The hills around the DMV often discourage people from biking and Arlington is no exception. While it may seem that fitness is the only factor in one’s ability to ride up hills, there are many quick fixes to the bike itself and to your biking form that can make riding around the area more doable. Below are some strategies.
Anticipate the hill.
Once you see a hill approaching, shift your bike into a lower gear. When you shift into a lower gear while already riding up a hill, you lose momentum, while also having to put more energy into those first strokes.
Go slow.
While seemingly simple, going slow will make a big difference. Going slow—and as a result, taking fewer breaks—will help you build up endurance, get to your destination quicker, and be less tired.
Know when to stand up.
Riding a hill while standing requires less energy than riding one while sitting, as it allows you to make use of your body weight, as opposed to pure strength, in your strokes. However, the shift between positions makes you lose momentum, meaning you should not always ride up hills standing. Instead, shift to standing for the steeper hills or when your legs are particularly tired.
Keep your arms relaxed and breathe deeply.
When you are riding up a hill, it sometimes feels instinctual to tense up throughout your body. Tensing up, especially in your arms, causes you to waste energy. Breathing deeply to get up tough hills can help you keep your body relaxed. While this might not make a big difference for a shorter ride, it can for a longer ride—like, say, a commute into the city.
Make sure your saddle is at the right height.
Having your saddle at an appropriate height helps you be most efficient with your energy and avoid injury—making hills more doable in the short and long term! When your saddle is too low, the pedal stroke ends before your muscles have fully contracted, thus causing you to waste energy.
Raising your bike seat only helps you become more efficient to a certain point, though. Once you start to overextend your leg, you again become less efficient with your energy, while also risking injury. Your body may overcompensate to protect your hips, knees, or ankles, potentially causing issues in the hamstrings, lower back, or pelvis. While there is some variation from individual preference, the general rule is that you want a slight bend in the knee when your pedal is at the bottom of its stroke. If you haven’t thought too much about your saddle height, maybe try raising it, and see if you find riding hills easier.
Make sure your tires are fully inflated.
While it may seem like a hassle to inflate your tires regularly, it can cost you lots of energy to ride with tires that are not full. The increased energy required to ride with flat tires is interesting, as it is neither due to the increased surface area of the tire, nor due to a difference in the force of gravity or the normal force that counteracts it (the difference in mass is negligible between flat and full tires). When your tires aren’t fully inflated, the tire is more deformed due to its interaction with the road. In order to make up for this deformation, you have to put in extra work to help the tire spring back. So, the extra work required to ride with flat tires is due to energy required for the shape of the tire to change, called elastic hysteresis.
Consider clip-ins.
Unlike everyday bike pedals where you keep your shoe on top of the pedal, using clip-ins (pedals that you clip your shoe into) can make hills a lot more doable. By allowing you to pedal both by pushing the pedal downwards and by pulling the other leg upwards, clip-ins allow bikers to get more out of each stroke. If you don’t want to clip in all the time, try dual-sided pedals: One side allows you to clip in with cycling shoes while the other side is flat, enabling you to ride comfortably in sneakers or regular shoes. Here is an example.
Try out some of these tips, and hopefully you will find that your daily commute to work or to run errands is more bike-friendly than you thought!
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