Fun Sustainable Transport
Climbing. Nandi Hills.
Nandi hills (60km from Bangalore) is turning out to be THE place to head out and stretch your legs if you are a road biker. The following post is an aggregation of thoughts by folks who have taken a shot at Nandi, from the awesome BangaloreBikers group
contributors so far – Abhin, Anand, Bobby, Jagan, Rushi, Samim, Sriram and me :)
TIPS- Make sure you fuel your body right. The climb is tough and there is no point in making your body fight you. You are already fighting with your mind and your legs while powering up the hills. Make sure you eat before you start out. Don’t over eat though. :)
- Make sure you are well hydrated. Having a lot of alcohol the previous day might have a detrimental effect on the ride as alcohol dehydrates you. I’m not sure if having a lot of water will compensate for this. - Going back and forth between standing and sitting while climbing is also a good way to climb. Remember, you are working harder and using different muscle groups. Thats good because you give some a chance to recover. This is a good way to relax on the bike if you feel the urge to stop to relax. But don’t try this unless you have practiced several times. - Learn to relax on the bike. Since Nandi hardly has any flat areas what you can do is ride across the road (take care of speeding vehicles). This worked better for me than taking a zig zag approach. A few cross overs like this should relax the muscles.
- Take the outside line. Just take the outside line, keep pedaling. Don’t change your rhythm.
- When you approach a hair pin bend, shift to a higher gear and accelerate into the corner (taking the outer line of course). Some folks felt this did not make sense, but it worked for me :)
- Maintain a cadence that you can maintain for the duration of the climb. Accelerating on a climb will increase your heart rate quickly and you would have to be very fit to recover and keep climbing.
- At any point if you want to stand and pedal, shift two gears up and then pedal. Good rule of thumb.
- use a road bike if you can :) Riding Nandi on a Trek 6000 is kinda crazy. A lighter bike helps, as do thinner tires.
- if a huge truck come by spewing smoke, turn, ride down the slope for a bit and let the truck and smoke pass. You deserve fresh air !
- the more you do a particular climb, easier it gets each time. Climb as many times as possible until its tamed ;-)
- Get clip less pedals + shoes. Makes a huge difference. Most road bikers swear by these.
- Choosing the right gear configurations is key as you climb.
Some good links
Expert Advice From Jonathan Vaughters
Think Drink
Cycling Tips
- A bunch of people turn chicken shit when it comes to descents. So, how do you descend ?
- What the hell is a good gear ratio ?
- Watch out for the big pothole around 1 km into the ascent. This one could kill you (or at least your wheel) going downhill.
- There is a nice flat stretch along the ridge at 3.5km from top. Time to rest your legs as you pedal.
- Starting point makes a big difference. If you start from the NH7 exit, you have a fairly easy 15 km ride to warm yourself up before the climb. But, if you start off from Hebbal, it is a 40+ km ride before you start your climb.
13 comments
Comments
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Just curious about what brand of pedals and shoes most people have. Are there dealers or is it all special order/imports?
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Hi Rohan there looks to be another Trail half way down Nandi which we can see in google Maps. Looks great for Downhill Link: <http: />
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Gautam - the road bikers are all in cleats .. and the mountain bikers are all in platform :) Except Psycho Nilesh who has cleats on his mountain bike (crazy man ..) :)
Abhin - yeah, till date we have discovered two trails. Im sure there are more. Will update the blog with pics and videos soon ;) -
Hey, I see tons of mountain bikers using clipless pedals... good to have when you're rattling over rocks and your feet fly all over the place. Oh... did you meant that Psycho Nilesh has non-recessed cleats? I'd love to see a video of him walking over rocks!
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Ouch. "Did you mean", NOT "did you meant"!
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Gautam - clipless is good on rocks ? Thats a first :) If your reflexes are not good you are so screwed :D hehe.
Will be posting up the last two rides at nandi soon. Pics, videos ;) How do you keep track of comments on this blog ? -
Keeping track of comments... I keep coming back - heh heh, I'm very low tech. Yeah, I went for an MTB class conducted by someone who has been around since the very start of mountain biking (he remembers seeing Gary Fisher walking around at a bike show, carrying a frame and asking people if they wanted to buy it!) and he highly recommended clipless pedals for all riding except very aggressive downhilling. He also raced MTBs, so he DEFINITELY knows what he's talking about. Also, every single serious mountain biker I've seen here in SoCal uses clipless--I'm often the only fellow on the trails with platform pedals. (And on the websites you'll see that all pedals and shoes are divided into road and mountain.) But, as the instructor said: 1) You WILL fall initially and deeply embarass yourself. 2) Once you get the pedals, prop yourself up in front of your favourite one-hour TV show, and spend the whole time clipping in and out. The idea is to develop your muscle memory. I've seen him "dab" with his feet, even though he was clipped in. And this guy is 50 years old, so I'm sure all you young chaps can do it with ease! Anyway, I'm converting in a few weeks--will post a report. Got some Crank Bros pedals really cheap, but now have to save some cash for the shoes! Looking forward to the videos.
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http://www.dirtworld.com/TipsAndTricks/TipsStory.asp?id=492 http://ezinearticles.com/?Mountain-Bike-Clipless-Tips&id=459721 More info!
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nice. Looks like I need to get a clipless set :)
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Hi Rohan, Been using Clipless on my FuelEx (Shimano SPD 505) ... yes had trouble initially to remember to release the foot before stopping ... had a few embarrasing moments .. but i am used to it now... so much so that i feel insecure when i try pedaling on the platform (might be because the platform which is attached on on side is narrow on this pedal)
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Saddle height is a factor while climbing. I would normally lower the saddle height on a climb by 1/2 to 1 inch, from the height which I normally use on flat terrain. This works well for me, when climbing something like Nandi.
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Navdeep - on the contrary I make sure my saddle height is perfect. If its a little lower I immediately feel fatigued !