Cyclists: what kind of RPM are you doing uphill?

Recreation Cycling
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I’ve done a couple dozen rides around some mountains around Taipei, mostly around the Nangang and Neihu areas. Some hills have some really steep climbs and I’m just trying to grind out whatever I can to get up.

I’ve seen some YouTube videos about riding at a high (90 rpm) cadence and I get nowhere near that going up hills. I’ll get maybe 50 rpm going up Jian nan road if I’m trying to go for a max effort. I’m wondering if I should swap out my gears.

What kind of RPM can you do up hills? Have you tried swapping out your gearing? How did it impact your ride?

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I bought a bike with customized swapped-out gearing twenty years back. It never worked for me - no matter how many times I went to shops, the gears never shifted properly all the way through. Sorry, I don’t remember the tech specs. That experience made me wary of swapping out gears.

Up steep hills, I dunno, but I’m definitely grinding in the bottom gear that came with my current bike. Very low RPMs I’m sure!

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70-90 works for most and I stick between 70-80. But, there are a lot of hills in Taiwan that you do just have to grind up unless you are super fit or very light.

My compact gearset was fine for almost anything Taiwan threw at me. It’s been a long time since I looked but there might be more flexible gearset options available now.

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Yeah, I’ve read or seen in videos that there are various compatibility issues to consider, like frame and derailleur width. I’d definitely defer to a shop for giving me options and doing the job. I’m just wondering if it’s a pipe dream to cruise up Leng Shui Keng at 90 rpm.

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Having a compact gearing is a big help but it is also about the gradient and also the weight of your body & bike as well. A lot of those youtube videos are with very experienced and lean dudes with a 6.5-8.5kg bike.

I have 11-32T in the back and I forget the sizing in the front, but I think it is compact (made for going uphill). I just started cycling this year (steel frame) and starting out into the mountains (2 months ago) I was around 50-60 cadence. Now I am around 75-80 cadence with 5-10% gradients…once it gets steeper I usually don’t have the efficiency or leg strength to sustain 70. And if it is like 15% I’m out of the saddle grinding with no energy to look down at my gps to see the cadence.

Having a LBS get you into something made for going uphill will do wonders for your RPM.

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I got started recently as well—last year. I think my frame is composite, it’s a used Liv (women’s) bike. It’s decently light, but the gearing might have been set up for someone much lighter than me. I’m a dude in the 65-70 kg range, so I’m definitely not pushing the power to weight ratio of those YouTubers.

At 10+% gradient I’m in a similar boat, mostly trying to stay upright, but also trying to stay below max effort so I don’t blow out. I don’t know too much about particular gearing equipment, i.e. compact vs not, 11-32T. Any good resources I should brush up on first? Or just go to my local bike shop?

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If you are near Taipei Bike Works that’s where I got my bike (built) and they can help for sure. But I’d assume any friendly LBS can help you sort it out. I know some places only want to work on bikes they sold.

First, ‘count’ the number of sprockets on the biggest ring in your rear cassette just so you know what you got. And on your chain rings in the front it should have it printed…like 50-34t or 52-36t.

This is super obvious, but riding more often in the mountains will help you improve your cadence drastically. One thing that helped me is to use my glutes more and less reliant on my quad muscles. But I’m really newbie and usually end up using my quads too much. Still trying to figure it all out also.

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This article seems like it might help explain. Suffering on the hills? Find out how to get lower gears to make climbing easier | road.cc

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It’ll get better as you get fitter don’t worry. 10%+ gradients are tough going for anyone, and never really get easier, you just get faster.

As suggested above, check your gearing and if you already have compact setup focus on your fitness. Also worth checking your in a reasonable position on the bike, saddle height etc.

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Don’t be hard on yourself, it’s not your fault. Road bike gearing ratios are designed for pros or super fit amateurs. No matter how hard cycling industry tries to tell us that anybody can spin the legs like Froome with something like a 34-32. It is not true. A lot of people, specially those who are new to the sport, would find very hard to climb gradients over 12% with a 34-32 without stopping at some point, let alone spinning.

As others have told you, check your gearing. If the smallest chainring is anything higher than a 34, and/or the bigger rear cog is anything smaller than a 32, you have the wrong gearing for Taiwan climbs (unless you have pro cycling level).

Ideally, you want something even smaller than 50-34 in the front. The problem is that, in most cases, that requires changing your cranks (expensive) and some frames won’t even allow installing something like a 46-30 because they are designed for 53-39.

In the back, 34 or 36 is the biggest than Shimano and SRAM rear derailleurs officially support (not all models). With the newer Shimano rear derailleurs, there are people using 11-40T MTB cassettes without further mods, but Shimano does not recommend it. Although they are pretty conservative with their recommendations.

I think with electronic gears you can mix and match MTB and road components (with Sram for sure). So, some people use MTB rear derailleurs and cassettes with road shifters if they require those gearings. With mechanical shifting, you cannot do that (at least not with Shimano).

Smaller cranks can also help you to increase your cadence (the rpm of your legs). Again, bike brands usually offer a very limited selection of sizes because of economic reasons. This is something that you can check too. Specially if you ever change your cranks.

Oval chainrings can also help, although I am not so sure about this.

In the end, you should try to keep 70 rpm, at least, while climbing. I usually am around 80 while climbing. 90 or more is hard for me to maintain on climbs, even if I have the gears to do so. I am riding 46-30 front and 11-34 back. Of course, no matter what, when you are climbing gradients of 20% or more, you just do what you can.

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Excellent advice.

There’s one very short segment I do every once in a great while with about a 20% gradient. Right in the middle of the that at probably the hardest part is a metal drainage grating thing. If it’s even a little damp or if you’re timing is off (always standing up on the saddle at that point, by the way), you’ll spin on that and lose what very little momentum you had. You will have to unclip quickly before you fall then walk your bike about 20 meters to a little flattened part of the road to the side of main road to get started and clipped in again. The segment really messes with my mind.

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Where?

In Taiwan, as soon as you leave the main roads, there are some crazy roads out there. Not as crazy as the hikking trails, where they apply the rule that says that the shortest route between two points is a straight line, but still it’s very easy to find yourself in the 20s%.

Anyone have done this goat road? 25.159895, 121.534724 I am half curious half afraid about it.

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It’s at the end of the segment “wimp climb, my ass”:

https://www.strava.com/segments/18310287

Strava tells me that it’s up to 22.6% at one point. Must be where that grating is! And yes, I know there’s lots of crazy hills around Taipei but this is the only crazy one I attempt.

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Inkedstrava screenshot_LI
Inkedstrava screenshot_LI1257×414 84 KB

I wonder if it is right around here where I circled? Two weeks ago I went further up and the gradient was pretty nasty and only on that part was the road wet. I was out of the saddle and about a quarter of the way up I spun my wheel and fell on my left side. I did not have an audience, but I did pack up my toys and decided to just head back down rather than tempt fate once more. :laughing:

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Bear in mind the 34-32 combo is relatively new. Ten years ago most bikes would only have 24 or 26 cogs on the smallest back gear by default.

It’s people like Froome who have lead this change, and he was laughed at for adopting gearing that is close to MTB gearing. Post EPO though he had no option. Starve himself to become a skeleton and spin like mad to get up the steep stuff. Go back and look at Armstrong on the big climbs…totally different style of pedaling.

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I never counted… but I never bike uphill. I can maybe do a lower grade of up to 5 degrees but more than that I’m walking.

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Ha, ha! Yes I have done the same once on that hill. I can’t tell from that map if it’s the same segment. Maybe someone else can figure things out. At the top of Xiding Road after completing the “wimp climb” continue on about 50 meters, then a sharp left up and up (almost 180 degree turn the opposite direction). And just pray that you make it past that grating. I actually pause my pedaling for a second but that can dangerous as well on that gradient.

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This was helpful. I found a bunch of numbers in different places on the crank set. I think I have a 50-34. (Other labels were Shimano SG-X 10X-50F, 9S/10S 34F)

In the back I counted 12 teeth and 27 teeth between the smallest and largest. The stamped label is Shimano Hyperglide CS-5600, and 12-27 seems to be a matching configuration. The smallest and largest gears are stamped 12T and C3.

I also checked out the link you shared and found a gearing calculator in there, so I might play with that. My head is starting to spin looking at all these model names and numbers though. So maybe I’ll ask my local bike shop :sweat_smile:.

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A local bike shop will help you find a rear cassette that is compatible. I’d keep the 50-34 in the front rings and in the back get something with ~30-32 teeth. It will make a big difference.

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Perfect. These numbers are just what I was looking for with this thread. Thanks to all the responses in this thread, and extra thanks to @best_intentions and @Membrillo for the specific gears to look for!

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