I like Grant's similar solution to this, found on the Shifting page on rivbike.com:
"If you're grinding slowly up a hill and suddenly find that you need to shift: 1. Point your bike across the road (traverse) to lessen the slope. 2. Pedal hard for a stroke to get up a small bit of speed. 3. Pedal lightly and shift. It requires a small amount of skill, but the skill comes quickly and stays with you the rest of your life." I find the traversing part makes it easier to keep momentum on a steep hill while shifting. -nathan On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 4:11 AM, Steve Palincsar <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, 2010-08-16 at 20:37 -0700, Jim Cloud wrote: >> When you're shifting while climbing you really need to anticipate a >> shift and begin changing gears before the grade of the hill becomes >> steeper. If you're trying to shift with any substantial pressure on >> the pedals there's too much tension on the chain to allow the >> derailleur to move the chain up on the cogs. If you've gotten into >> the grade and cannot easily shift it's better to dismount and spin the >> pedals as you lift the rear wheel and move the shifter lever to get >> into a gear you can maintain on the grade. Keep practicing, it will >> become second nature to anticipate a gear change in advance of the >> increasing grade of a hill. > > It's curious, but using the original SunTour Sprint downtube levers as > bar end shifters, working 7 speed Hyperglide, I find rear shifting to be > substantially more accurate and positive if I shift with pressure on the > pedals than if I relieve the pressure entirely. This is quite the > opposite of what used to be the case back in the day of 5 and 6 speed > "straight cut" freewheels, which often balked at downshifting under > load. No load results in an inaccurate shift with some noise, while > shifting with a load results in a "KLUNK" and a perfectly accurate > shift. > > But even back then, we learned a technique for finessing a shift on a > hill, putting in extra effort to gain some momentum, then reducing the > pressure and shifting "in the lull". This became second nature, and > many of us continue to do it even when shifting index shifters and > Hyperglide. > > It's much better, in my opinion, to learn techniques like these than to > drop into an unnecessarily low gear at the sight of a hill, as so many > used to do back in the day. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
