How To Climb Anything On Your Mountain Bike

Climbing, love it or hate it, it's part of mountain biking, but it doesn't need to be all doom and gloom every time the gradient goes up. I've got some great tips and tricks to make climbing even easier regardless of what bike you ride. First up, let's talk about gearing and cadence. These two work together and are going to set the tone for just how well we can get up a climb. Choosing the correct gear and matching it to the correct cadence can be the difference between making it up a climb or not. Essentially, you want to find a nice cadence that you can settle into a good rhythm for the entirety of a climb. You don't want to be spinning so fast down that your legs looks like Roadrunner from a cartoon. At the same time, you don't want to be such a low cadence that you're grunching really hard and just using so much effort and energy but not really going anywhere. I can't make it move. Oh, Nick, I hate you. The gear that you decide to go in will play a huge part of the cadence that is set. Now, essentially, when you're climbing, you're going to pick a gear that, as I said, not just the cadence is sustainable, but pushing that gear is sustainable. This will change on the gradient of the hill, but you're going to find one that's eventually not too hard and not too easy. They do really work in tandem here. Gearing will play a huge role in the cadence that you put out. Let's look at an example, shall we? If you find yourself spinning away, like I said, at a million miles an hour going up a hill, it might feel easy, but actually, it's really draining to maintain that cadence for a long period of time. Drop it down into a slightly harder gear. Nothing too much, but maybe just down one or two and that's going to slow that cadence down. Likewise, on the other end of the spectrum, if, as I said, you're pushing a really hard gear, just go up the block a couple and it'll just quicken that pace up and you'll find you'll be able to accelerate and go a little faster your average speed, but not burn loads of energy, not really have to get out the saddle and burn it. This can change though depending upon the type of hill, the gradient, and the surface you're going up. I've got quite a steep hill behind me and it kicks up around the corner. Now, to get the power down up there, rather than sit down and spin really, really fast, I'm actually going to drop it into a slightly harder gear, get up out the saddle and put more power down to drive me up the hill. At the same time, if it's a really loose surface, you don't want to be spinning like the clappers again as well because you're just going to wheel spin on the gravel or the loose rocks. You want to find a nice balance where you've got the right amount of torque going through the pedals and the rear wheel that you're driving yourself forwards, but it's not just spinning. Think of it like wheel spinning off a line in a car. If you put it in first and just dump the clutch, you're going to wheel spin. If you dropped it to second, well, then you're going to have a much more controlled start if you like. It's the same when you're going along at slow speed on a bike. If you want to see exactly how much of an effect cadence can have on both the speed and ease of climbing, I did a great video on this not too long ago in Spain. Just follow the link in the description down below and you'll see me spinning up real fast and going real slow and everything in between. Line choice now, and it can be make or break between getting up a hill or not. This could be anything from a fairly innocuous looking piece of hill, which is quite mellow and just a bit loose to a really steep techie climb. We'll often look for the path of least resistance when it comes to climbing because, well, it's generally easier. This is a great little section to show it on. Now, we've got a mellower right-hand line, which is well-worn in. However, we've got a couple of rooty steps towards the end, or we've got a steeper left-hand line, which if you can thread it up there, is a bit smoother the whole way through. Now, ideally, you'd want the smoother, mellower way, right? Well, in this instance though, the right-hand line is actually going to be easier because you can carry a little bit more speed and momentum into getting up over the steps. That might change in wet conditions, but let's give it a go. There might also be obstacles on a climb which are just really difficult to do. This is a big old step on this climb here, which is actually such a drain physically and mentally to have to tackle that, especially if you're in some kind of XC race scenario, shall we say, where you're time crunched, that finding a smoother or more consistent line around is often far more beneficial. You can keep that nice smooth cadence and gearing, as we said, but you're also able to keep your energy levels managed much better and get a lot more grip from it as well. That's how I expected the first one to go. Okay, surprisingly, I actually just got up that step and it's such a massive energy expenditure to get up that. If you were in a race scenario, to do that over and over again is really hard. This time, I think I'll mosey around it. As with all aspects of mountain biking, body position plays a huge role when it comes to climbing with just how successful and efficiently you might be able to do it. You'll find yourself constantly making little adjustments and body movements to be able to get the most out of that climb and yourself. There's a fine line between having too much weight over the front and too far over the back. I'm going to use the always here as a great example, as XC bikes are brilliant for climbing. If we look at weight too far back, like on this climb, I sit with my weight really far back and take weight off the front wheel, it causes it to go light and lose grip. Crucially, the handling is affected. On the flip side, and more so when standing, if I put a lot of weight over the front, the rear wheel will start to slip, especially if it's wet or the trails are slippery. If the climb does require a lot of standing, or it's really steep, then making lots of micro-adjustments in where your body is will give you the best, most consistent grip. You'll notice that you'll shift yourself from left to right and back and forth, depending on where you need to balance yourself or where the bike will need weighting, and this will be done standing or seated. What about the way our bikes are set up? Can that help us clean up climbs and make life easier? Well, 100% yes. Modern-day bikes are tricked out full of gizmos to help with such things from suspension lockout, dropper posts, and more basic things like just tire pressure setup itself. Let's dive into that a little bit more. Suspension lockout is a great tool to optimize if you've got it. It normally comes in a couple of different forms, either a remote on the bar like we can see here with the Orbea Squid Lock system, or it'll be a little blue lever generally found on the rear shock or a dial on top of the fork. Now, lockout normally has three different modes, open, mid, and closed. Open being that you've got full suspension use, mid being that it firms it up as a halfway house, and closed is where it will either firm it up completely and lock it out or it'll make it just very, very stiff. If you're faced with a long drag of a climb, then you're going to want to stiffen that suspension up. You'll either put it in the mid mode or fully firm or closed, if you like, because what that's doing is essentially making the bike more efficient. You're not bobbing up and down. If you're not going up and down, you're able to drive forward even better. That being said, sometimes you've got to play a little bit smart. Now, if you've got a remote lockout like we do on this one here, you may have to actually unlock the suspension. You might have to open it up, make it as soft as it can go because if a hill starts to kick up, gets really steep or very soft because it's muddy or loose, you want as much traction as possible. That suspension being allowed to move hunkers down the weight onto the back wheel, sucks you into the ground a little bit and allows you to get more traction. Now, what else can we do when it comes to bike setup? Well, here's another handy little trick, tire pressure. Now, I know we're not going to change our tire pressure out on a ride specifically for a climb, but if you've got a slightly softer pressure, say I'm running 23 psi out the back, I might drop that to 21 bars on screen now, then that's going to make that tire a little bit softer, conform to the ground a little bit more and give you more grip. What's that, Garmin? Keep climbing. Coming. Now, this part of bike setup is a bit more about the bikes themselves and the different genres. XC race bikes like this Orbea Aues here, you can see it's designed to go fast. That negative rise stem, one piece, quite long as well. What that does is put a lot of weight over the front of the bike so you can really drive through the bike, especially when climbing. You won't really see that kind of setup on a trail or especially an enduro bike. To counterbalance that, they have much steeper seat tubes now or the seat tube angle than they used to. What that does is move you forwards or more central into the bike so that you're really planted in there as well and you're not looping out because your weight's really far back. The bike I'm on today is my Orbea Aues. It's an XC-focused race bike, but the principles are still the same whether you're on a trail bike or an enduro bike. If you're on a downhill bike, good luck. What if you really want to tackle any climb? From climbing videos I've done in the past, there's been a reoccurring theme in the comments. I've gone and done just that. I've got me an e-bike, the brand new Orbea Rise, but climbing on an e-bike isn't quite the same as on a normal bike. Here are a few more tips and tricks. Let's start with modes. Different motor brands will have different modes. The new Rise here uses Shimano's EP801 motor, which has got their own special RS tune to it. The system uses their HMI or Human Machine Interface, which is this little guy here, their new remote to toggle through the different modes. The Shimano system on this bike has three to choose from. You've got Eco, Trail, and Boost. If you want to change things up a bit, you can actually alter the motor profile. On this, we've got an RS tune to begin with, which is a more natural kind of feel to the motor and its power delivery, giving you up to 60 newton-meters of torque. However, if you like to be full gas and you want all of the power, there's the RS Plus tune, which will give you 85 newton-meters of torque. If that isn't enough for you, then if you long press the up mode button on the remote here, you will be given super boost, which is all the power for 15 seconds. As I said before, they're not all systems are created equal or indeed the same. Orbea's Wild, in fact, uses a Bosch system, which has potentially five different modes. He's got Eco, Tour, EMTB, and Turbo. If you've got the latest Gen 5 update, there's EMTB Plus. There are a lot of systems out there and it pays to learn the system you've got to get the most out of it. With most systems, there's normally an accompanying app as well, which you can tune the motor with. Enough about that, let's get back to modes and how it affects climbing. Trail mode on the rise has what Orbea call an elastic amount of power, meaning the more power you put into your legs, the more power the motor is going to give back to you. This is really helpful on techy climbs where you want a smoother delivery, should we say, rather than any spikes where you might throw offline or pick that front end up. That being said, should the climb get really steep technical or have some big steppy type features in it, you may need even more assistance and that is where boost comes in. There's also overrun, which refers to the amount of assistance the motor still gives you once you've stopped pedaling. Overrun is really useful if you do have it on your motor system because it does give you that boost in those areas where it's really tricky to pedal on those really techy, steepy climbs where there might be a bit of steps where you can't get a smooth pedal stroke in. It just gives you that bit of assistance, but it's also worth noting, it's a bit weird to get used to it at first. Once you do, it's really helpful, but don't underestimate the necessity of getting back on the pedals because that is essentially what's engaging the motor, giving you the power, and giving you that drive. Oh, wow. Oh, my God. It's worth bearing in mind which mode or modes you're in throughout the ride that you're on during the day as this can have a huge effect on, obviously, the battery life of the bike, which is actually on this display here, the new HMI, clearly shown in blue lights across the top, which will turn red when you get to 20% and then subsequently drop. It'll just help preserve the battery. Hopefully, you get you a bigger ride and you can choose the exact right mode and have the battery life to do it when you need it. I mentioned earlier that cadence is really important when going uphill on an unassisted bike, and it's just as important on an e-bike, just in a slightly different way. You see, getting the right cadence to get the most out of your motor is crucial, so it's giving you the most torque and power that it can. You see, the motor on this bike behind me will deliver peak power in the range of 70 to 90 RPM. The Bosch CX system that's found on the Orbea Wild has a much broader range, that's 60 up to 140 RPM. There are some clever gizmos on bikes nowadays to help keep you in that right cadence range as well. This bike with its Shimano Di2 drivetrain actually has auto-shift technology, which means it will change gear for you. Free shift, however, does mean you can change gear yourself, but again, without pedaling. It will know when you press the shifter at the top, it will then actuate the system, move the cassette around, and change gear, so you can always be in the right gear at the right time. When it comes to bike setup on an e-bike, over the years, there's one crucial thing I've learned that can really help when it comes to climbing, and that is your rear tire choice. Obviously, the rear tire gets put under a lot of stresses, pressures, forces, powers, and speed. Running a wider tire on the back, not necessarily wider tire than the front, but a wider tire than what you might normally run can make a massive difference. If I was to ride my normal enduro bike, I'd actually have an often slightly narrower tire on the back, a 2.4 on the back and a 2.6 up front. He thought that was funny, but on an e-bike like this, I've actually gone for 2.6s all around. The reason being and the logic behind it, on a normal bike, you're looking at rolling resistance, whereas an e-bike, you don't really need to worry about that. Grip is the main thing you're after. I'll run that bigger tire and I'll drop the pressures slightly too. I'll drop them down to about 19 PSI, bar is on screen, for that ability for it to mold and conform around different rocks, roots when I'm going up those big steps to give me the most traction. Think of it like a trials motorbike. It's that kind of logic to it. You do have to be careful, mind, because you don't want to go so soft that when it comes to going back down, you're not going to get a pinch puncture or damage the rim or tear the tire or something like that. There are, of course, e-bike specific tires out there. This is a Vittoria Mazza in their enduro race compound. It's a really nice soft compound as well. Now, this one, body position is going to vary because there are things you'll do differently on an e-bike compared to a normal bike. The big one is dropping your seat slightly. I touched on it earlier, but what this does is lower your center of gravity and gets more weight on the rear wheel for traction because there's more weight and power going through the back wheel. It also stops the front end lifting up quite as easy. How much you drop your seat, well, that depends on a few factors such as, well, maybe your height, what you're riding, the gradient, and how grippy it is, but there are a few gizmos out there to help you do it consistently every time. This new Rise has a smart dropper on it, and it's got a few clever features. I can double-tap the dropper button and drop the seat to a predetermined amount, in this case, about 20%, but I can change it. This means it always go down to the exact spot that I set every single time. If 20% ain't right, I can tune that on the RS app. You're going to end up dropping that saddle a little bit, so it is just down at the waist to get weight, but the next trick is to actually rotate those hips. Now, what I'll do is I'll rotate my hips, and that's going to just ever so slightly put more weight over the back. Again, it's another way of just shifting weight onto the rear wheel to get the most grip, but there is another completely different technique, and this is a bit more Steve Jones-esque. It's the squatting technique. Essentially, you're not quite fully standing up out the saddle pedaling, and you're not sitting down. You're squatted into the bike. That way, you're hovering in the center, so you've got a really firm, solid center of gravity, but because you're just about standing up, you're able to move the bike around left, right, back, and forth, and shift your weight about, so you're always getting traction and grip exactly where you need it. There we go. Some top tips to hopefully get you climbing quicker, easier, and more successfully on whatever bike you may have. Let me know what you think in the comments down below. Have you got any great tips of your own? Please do share, but for me for now, from the woods, thanks for watching, everyone, and I'll see you next time. 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