Fifty Plus (50+) - Figgering out the grade...

Boston has the Green Monster. Somewhere else (insert your favorite location here) has the something else (insert appropriate thing here). Where I live, there's the Texas Street Hill, just a mile from my home.

Only a half mile long, that sucker is STEEP! I get nervous just DRIVING up this hill, let alone riding up on a bike. But Texas Street is the gate to the entire Mission Valley below and beyond to all points east, and if I could conquer it, it would open up whole new vistas, new routes, and new adventures.

Trouble is, I'd have to ride UP that freakin' hill at the end of my ride.

Anyway, like The Weak Link, I digress.

I'm trying to find out the grade of Texas Street Hill, and can't find anything on the internet. Googling under Texas Street, San Diego, and "grade" hasn't worked, and "elevation" isn't right either. My question is whether there's a mapping website that could tell me the grade of this hill. My brain insists that if I'm every going to climb it, I have to know what I've done.

Use gmap-pedometer.com, map the route, turn on the elevation, use the distance and elevation change to figure the grade.

Use gmap-pedometer.com, map the route, turn on the elevation, use the distance and elevation change to figure the grade.

Or buy a Garmin, DG:D

Use gmap-pedometer.com, map the route, turn on the elevation, use the distance and elevation change to figure the grade.
Okay, it changes 250 feet in half a mile. (Which doesn't seem like much!) Now what do I do? What's the formula?

EDIT: I divided 2640 (half a mile) into 250 and got 9.4% Is that the way to do it?

Or buy a Garmin, DG:D

Oh no!......what have you done.................:D

Grade is a function of the Pythagorean Theorem: In a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the legs squared, i.e., a squared + b squared equals c squared. I found that the differences between figuring that all out and just calculating how high you rode how far works. Find the difference between your starting and ending elevations and divide by the feet traveled (gmaps, Google Earth, Bikely.com, whatever all work for this)

Or buy a Garmin, DG:D
Can't. That would add way too much weight to the Rooooobaaaaaaay. :D

Okay, it changes 250 feet in half a mile. (Which doesn't seem like much!) Now what do I do? What's the formula?

EDIT: I divided 2640 (half a mile) into 250 and got 9.4% Is that the way to do it?

Yep. Comes out roughly to a 9.5% grade (250 / (5280 * .5))

Yep. Comes out roughly to a 9.5% grade (250 / (5280 * .5))
That doesn't seem like much. I thought it would be a 20% grade or something. Hmmmm...I guess I'm a wimp.

You could go to something like bikeroutetoaster.com and find the hill. Then track the hill up. You will then be given distance (in miles) and the ascent (in feet). From there it is simple math, convert the mileage into feet and then divide the ascent by distance.

Grade - vertical climb / horizontal distance

Oh no!......what have you done.................:D

You know that's what he needs for the new bike. It has red and white lettering to match it and the black case would match his tires. I don't know why he's delaying this purchase:)

divide elevation change by distance, so if it's 250 ft in half a mile, that's approx 250/2600 or .096 or 9.6%

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n188/tran521/TexasStGoogleEarth3-D.jpg


http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n188/tran521/TexasSt13to14grade.jpg

Google Earth shows it as 1800 feet long and elevations 110 to 350.
So the grade is 240/1800 = about 13 to 14% grade. Google tends to approximate the elevations, so this is pretty close. It's not accurate enough to compute a grade for very short sections. So some parts might be steeper.

Anyway, 13% is steep for 1/3 of a mile, and probably many riders would need a mountain bike low gear.

Edit-- I only measured the steepest section. It drops another 60 feet to the cloverleaf intersection, which is a full 1/2 mile.
That works out to be 300/2500 = 12%. Still steep!

All this depends on Google Earth's altitude data.
So I checked TopoZone and it appears to be 110-120 to about 340-350 for the original distance. Each thin contour line is 20 feet. So Google is accurate here.

Look at how far apart each contour line crosses Texas Ave. It's definitely steeper near the top, where the lines are closer together!


The topozone map (http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=32.76496&lon=-117.13885&datum=nad27&u=4&layer=DRG&size=m&s=24)

That doesn't seem like much. I thought it would be a 20% grade or something. Hmmmm...I guess I'm a wimp.

Not a wimp- but getting very close.

Even a 10% will take some practice so start to ride it in your lowest gear and see how far you get up it- Then go as far as you can before you fall over. If you carry a big tin of paint with no lid on the bars- It will leave a permanent mark up the hill as to where you got. Next week do it again and carry a different colour can of paint and see how you have improved.

DG, can you detour over this way on the way back up the hill? It looks less steep here. Texas St hill is the red line in the background, about 3 miles away.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n188/tran521/SanDiego.jpg

250 feet of elevation over 1/2 mile is one mean climb.

It's also great practice. Handle that and you're good to go.

Choose your pre-ride pie based on recycled taste and appearance, if you are knowing where I am drifting.

I would not eat cherry pie prior to tackling this hill. Puking up red stuff would scare the crap out of me.

I used to commute up Texas Street. And I've used Google Earth on it before. I think your sections are a bit long, I think there are a few places where the angle goes up to 17%.

The thing to do is what you do for any hill. Start at the bottom, take plenty of water and pedal till you can't. Then rest, then start pedaling again or if necessary, walk. But it's best to rest and pedal.

Now repeat this every day or at least several times a week. You will find that you get farther and farther up the Texas Street without dismounting. And then one amazing day you will get all the way up and the angle will flatten out and you will pick up speed again and have conquered Texas Street. After that, you will fear no hill.

That's how I did it. I didn't have much choice. It felt good to do it. I still use it as a milepost and compare most steep hills to it.

Today is your lucky day!
I went yesterday for my own century ride and after going north and east out of La Jolla my wife called and ask me if I wanted to have lunch with her. She was visiting the Midway (volunteers at the visitors center).
After the stadium, I had to choose between Texas Street or going all the way to Taylor St.
Guess what!
Texas Street here I go!
Check the motionbase info. Here
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2864685
Go to elevation and check grade below the chart!
I was going so slow that during most of the climb I couldn’t pass a lady walking her dog :mad:
Texas Street starts at mile 55. Most of the climb is at 13 degrees.
Or on the bright side "It's -13 going downhill"

I used to commute up Texas Street. And I've used Google Earth on it before. I think your sections are a bit long, I think there are a few places where the angle goes up to 17%.

The thing to do is what you do for any hill. Start at the bottom, take plenty of water and pedal till you can't. Then rest, then start pedaling again or if necessary, walk. But it's best to rest and pedal.

Now repeat this every day or at least several times a week. You will find that you get farther and farther up the Texas Street without dismounting. And then one amazing day you will get all the way up and the angle will flatten out and you will pick up speed again and have conquered Texas Street. After that, you will fear no hill.

That's how I did it. I didn't have much choice. It felt good to do it. I still use it as a milepost and compare most steep hills to it.

This really works... Last April, after a 3/4 mile 2% "climb" I couldn't do this without stopping. Twice.
http://home.comcast.net/~96omi/East_Edgemar.jpg
Then I could. Now this is my easy way home. Sometimes, I take the whole thing out of the saddle. For fun

Once I started handling that one OK, I couldn't make it up this without stopping. At least twice
http://home.comcast.net/~96omi/West_Edgemar.jpg

Now? Well, I wouldn't say it's easy -yet- but it's not an all-consuming beast anymore. Not by a long shot.
And all I did was to keep doing it until I could..

Wimps! (except for jppe) :D Tomorrow the racers in the Giro d'Italia are doing a final climb on a mountain that has a max gradient of 22%. It averages 15% for 6 km and 12% for 10 km. They do that after 131 km of racing and three additional big climbs. :eek: :eek:

Wimps! :D Tomorrow the racers in the Giro d'Italia are doing a final climb on a mountain that has a max gradient of 22%. It averages 15% for 6 km and 12% for 10 km. They do that after 131 km of racing and three additional big climbs. :eek: :eek:
Let's see what they have to say after taking twenty years off, putting on fifty extra pounds, and climbing back onto a bike after age 50. That kinda levels the playing field!

Let's see what they have to say after taking twenty years off, putting on fifty extra pounds, and climbing back onto a bike after age 50. That kinda levels the playing field!
Maybe all the doping will keep them young. :mad: :(

Today is your lucky day!
I went yesterday for my own century ride and after going north and east out of La Jolla my wife called and ask me if I wanted to have lunch with her. She was visiting the Midway (volunteers at the visitors center).
After the stadium, I had to choose between Texas Street or going all the way to Taylor St.
Guess what!
Texas Street here I go!
Check the motionbase info. Here
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2864685
Go to elevation and check grade below the chart!
I was going so slow that during most of the climb I couldn’t pass a lady walking her dog :mad:
Texas Street starts at mile 55. Most of the climb is at 13 degrees.
Or on the bright side "It's -13 going downhill"
I couldn't get this link to work. :D

But...congrats on your century. You are amazing me!

DG, Nice website you have there! Too bad more people in business don't take advantage of the training you offer.

DG, Nice website you have there! Too bad more people in business don't take advantage of the training you offer.
Thanks! I try to do my best. :)

Do get to a decent desert, I have to go up 3,000 feet in 6 miles - And elevation of 250 feet just doesn't seem to be that bad...

Let's see what they have to say after taking twenty years off, putting on fifty extra pounds, and climbing back onto a bike after age 50. That kinda levels the playing field!

TELL IT, brother!!

Or on the bright side "It's -13 going downhill"

It's a scary -13%. Lots of traffic and at the bottom is a stoplight. But then again, most of the time I was commuting down it, the sun had not risen yet. Rain was especially thrilling because my bike at the time had steel rims.

Topo 5 view of Texas Street Hill

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=46010&stc=1&d=1180472673

That first 750'-800' looks pretty steep. Around 16-17 degrees.

How fast are you doing up this section, DG?

Or buy a Garmin, DG:D

I see that you already have your answer but a big +2 on buying a Garmin.

I remember riding up 18th street hill in Huntington,W.Va., on my Western Auto single speed, fendered, lead sled. Can't imagine tackling that hill now on the same bike (or current one for that matter)! And there is a hill in Bluefield, W.Va. that I remember from childhood (grandparents lived in Bluefield)- that hill must have been almost straight up. My grandfather said people used to try out their cars to see if they would pull the hill!!

Gee, you talking about Texas Street hill reminds me of Del Gue waxing poetic about the Rockies near the end of Jeremiah Johnson. Which by the way, is at or near the top of my all time favorite movies list.

Gary, You got me thinking about Texas Street. I think the mental hurdle is bigger than the physical.

Yes, its steep, but you take it in small bites and rest as much as you want. It becomes 6 or 7 small hills to start with and then becomes fewer and fewer hills.

It's also good that you are right there at the top. You can pick a nice slow Sunday morning to scoot down (Wheee!) and then work your way back up in the cool morning air.

Also do some practice on Fairmount and then switch off to Aldine Drive going back to Adams. Aldine is almost as steep as Texas canyon in some places, but not as long. Also there is a bike path going north from the East side of Qualcomm Stadium that leads up to Aero Dr. Aero has a nice climb to Ruffin Rd. Ulrich street west of 163, going north from Friar's Road is nice practice too.

You can do it.

I just verified that the toughest climb I have ever done multiple times, Tuna Canyon in the Malibu hills northwest of Los Angeles, is about 3 miles at an average grade of 11%. The incentive to complete the climb, particularly when riding on tubulars and worrying about melting one's glue, was to connect to Topanga Canyon Road for a safer, less steep descent back to the coast. It was fun to start at sea level under a low, heavy overcast and to break through the clouds before reaching the 1700' summit.

Grade is a function of the Pythagorean Theorem: In a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the legs squared, i.e., a squared + b squared equals c squared. I found that the differences between figuring that all out and just calculating how high you rode how far works. Find the difference between your starting and ending elevations and divide by the feet traveled (gmaps, Google Earth, Bikely.com, whatever all work for this)

The sons of the sqaw on the hide of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaw on the other two hides.

If any of you San Diegans are interested, I just verified on gmap-pedometer.com that the infamous Torrey Pines grade is only about 5-6 percent, rising just over 400 feet in 1.4 miles.

If any of you San Diegans are interested, I just verified on gmap-pedometer.com that the infamous Torrey Pines grade is only about 5-6 percent, rising just over 400 feet in 1.4 miles.
Gosh, that makes it sound, well, doable! :D