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Old 06-14-10, 04:37 PM
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The Weak Link
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Post-partisan Paradise
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Bikes: GF Wahoo '05, Trek T1000 '04, Lemond Buenos Aires '07

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That's an excellent question, so much so that I was going to start a thread on it myself.

The local bike club grades rides on terrain rather than speed, with a few exceptions. The ratings are something like this:
1 - 0-25'/mile. Flat.
2 - 25-50'/mile. Rolling.
3 - 50-75'/mile. Hilly.
4 - 75-100'/mile. Nasty.
4+ - >100'/mile. Might as well be mountain biking.

Most of my rides are in the 40-60'/mile range. Riding on the flats is a treat and doesn't insult me in the slightest. Unfortunately the only place that is flat locally is downtown and I don't care much for urban riding.

My most severe road bike rides are around 90'/mile, and I'm pretty beat after them.

There are no sustained climbs to help the numbers here. The highest is about 375' at around 15% grade.

One of our OCD hammerheads actually tabulated every single worthy hill within 50 miles of here. I reckon I've climbed about ten of them. Here is the site if anyone is interested: http://www.louisvillebicycleclub.org/climbs2.htm
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