Fanylion Mountain Bike Team
Official site of the Fanylion Mountain Bike Team. Includes mountain bike ride guides, gear reviews, bike maintenance, team reports and rider profiles of the Fanylion Racing Team.
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Climbing (Part 2)
Technical climbs often require less in the way of physical fitness but greater technical ability on the bike. A lighter bike is advantageous again, but the largest advantage is to be gained by having rear suspension, as the rear wheel will track the terrain and not be kicked out under power and lose traction.
It is important to assess the climb and decide which gear to be in. This is possibly the most difficult aspect of the climb and comes with experience. Having ridden the trail before is obviously an advantage, though different weather conditions can make a previously easy climb a torturous nightmare.
To further emphasise the importance of gear selection it must be remembered that it is difficult to change down a gear fast enough if you get caught out halfway up the climb. My personal way of dealing with this is to start the climb in the middle front ring and high up on the rear mech. If things start getting trickier halfway up the climb (and providing your front mech is set up just so) the quickest way to get down the gears is to simply dump the front mech into the granny ring, as this will change quicker than the rear mech. This may leave you spinning too fast however and your back wheel may spin out.
So, back to the assessment of the climb. It is important as you approach the climb that you look for a route up the ascent. Try to spot difficult areas of loose earth, wet roots and holes to be avoided. Also try to avoid large rocks, as these will be difficult to get over and more likely will snag your pedals. Look for areas of good traction such as dry roots and softer, loamy ground that your tyres can bite into.
Once you have chosen a route up and selected the best gear you need to adopt the best approach. Most climbs are better tackled with some momentum behind you to aid climbing. Others are best tackled in a slower, more methodical manner, but most benefit from momentum.
As you climb, keep the power down and keep looking at the ground in front, re-assessing your route all the time and feeling the ground through your rear wheel to detect any slippage or spin. If you come up against an obstacle that you cannot roll over you will have to lift your front wheel up onto it, then hoist your weight forwards, pulling the bike up and over the obstacle.
Suspension bikes undoubtedly climb better than hardtails, and by keeping the power down you will actually keep the rear wheel dug into the climb, increasing traction.
If the climb is very steep you may find the front end starting to twitch about and try to come up. This will make the bike difficult to steer and you may find yourself meandering about all over. Counteract this by sitting forward on your saddle and crouching forward over your bars to keep them down. Lower rise bars and a lower stem will help here too.
With a combination of momentum, raw pedalling power, luck with traction and careful distribution of your weight in and around the cockpit area you should be able to get yourself up most technical climbs. If you fail, go back down and try again, this time taking a different line, using a different gear or by going faster or slower. Keep trying and you will nail that climb!
Fany fact
After a day’s ride, ensure the pub you're in has enough steak, if not, leave.