Gear shifting question
191
Member
436 days
sasquatch posted 17 weeks ago.
Gear down before the hill so that you can climb while seated and still aero. The only time I will come off the aerobars is when I'm already in my granny gear, or when i need to brake.
588
Member
441 days
jnrice posted 17 weeks ago.
you have bar end shifters because that is where you spend (or should be spending) most of your time. you should only come out of your aero bars when you are going slow enough that they no longer have an aerodynamic advantage. in the case of hills, you should probably be climbing in them for the most part until you slow down (down shifting as needed during the climb). After you've dropped below 14-16 mph you can go to your base bar and just read in to shift if you need to, but by that time you are moving slow enough that bike handling shouldn't be a huge issue. It does require some thinking ahead in the case of coming into hard corners, but that's the price you pay to not have to leave them for the majority of your ride. I hope this made some sense. Make sure you practice climbing in your aero bars as well as reaching from your base bar to shift before race day.
80
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583 days
tritoride28 posted 17 weeks ago.
Have you been correctly fit for your bike? One thing I found after I was fit properly was that I could hold out on the hills longer in the saddle and on the aero bars than I could when I was not posisitioned correctly. Other wise, plan ahead or get used to riding with one hand on the base bar and the other reaching to shift.
491
Member
860 days
stewarba posted 17 weeks ago.
Thanks for the help. Yes, I was fitted for my bike. Its not that I can't ride up hills in aero, but being from Charleston were there is literally no hills for training, I have gotten caught a couple of times were I ended up transitioning to my base bar and then wishing I had shifted down a little further before coming out. I was hoping there was a quick trick.
Pain is the sensation of weakness leaving the body!
This is probably a dumb question, but here it goes. Last year I bought a P2C, which I love. It has the bar end shifters which are obviously optimal for aero riding, but what do you do on a hill? Generally when I'm climbing a hill and I have to come out of the saddle, I'm holding on to the base bar and cannot easily change gears. So what is the optimal way to shift gears in this situation? Trying to go from the base bar to the aero bar to shift gears while cranking up the hill is a pain. What's the trick?
Pain is the sensation of weakness leaving the body!