Fifty Plus (50+) - What do you call flat?

For those of you who live in flat country.............Connecticut isn't. It's not the Alps, but it isn't Kansas either.

" What do you call flat?"

Not that!

In what part of CT do you live? I'm just up north in Springfield. If you go a little further north and west of here, it looks like that...

An inner tyre with an extra hole in it. Sorry, couldn't resist.

--J

In what part of CT do you live? I'm just up north in Springfield. If you go a little further north and west of here, it looks like that...

This is Colchester, midway between Hartford and the coast. A good portion of inland CT is much worse than this. The area that you are describing west of Springfield MA is much worse. My Rides usually stay under 500 feet but the area looks like one of those egg crate foam pads, up...down...up...down. An average day involves about 100ft per mile. You get to go down that much also...:)

The little slope on the left is what happens every time I leave home...............that means I have to go back up it every time I get home.........:(

An inner tyre with an extra hole in it. Sorry, couldn't resist.

--J

:D I have been overdue for that.

ouch, hope you got a granny.

Everywhere I ride is flat. Kansas is flat, MN is pretty flat unless it's by the rivers. There are little rolling hills, but not like you guys keep talking about, especially around the lakes.

I live in Virginia, which has its flat sections, but it also has more total elevation gain than any other state on the Trans America trail.

How about 9' of climbing in a 60mi ride. Hill repeats on overpasses, biggest hill in 75 miles is the landfill.

I know flat

Anything with little or no vertical ups and downs. Where I live, in SE Pennsylvania this typically only happens along a river. While there are no mountains, there are rolling hills.

the eastern shore of MD VA and DE. The only thing resembling hills are bridges

Anything with little or no vertical ups and downs. Where I live, in SE Pennsylvania this typically only happens along a river. While there are no mountains, there are rolling hills.

??? Your area is flat next to the rivers?
I can't even imagine that. We have huge bluffs next to the Mississippi.

Max,

I'm up in MA about 30 miles west of Boston in the Blackstone Valley region. That profile looks pretty typical of some of my rides.

We've always thought of this as sort of flat. That whole 14 mile ride on the profile only has about 300' of elevation. We just get to do it over and over. I would think that forum members in mountain regions of Virginia and in the west would see much more intimidating rides. Stapfam certainly has done much more climbing than I ever will.
I don't climb well.....thats why I will spend a good part of the summer season on the MTB riding dirt trails that wander through the valleys between these mounds. The old fire road that goes off the backside of my hill is similar to the paved road drop though. Coming back up that trail (250' down and 250' up in 3/4 of a mile) through rocks roots sand and sometimes mud has often defeated me, especially at the end of a longer ride. It does make the railtrails on flatish dirt seem like a superhighway though.
For me good vacations are taking the bike to Cape Cod where I can find routes that have 50' mountains on them :)

We've always thought of this as sort of flat. That whole 14 mile ride on the profile only has about 300' of elevation.

Then I'm reading the profile wrong. It says about 1250 feet of elevation gain in 14.5 miles. That's not flat. It's not mountains, but it sure isn't flat. Am I missing something?

That data field is cululative altitude gained, or the sum of all the little climbs. The left axis of the profile shows the actual altitude at any given point on the ride.

When I rode the Los Angeles Wheelmen Double Century, I met a chap from Kansas. Even though we were taking the midland or coastal route, as opposed to the much tougher highland route through the Malibu hills, he complained that he had never seen so many *!#$&^ hllls in his life.

That data field is cululative altitude gained, or the sum of all the little climbs. The left axis of the profile shows the actual altitude at any given point on the ride.

Exactly. That is how much climbing you do in the ride. 1,000 ft of climbing is 1,000 ft of climbing whether you do it on one 1,000 ft climb or ten 100 ft climbs.

Here is the flattest ride we have leaving our house - 55 miles. We start climbing as we leave our house over a ridge and descend to a valley with the San Andreas fault and Skyline on our right (going south). Total climbing according to Garmin is 6,000 feet but we consider this rolling. If we climb Skyline and descend to the Ocean and return the climbing rises to 7500 but it is significantly more difficult since the climbs are 4 to 5 miles long with average grades of 7%. Climbing 2,000 vertical feet on a 7% grade is much harder than riding 10 cumulative rollers of 2,000 feet with recovery between each one. Another ride, which we seldom do, is along the bay on a MUPs. It is flat but very very windy and it has the usual MUPs obstacles.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/080106HometoLosAltosjpeg.jpg

Your right.....it just doesn't seem like that much climb untill you see the data. I still prefer beachfront rides though.

Here is the flattest ride we have leaving our house - 55 miles. We start climbing as we leave our house over a ridge and descend to a valley with the San Andreas fault and Skyline on our right (going south). Total climbing according to Garmin is 6,000 feet but we consider this rolling. If we climb Skyline and descend to the Ocean and return the climbing rises to 7500 but it is significantly more difficult since the climbs are 4 to 5 miles long with average grades of 7%. Climbing 2,000 vertical feet on a 7% grade is much harder than riding 10 cumulative rollers of 2,000 feet with recovery between each one. Another ride, which we seldom do, is along the bay on a MUPs. It is flat but very very windy and it has the usual MUPs obstacles.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/080106HometoLosAltosjpeg.jpg

Now that's not flat!....:eek:

A series of short, steep climbs gets to me more than a long, steady, mild climb. The worst is a long, steady, steep climb. I remember several comments from the pro peloton about the stages of the Tour de Georgia being so tough because of the unrelenting ups and downs followed by the big ups.

That's similar to the "flat" areas around here on the plains east of the foothills. We get some rolling hills with as much as a couple hundred feet of elevation gain/loss in a mile. The profile doesn't look too different from my commute in terms of elevation gain/loss. I only go about half that distance, but have a cumulative gain of about 600 ft each way.

Not riding lately due to too much snow/ice. :(

Ted

Any ride that I don't have to stand up a lot on.

My 17.4 mile round trip daily commute has 632 feet of vertical; it's pancake flat.
My wife and I have a quick 25 mile loop we do with 1552 feet. We don't think of it as hilly, though there is a nice one-mile small hill in the middle.

Here in Western NC most rides of length average around 100' per mile. If I seek out a flat ride I can get that down to 50' per mile. Then there are the specific climbing rides that have for example 8700' of gain in 58 miles and all of the climbs are 8% or better. After a while you just don't think about it anymore.

??? Your area is flat next to the rivers?
I can't even imagine that. We have huge bluffs next to the Mississippi.

Yeah, just 1/4 mile from my house is a river trail that runs 30 - 40 miles with nary a rise in sight. On the other side of the river there are some rolling hills, but in this part of PA, the river isn't running through any mountains.

In West Virginia the only flat trails that exist are those that run beside rivers. That's why the train tracks almost always run besides the rivers.

The Cannon Valley Trail up by you, Solveg, is the same way. It runs down alongside the Cannon River from Cannon Falls to Red Wing. Almost 20 miles long and it drops 115' from Cannon Falls to Red Wing. I very much enjoyed riding it last fall.
http://www.cannonvalleytrail.com/

Now that's not flat!....:eek:

Tell me about it. When we first moved here and restarted cycling this was what we faced. We now agree with the others in the area that this is a flat ride. Our club rides only use this route if it is raining to avoid steep descents. Normal club rides go up Skyline to make it more challenging.

If I stand at the top of the slope and look more down than along to see the start of the rise- Then it is not flat. If the heart rate gets above 160 and I am only doing 5mph- it is not flat. And if the ride stats before the ride say you might need a 28 rear sprocket- it is not flat. But Ventoux was just a slope- a very long one but not bad,

Flat is flat. Then there's 'mountainous.' You're somewhere in between. That first climb is about 350 feet more than a flat ride would have.

To answer your question: Paris Hilton. :D

i had this teed up waiting for the appropriate time not wanting to be the first.:D

"Flat is flat. Then there's mountainous." Blazingpedals.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/dpa0120l.jpg

LOL Hermes!!

(ignoring Hermes' post)

Here in central Ohio, it is all flat, except short runs down into or out of the ravines of creeks or rivers. Not even little rolling hills until one travels 60 miles or so east, south, or northeast. In my neighborhood, the streets do cross a ravine & the longest up slope is about 0.2 mile. I don't know how I will gain the fitness to tackle real hills on a trip or tour, which I hope to do next year, since I can't travel to the hilly areas even weekly.

I live in St Charles, Missouri. (Actually I live in St Peters but the post office thinks that my condo is in St Charles.) Anyway, north of St Charles is a large area of bottom land between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. It is as flat as the top of a table. There is a railroad track running through it that is raised about 6 feet. That's it. It's possible to put together a pretty nice 50 or 60 mile ride with only that 6' climb whenever you cross the railroad track.

For those of you who live in flat country.............Connecticut isn't. It's not the Alps, but it isn't Kansas either.

East Arkansas = Flat
West Arkansas = Not Flat

Mind you, the dividing line between these runs down a diagonal southern west to northern east and excepting Crowley's Ridge near the Mississippi. There's riding for anyone in Arkansas. :D

http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/images/ar_physregs.gif

Couple...several, years ago some guy scientifically proved {in his terms** that Kansas is flatter than a pancake. Statistics don't lie, or can they...
peace

Where I live there is not alot of flat. Basically just a stretch of PCH that runs about 15 miles, otherwise you are either going up or down. We tend to call things "flat" if the grade is less than 3%

We have lots of flat rides east of town (but they are usually windy) but west is very hilly. We can pretty-much choose our ride profile. I live on the west side of town and any ride that starts from my house is hilly. We have most of the steepest hills in town within a few miles of my house.

-soma5

Here in Western NC most rides of length average around 100' per mile. If I seek out a flat ride I can get that down to 50' per mile. Then there are the specific climbing rides that have for example 8700' of gain in 58 miles and all of the climbs are 8% or better. After a while you just don't think about it anymore.

Right, in Raleigh there are plenty of gentle hills, but you have to go to eastern NC to get flat. Once you go east of Wilson, it's hard to find a hill. That's why the MS 150 is held in New Bern, just plain flat.

For those of you who live in flat country.............Connecticut isn't. It's not the Alps, but it isn't Kansas either.

Man...I need to figure out how to topo the Seagull Century route near Salisbury, MD. The two big "climbs" are the highway overpass and the bridge onto Assateague Island! :eek:

This is Colchester, midway between Hartford and the coast. A good portion of inland CT is much worse than this. The area that you are describing west of Springfield MA is much worse. My Rides usually stay under 500 feet but the area looks like one of those egg crate foam pads, up...down...up...down. An average day involves about 100ft per mile. You get to go down that much also...:)

The little slope on the left is what happens every time I leave home...............that means I have to go back up it every time I get home.........:(

Ahh...? 100 feet per mile is a 1% grade, I call that flat. 3% is hilly, 5% mountainous, and 8% is murder. Of course it depends some upon how long the grade is too. Railroad beds usually are under 2%. 5%+ usually has "Truck Speed Limit 35MPH" signs.

I was in Connecticut last month. It is very, very hilly. I live in eastern TN, which is also an extremely hilly area. Flat to me is places like, say, Chicago or maybe a lot of the Plains.

Portland, Maine (where I spent Christmas eve) is flat in some parts. It isn't nearly as hilly as what I'm used to, and I really don't like hills much.

Ahh...? 100 feet per mile is a 1% grade, I call that flat. 3% is hilly, 5% mountainous, and 8% is murder. Of course it depends some upon how long the grade is too. Railroad beds usually are under 2%. 5%+ usually has "Truck Speed Limit 35MPH" signs.

You know it's all relative. I remember when I started riding I thought freeway overpasses were hills, now they are just something to attack. Since it's almost impossible to do a flat ride where I live, stuff most folks would call rolly is considered flat here. I have this argument with members of the bike club all the time. I'll talk about the grade going out on some road and most will say what grade? Most of all climbs are 5 - 8% and we have a few long hills over 8% (I struggle). Of course mountain biking is a whole other thing! Worse hill I ever did was in Utah, 12 - 15% for 3/4 of a mile and then it leverled to 10% for the last 2 (had to stop half way up). There is a Century in Bakersfiled called Spooktacular with a entry called the Hidious 100 where the grade for 35 miles is 8 - 15%. Actually there are lots of steep climbs in California. We do have mountains you know!

The Mississippi Delta is FLAT! Only about 100' of elevation change, north to south, in over 200 miles!! :eek:

We have an MS 150 that I've done several times, though, from Clinton to Vicksburg, that has over 4000' of climbing each day. It's not in the Delta, of course.

Ahh...? 100 feet per mile is a 1% grade, I call that flat.

It's actually about 1.9%. 100/5280 = 0.0189, to 3 decimal places. It's still flat, though.

-soma5

We have a choice of rolling hills, flats, and serious climbing right out our back door. This is a profile of Cantelow Road. It is 7 miles from our house to the top so the profile is copied from one of the Davis Cycling groups. Our house is around 120 ft and we get a bit of rollers to warm up. It is a good workout to do repeaters from both sides. We do the ride as shown with the other side being a real booger.
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w76/cgallagh/CatelowRoadProfile.jpg

This is a profile of Mix Canyon. This is a real workout. Notice that it is higher than Ventoux but only about 4.5 miles from a starting elevation of 330 ft.:eek: I did the first 3.5 miles on my compact and thought I was going to die. When the weather clears and the days get a little longer, this will be my hill workout more often. If you really want to climb you can go over Cantelow, ride about 3/4 miles down Pleasants Valley and face this.
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w76/cgallagh/MixCanyonProfile.jpg

I did a 30.52 mile ride in Sarasota last year that had 344 feet of climbing. THAT is flat.

Here is one of the most popular local rides around here. 2,200 ft cumulative elevation gain in 30 miles. 11.4% max grade.