General Cycling Discussion - Average uphill speed?

What kind of speeds do you see going up a hill? I usually pull about 17mph going over the average American freeway overpass, but there's a killer hill about seven miles from my apartment where I slow to 10-12 for about two miles while I'm climbing; then, I zing down the other side at about 40mph. I probably could go faster if I had bigger gears (I'm spinning loose when I hit 40 on my roadie), and I'd feel better if the road didn't have huge potholes in it.

19-20 for rolling hills. I never go under 14 on steep climbs.

5Mph up the hills...

Yup, I have had a few 5mph hills when mtn biking, I once saw 2.X MPH's!

As for on the road, i ususaly take overpasses at speed, 20mph isnt much of a problem on the short hills. One of my canyon rides i do always keeps me under 10mph. I would love to see a 12mph avg on that ride one of these days.

Where I live all the hills go straight up and then straight down. Level roads don't exist. My computer says that I average 13 mph but that's only because I go 5 mph uphill and then fly down the other side at 30+

I may have awesome dh speeds but going up, thats a different story. Majority of the hills around my place are long and steep so I am lucky if I brake 15kmh on a good day. It should improve now that I will be doing more riding on the road.

Slainte:beer:

It depends on the grade and the load, of course.

If I travel by myself, "unloaded" (i.e. with basic toolkit and raingear), I may get down to 12-13 km/h on a 6% grade, and down to 9-10 km/h on an 8% grade.

If I tow the road train (bike + trailercycle + trailer), uphill speed would be 8-10 km/h on a 6% grade and 6-7 km/h on an 8% grade.

Regards,

On our tandem we've experienced 2mph climbs! We got up those hills but it was a crunch all the way up. On one particularly long and steep climb, my better-half (stoker) said she was done about halfway up. A threat that she'd be walking up that bad hill by herself kept her pedaling...we made it! It was raining "cats and dogs" too, so that probably kept us cool enough and helped us get up and over it.

I try to never go below 6.5mph on any climb, but on a long ride...like over 50+ miles I'll drop down to 5mph. I try to stay between 7.5-10mph on a serious climb. I'm kind of sick of climbing...I wouldn't mind some flats...just can't find them here. But you know the grass is always greener. I'd be bored in a flat area.

I know people that stay at 14-15 mph on the same climbs that I do 7-9mph. damn them;)

Originally posted by Gus Riley
On our tandem we've experienced 2mph climbs!


how did you do that and stay balanced? its hard enough for me to go that slow solo... i can't imagine 2 people on a bike both compensating for balance... yikes!

I find length slows me down as much as grade or load - I think I get bored...

Richard

Originally posted by Matadon
What kind of speeds do you see going up a hill? I usually pull about 17mph going over the average American freeway overpass, but there's a killer hill about seven miles from my apartment where I slow to 10-12 for about two miles while I'm climbing; then, I zing down the other side at about 40mph. I probably could go faster if I had bigger gears (I'm spinning loose when I hit 40 on my roadie), and I'd feel better if the road didn't have huge potholes in it.

You got some goat youth in you... :-) Although, I am just back at it and still working on building stamina, I average 7-10mph on steep hills. Downhills, I let it out, and consider myself slow at 35-40mph.

The area where I live is almost all somewhat big hills except for maybe 4 flat main streets through town. Even the street up to my home can hurt ya...

In mountains 5mph up a constant 30 degree incline.

On the streets, I average 20 normally but probably closer to 16/17 on the hills.

19-20 for rolling hills. I never go under 14 on steepclimbs.

you must not have any real hills on your ride... or else you are faster than the pros and should get to earning some cash...

i think for steep hills meters/min or meters/hour is a better measure of performance. something in the 8 to 15m/min or 500-900m/hr is a good strong pace. of course, you need a bike computer with altimeter to measure this (i bought my first one in Fall 2000 and LOVE it -- i also download the vertical profile to my computer!)

as for speed, on long >24%, i often see speeds as low as 8 or 9km/h... but still with 600+m/hr!

i think an average speed uphill is too general: how long (only 50m or a 1200m climb?), and how steep (5% or 30%)

I hate gravity, period!

We hit some 25% slopes recently. We got sea-sick from the bobbing. We got off and pushed.

Another trail we tried to climb was possible to walk/climb up, but no way could anyone ride it. Pushing was not an option, we had to carry the bikes.

Elsewhere, other hills I could ride on my road bike at 15kph are now divided by two for the mtb.

There is a simple equation. Divide road bike speed by 2. Subtract road bike speed from the result. If the answer is < 0, get off and push. Catches me everytime I use it!:)

Depends on the hill.......about a 6-7% grade over a 10-12km climb i'd only average 14-15kph

cheers

it depends. going uphill, on a crappy chewed up road, with a headwind, early in the ride spells trouble.

i love hills, but not enough to spend too much time on them. grind it out and get over that hill (one man's hill is another's molehill)

Seems like I am ALWAYS riding uphill...........

My speed up a hill depends on the hill. On a grade of 7% or more of any distance, I will be below 10 mph. I did Teton Pass last year which is mainly 10% at an average of 6 mph. I wasn't pushing. If I had pushed, I might have averaged a blazing 8 mph.

On the hardest climb around here (2km @ 6-7%) I have averaged 15kph a couple of times. Last year I did some climbing in the Alps on a fully loaded touring bike (20kg of luggage) and towards the end of the tour I climbed the west side of Passo Stelvio (http://cykelsemester.eurotourism.net/alp/19__Stelvio.gif) (20km @ 7.5%) with an average of 7-8kph. We did the Sella Ring (http://cykelsemester.eurotourism.net/alp/21__Pordoi__Campo__Gardena__Sella.gif) unloaded, and on the first climb (Passo Pordoi, 13km @ 6%) I averaged just above 10kph. The average for the 65km, 1800m day was 14.5kph (including the descents of course).

On gentle grades (2-3%) I can usually keep a steady 24-25kph (most of my rides has an average speed of 26-29kph).

/Csson

I live East of town. Everything going West is uphill. My rides always start out going West. Average speed is usually 14 MPH over a 15 mile ride. I can usually structure my ride so that going out I am heading up grade for about 8 miles. There are some flats interspersed but not too much down hill. Once I have ridden for an hour, I head East towards home which is usually only 2 miles away. That part of the ride is a great cool down. Most of the grades are smooth and gradual.