Gear guide

Make friends with the hill.

The hill you dread is mostly a story you tell yourself. Here's how to take it — in your own time, in the right gear, or with a quiet motor — until it stops being a reason not to go.

Last updated · 2026-06 See something off? Tell us →

A hill on the route home has ended more cycling habits than rain and traffic combined. It sits there in the imagination, growing a little every time you picture it, until “there’s a hill that way” quietly becomes “I can’t ride there.” But a hill is just a slow stretch of road, and there are only a few honest things you need to know to beat it.

You were never meant to conquer the hill. You were only ever meant to get home — and any pace that does that has already won.

You’re allowed to go slowly

Here’s the first and biggest permission: there is no minimum speed. Drop into your easiest gear early, before you need it, and spin gently. A hill taken slowly in a low gear is tiring for a minute; a hill attacked in the wrong gear is miserable for its whole length. Slow and steady genuinely wins this one — the tortoise had it right.

Shift early

Change down before the slope, while pedalling is still easy — not halfway up under strain.

Spin, don't grind

Twirl the pedals in a light gear. Fast and easy beats slow and heavy on the knees.

Sit and settle

Stay seated, relax your grip and shoulders, breathe. Tension wastes energy you need.

Walking counts

Getting off to push is a completely legitimate way up. A walked hill still gets you home by bike.

Let the bike help

A lot of “I’m not fit enough for hills” is really “my bike has the wrong gears.” A bike with a wide, low gear range changes everything (see which bike). And if hills are the true wall between you and riding, an e-bike simply removes it — the motor turns a climb into a gentle ramp. That’s not cheating; it’s the difference between the bike in the shed and the bike you actually use.

The reframe that sticks

Ride the same hill a handful of times at an easy pace and something quiet happens: it shrinks. Not because you got dramatically fitter in a week, but because it stopped being a monster and became a known thing — oh, that hill. Familiarity does most of the work that dread was preventing. The tenth time up is a different experience from the first, and all you did was keep showing up.

Whenever you can, ride — up the hill slowly, in a low gear, or with a motor’s help. The goal was never a heroic ascent. It was just to get where you’re going, and slow counts every bit as much as fast.