A Few Hillclimbing Tips

Hopefully, I'll have a lot more tips from a variety of sources in the future, but we might as well start off with a few things I've noticed that are helping me get up my steep neighborhood hills on my recumbents.

1. Riding Postion seems to play a big role in getting power efficiently to the pedals. I have two recumbents at this time, an original, EZ-1 made in Freedom, CA (thanks Nick!) and a Burley Canto (convertible S or LWB).

I recently decided that I had the seat on my EZ-1 considerably too far back and am amazed at the improvement moving it forward made (heel just touches the pedal at full extension now). There are people who can just look at you on the bike and know exactly what needs to be done. I understand that the late Gardner Martin was a master of this and I suspect that Larry Black, Peter Stull, and others can do it to. Seek out and take the advice of experts like these if you have the opportunity, otherwise keep an open mind to small changes that might add up to a difference-leg extension, seat angle, bar height and angle.

2. Check your seat back for tautness. I found that the mesh on my Burley's seat had loosened up considerably and I could really feel it soaking up my pushes on steeper hills. Spinning can largely alleviate this issue, but is not always posible.

3. Pushing against the seat back for more power is certainly one of the advantages of a recumbent bicycle, but the higher you put the pressure on the seat back, the more likely a portion of your energy is going into flexing the seat. I'm finding that putting my force toward the bottom of the seat back makes for a more solid platform to push from. This seems to help even with the very rigid Cobra style seat on my EZ-1.

4. Handlebars. This is the one I still understand the least, but I feel something useful so I'll put out some tentative thoughts. I'm finding that on the steepest grades (over 16 percent) I feel more powerful hunching forward a tiny bit, probably not even enough that you would see it. This is really very similar to what I was mentioning in #3 about focussing your force farther down on the seat back, but it still feels like a bit of something else is going on. I'm using the bars when doing this, but not putting much real force on them (you really can't pull hard on most recumbent bars). Just a slight pulling forward and focussing your pressure from the base of the seat back down your legs. Maybe someone will have some ideas of what is going with this, but I only know that I feel like I'm getting a little extra power. This is probably not a technique for places where you could be spinning. Fast Freddy Markham had some rider position pictures and discussion on the Easy Racers Forum, but they seem to be updating their website and the forums don't seem to be available right now.

Update-I thought some more about this today and do think that there is more going on than just a more solid spot to push from (the base of the seat back). Also, I think I'm understanding the roll of the handlebars a little better. I don't think that this slight hunching forward would work as well with USS (underseat steering); I think the handlebars are providing something to balance on (not the right word, but as close as I can get right now).

5. Spinning is certainly the way to go where you can do it. I want to work on this more when we get some warmer weather here and I'm willing to go farther from home. I do hit a grade somewhere around 14 percent where anything remotely resembling spinning circles is only a memory and that is the type of climbing I've been working with lately.

I hope you find something useful in these ideas.