- [Man 1] Unless you live at a bike park with uplifts, you're going to have to ride
to the top of the hills.
- [Man 2] For the majority of us, we spend more time pedaling to the top of the
trails than we do descending.
- So let's show you the basics of climbing, and allow you to enjoy all
aspects of mountain biking.
- [Man 3] Try that.
♪ [music] ♪
- Climbing can be broken down into three main parts. Long, non-technical climbs
on fire roads or deep tracks, short, punchy, non-technical climbs,
and finally, technical climbing on rocks and routes. This is the most challenging
type of climbing, because it requires the greatest amount of concentration,
forward planning, and a number of other general mountain bike skills to finesse
yourself up the climb.
- The right gear selection is a major consideration, especially if you live
in the mountainous regions.
- Choosing the ever-popular two-by setup or the old trusty three-by setup will
offer you a wide range of gears, allowing you to monitor your effort and get to the
top of any mountain.
- If you have fairly strong legs, or live in flat and rolling countryside,
the chances are, you will be able to get away with a one-by setup,
therefore allowing you to get rid of those excess chain rings and your shifter,
saving you a little bit of weight.
- Anything from a 30 to 36 chain ring and a wide-range cassette should have you
covered for everything.
- I have a 34-tooth chain ring on this bike with an 1140 cassette that allows me
to climb up most things.
- Further to-gear ratios or other bike setup things are going
to help your bike climb better. A lightweight hardtail with low
handlebars is great for going uphill. On slightly rougher terrain,
a full suspension bike will give you better traction on the rear wheel,
and those low handlebars help keep that weight forward, and keep that front wheel
on the floor.
- Some bikes give the option to play around with the geometry to affect
how a bike goes up or downhill. My bike is set on the low setting at the moment,
so it's great for going downhill. If I flip this around the other way to put it
high, it brings the bottom bracket up, and makes the head angle a little
bit steeper, but it keeps a bit more weight on the front tire but also gives
you that bit more clearance for the higher bottom bracket to pedal
over obstacles.
- Pacing climbs is something that really comes with experience.
What you don't want to do is set off too fast and find that you blow up halfway
and need to stop for a rest. I like to warm into a climb, and then I
know if I'm feeling good, then I'm able to make a push towards the top.
- We're here at quite a technical climb. Donny's coming into it,
and he's changing, making his gear selections early. As you can see,
he's in quite a high gear, so not to lose traction, and keep the power consistent.
So we're here on the same climb again. Neil's approaching at an easier gear.
Flags [SP] are spinning much faster, and you can see that he's struggling
to carry momentum.
- Short, steep, punchy climbs like this are going to need power to get up.
There's no two ways about it. So you are going to get blowing and into the red
quite quickly. Quite often, the best way is to stay seated, keep your bum over the
back tire, and just drop your chest to stop that front wheel
from wheelying [SP]. Sometimes, you're going to have to stand up to get the
power down to get up it. In that case, be careful with your weight
[inaudible 00:03:27] it's really easy to spin out the back tire when you're
stood up cranking.
A nice feature of a lot of modern trail bikes is the remote lockout lever.
My Scott's got one, and it goes from 170 mil [SP] travel to 135 to fully
locked tight. Fully locked tight is also really nice and efficient for climbs.
You get that power through the pedals. But occasionally, I'll stick it on that
middle setting, especially when it's rough, so that my rear shock opens
up, and I can get traction when it's bumpy. The fitter you are, the faster
you'll get to the top of the hill, but also, the easier you'll find
the really technical parts.
- Having the energy to master technical sections or steeper parts of the trail
when your heart rate's not max will become far easier.
- The stronger your aerobic engine becomes, the tips that we've covered
in this video will become much easier.
- If you want to see more videos on GMBN, you can click up there for how to ride
a self-fitter on a normal trail ride. And if you click up here, that will get
you through to our climbing challenge.
- Down there, folks. He's got his pointing all up and down wrong.
- It went there.
- And then you click over there in the middle. You can click subscribe.
- Just click anywhere over here. You'll get to the good stuff.