Quote Originally Posted by Flopsy View Post
Not sure I understand you Daz.

I obviously change gears, gradually reducing to the lowest gear I have to to get up the hill without blowing my legs. If it's very steep that means getting in a low gear quite quickly (quite often that's the lowest gear I've got) and I'll stay in that gear until it eases up. If it's long and steady climb I change gears more often (up and down gears according to variations in gradient).

I don't grind big gears (bad for my knees and bad for blowing my legs). That's why I got the MTB gearing put on to give me lower gears (I stupidly bought a bike with a compact chainring, which didn't give me low enough gears for the Dales).

I try and keep my cadfence as high as possible or else I blow my legs for the rest of the ride.

As a long term MTB'er I like to think I'm quite good at using my gears as much as possible.
Try going in an easier gear on one of your regular climbs. Even 2 sprockets easier if you can. Get to a point up the climb whereby you can put it into the normal sprocket you use, then try a harder one say 3/4 up. You will certainly gain more than keep dropping down sprockets.
I approach my climbs and normally just drop from the 53 to the 39 and dont normally change much on the smaller sprockets.

You sound quite experienced anyway Flopsy.
Its strange how when you go quicker up a climb once you tend to be able to tell your mind that it can be done again.