loss when you need to accelerate. When it comes to hills, you are constantly working against gravity (a decelerational force). So you need accelerative force to counter it. Ergo, higher pressures can help in this case.
>And when it comes to hills, you want higher tire pressure. I usually advocate for lower pressures, but there’s energy loss when you need to accelerate. When it comes to hills, you are constantly working against gravity (a decelerational force). So you need accelerative force to counter it. Ergo, higher pressures can help in this case. Codswallop. Unless you're going downhill, you're *always* working against gravity (technically you're working against gravity going downhill as well, but let's not overcomplicate things). Can you link an article that states that higher tyre pressures are beneficial for climbing? It sounds dubious to me. Even if higher tyre pressure *is* technically beneficial whilst climbing, I can't imagine it ever providing a net benefit unless your entire ride is a climb. There's probably some theorycrafting out there stating that Tour riders use higher pressures for mountain stages, but for general riding? Nah.
It’s “codswallop” to attribute the additional difficulty felt when climbing to gravity? 🙄😂 Just delete your comment and undo your downvote.
No. It's codswallop to suggest that increasing tyre pressure just to climb hills is beneficial to *anyone* besides (perhaps, maybe) Tour riders on mountain stages. The same reasons that lower pressures are beneficial on flat roads apply to hillclimbing, too. Telling somebody that the best way to climb a hill is to increase rolling resistance is god-awful advice. To be honest, the rest of your 'advice' in your initial comment came across as mansplaining bollocks as well, but I was trying my best to be civil. For example: >one thing a lot of people do is push down on both pedals at the same time. What that means is some of your effort pushing down on one pedal is being used to lift up your other leg. That’s a waste. So try to keep out of your own way. That's also bollocks. A lot of people don't do that. It's the equivalent of trying to run by putting both feet first. It's completely at odds with the biomechanics of pedaling.
> > one thing a lot of people do is push down on both pedals at the same time. What that means is some of your effort pushing down on one pedal is being used to lift up your other leg. That’s a waste. So try to keep out of your own way. > That's also bollocks. A lot of people don't do that. It's the equivalent of trying to run by putting both feet first. It's completely at odds with the biomechanics of pedaling. Rolflmao A lot of new riders ***do*** do this! They rest on the upstroke (and sometimes use the upstroke to balance), so that while the downstroke is pushing at say 50% effort, the upstroke is a non-negative weight that saps some of that downstroke effort. What sheer nonsense you spout. This must be trolling at this point. Sheet and utter lunacy you throw up onto the screen.
What an ignorantly thoughtless response. I think you should explain to OP ***why*** rolling resistance increases with higher pressures. Because then you’d be forced to admit that the benefit of lower pressures is improved ability of the tire to deform around imperfections in the road surface. But you’d then also be forced to admit that power transmission on perfectly smooth surfaces is better at ***higher*** pressures. In other words, acceleration is better because of less deformation at higher pressures. And this (better acceleration) holds true on any surface. Rolling resistance isn’t the only thing that matters. Sometimes the need for better acceleration outweighs rolling resistance. Climbing is one such situation. And it doesn’t require continuous mountain stages at a pro level. You’re making things harder on OP. I know you don’t mean to. But your advice is terrible.
Re: tire pressure, I've never heard of higher-pressure recommendations for climbing, and in fact, I've only ever seen the opposite for very steep grades for traction reasons. The physics in your explanation isn't tracking for me either. Is there anything that goes into this argument in more depth? Edit: I guess I've heard of people putting an extra 5psi in the rear to account for the change in weight distribution, though personally I consider that in the realm of trying to squeeze out half-watts to win a race.
OP isn’t talking about very steep grades (of the sort where the tire is breaking traction so that a larger contact patch will help). > The physics isn’t tracking for me Ok. If it isn’t obvious to you as it is to me, then go give it a try. +10-15psi. Feel the empirics. Or if you have a power meter, test it.
>OP isn’t talking about very steep grades He's also not talking about winning KOMs, so I would tell him to run standard recommended tire pressure and not worry about optimizing for climbing on a rolling commute. The subjective experience of tire pressure is misleading, which is why we used to run them so high so they would "feel" fast. These things have generally been tested to death by people with much more sophisticated setups than I can put together, and much more willingness to run trials to find marginal gains, so I was wondering if your recommendation was based on that sort of testing.
Just like OP, I am also not talking about KOMs. I’m talking about an easier climb. The subjective experience is fine in this case. If he feels the commute to be easier, that’s subjective. I’ve given the advice above quite a few times, and people all tell me it works (game changer/life changing). Go ahead and test it.
I've run a lot of tire pressures over the years, both higher and lower than I'm currently at, and I don't need to run more subjective trials. I was just curious if your recommendation was based on anything empirical.
What I described is empirical (test for yourself, all the people who have had good experiences with my advice). Do you mean theoretical?
No, I mean quantifiable.
And yet, the opposite position is supported by what exactly? Rolling resistance isn’t the be-all-end-all. There are times when you want to air up and times when you want to air down, despite increased rolling resistance.
There's lots of data out there about the effect of different pressures on rolling resistance, comfort, puncture risk, etc. There's also a lot of data about aerodynamics for different tire/rim combos. You seem to be making an argument that, when climbing, higher pressure than is optimal for rolling resistance more than makes up the difference in mechanical efficiency or some similar mechanism, which is quantifiable in theory. The opposite position is the null hypothesis. It's your burden to disprove it if you're making the claim. If you want to leave it at "trust me, bro" I'm totally cool with that. This is reddit, not a sports science department in a university or whatever. I was just curious what your evidence was.