Hill Climbing in Sydney

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I dream of epic Hill Climbing in Europe… GCN epic climbs is my staple YouTube viewing, but still enjoying any Hill climb I can get to…

See below link to Galston Gorge, north of Sydney

There is a photo of some cyclists on the bridge at the bottom of the Gorge.
After I took a couple more photos of the bridge, I started the ascent up the switchbacks and surprisingly, caught up to 3 of the cyclists about 2/3rds the way up and overtook them. I arrived at the top of the climb and timed 1 and half minutes before they arrived… I love it!!

For this route the Hill climb up the western hill (without switchbacks) was more challenging than the climb up the eastern hill with switchbacks.

Unicycle: KH36 with 110mm cranks

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Cool video! You’re going to want a geared hub with a low gear one day (not that they exist!)

When you mentioned GCN I was reminded of their video of Prospect Place - which is the steepest hill here in Bath, the home of GCN :grinning:

I should probably one day take a unicycle there and see what I can do - probably more downhill that up for me.

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Well they do exist as the original owner of my schlumpf has another one in his recumbent that has mountain drive written on it.

Great video though you’ll probably do great with a geared hub. You should look into freewheeling as it’s really good uphill probably about the only thing I’m good at on a freewheel unicycle.

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Thanks, glad the video is enjoyable to watch, I might upload the other few Hill climbs I did which are popular amongst cyclist in Sydney.
The Relive app gives quite a good way of seeing my rides.

I am thinking that having a 138mm crank on the geared uni will enable me to climb anything in low gear, albeit at a slower pace than 110 cranks on the KH36. It will be interesting to see what grade hills I can climb with 138mm in high gear.

Oh yeah, freewheeling, thanks for the top re: Hill Climbing with one. The down hill has got to be a lot of fun too!

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Well I’m yet to truly master riding on flats with a freewheel and downhill is much harder as I still haven’t learnt to coast for more then a second or so. However uphill is really easy to do on a freewheel and it’s very fun compared to fixed as you have no resistance at all.

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Can you explain that? Uphill is easier on a freewheel compared to a fixed wheel? How could that be possible? If you are not freewheeling, isn’t it the same as a fixed wheel? I’m puzzled…

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Biggest problem I have with freewheel is I can’t regulate my speed as well as I do on a fixed. When you’re riding on a fixed you subconsciously adjust your riding speed with your legs even if it’s only a little bit. On freewheel that’s gone entirely so every pedal stroke you put in is going 100% into driving the wheel and on flats/downhill this isn’t great for me as I pick so much speed I lose control and UPD. I can only riding flats with careful brake management.

However when riding uphill the excess speed isn’t a problem as all your pedalling power goes into scaling the hill so there’s never a concern about going too fast.

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If you never freewheel when climbing (on your freewheel unicycle), you can do the same with a fixed wheel. With a little practice, it’s possible to stop pushing on the back pedal when climbing.

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