Originally Posted by
cc700
i rode fixed 48/17 up queen anne yesterday.
not necessarily the fixed gear, just the one big gear makes it a workout.
Nice... I did that once, ouch!
Was that the north or south side? I think the south side (counterbalance) is a little steeper, though not very long indeed.
Other good city climbs include:
* Yesler from 1st ave up to Cap Hill
* Yesler off Lake Wa Blvd up to Union (~7% grade for 1/2 mile or so)
* Queen Anne of course
* Almost any of the streets off of Lake Wa Blvd north of Leschi and south of Madison - the 705 showed 30% for one of those! (though it was only a block or two long)
* And of course this page can't be forgotten:
http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/steepest.htm (Roy St at 22% is a nice one, but just a block long. Though the blocks leading up to it are 10+%.
But as for longer climbs, yeah the Issaquah area seems to be the best w/out getting in the mountains. If you thought Cougar was easy, perhaps a fixed gear
is in order? =]