Northern California - Broderick St in San Francisco?

I was telling a friend about the great time I had on Ramon's ride Saturday. He suggested that next time I'm riding in SF we do Broderick St - specifically the block between Vallejo and Broadway. He claims it's so steep that the street part isn't paved and autos aren't permitted, but you can bike up the sidewalk. Or at least try to. :)

Ramon, Pete, Mike - Are you familiar with this street? Have you done it? How's it compare to Saturday's climbs?

-Glenn

There's also Scott St. coming up from the Marina in the same area. I did those many times on my MTB with 24x28 but not on the road bike. Only problem was keeping the wheelies under control but other than that, plenty doable.

I've never tried it actually. Google street view gives a quick shot of it. Usually if I'm there I tackle the Divisadero hills from Lombard up to Broadway. Filbert street is very short but 31.5 %. The problem is there are a lot of tourists on foot and cars/taxis in that area. The other 31.5 % is 22nd street by Church. It's a lot longer but a bit off the beaten path to get too. We used to ride our mountain bikes up 22nd, weight all the way forward over the bars in 24x28 to avoid popping wheelies. Dalewood is still the best all around emotional wrecker due to it's grade, length and little traffic.

I was telling a friend about the great time I had on Ramon's ride Saturday. He suggested that next time I'm riding in SF we do Broderick St - specifically the block between Vallejo and Broadway. He claims it's so steep that the street part isn't paved and autos aren't permitted, but you can bike up the sidewalk. Or at least try to. :)

Ramon, Pete, Mike - Are you familiar with this street? Have you done it? How's it compare to Saturday's climbs?

-Glenn

I've done it. People have told me it's the steepest block of pavement in SF and I believe it. It's tough just to keep your rear tire from spinning out. I'll join you guys next time if you add this one in.

hey glenn, i see you've got the fever now! growing up in the City i'd concur with Ramon's assessment: it's a pretty busy street.

i'd say saturday was a really good combo of steep hills, and little to no traffic, so that we could enjoy ourselves.

i'm sure, that if we asked pete & ramon nicely enough, that they would lead us on a tour of more local hills sometime in the near future. :D

What about Romolo Pl near Broadway and Columbus (next to The Hungry I ;) ) ? That goes straight up. And in the same neighborhood, what about Vallejo between Kearny and Montgomery? :eek:

I remembered coming across this site somewhere (maybe in BF):

http://russianhillroulette.com/

It looks like this guys has pretty much all the big hills covered.

Drilling-down, into the links, reveal that he's even mapped-out a route:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/71/154564545_6190b54136.jpg?v=0

Maybe all the Gladiators should get another ride together soon. Any ideas for dates that would work? :thumb:

That would be a perfect route for our ss/fixie SF ride... :eek:

That would be a perfect route for our ss/fixie SF ride... :eek:

Knee-breaker! I dare you to do the route in reverse. :D

Actually you're right, you could end-up at the Ferry Building where the fixie crowd hangs-out...

Here's another respectable hill near UC med center. (http://i351.photobucket.com/albums/q446/knotty_photos/4ed7c45c.jpg)

Maybe there should be a BF did all SF hills day. :lol:

I found one article on-line that claims Broderick is 38%, but I see Ramon's point. These all look nasty, but don't appear as steep for as long as Dalewood. And the lack of traffic on the climbs we did was a bonus. Last Saturday was a blast, count me in for any future tours of SF hills.

-Glenn