The office I work at is relocation to an industrial park just outside of the city and it's likely I won't be able to ride my bike there. My employer will hire buses to take us to the new site daily, so wouldn't need to use a car.

While it's not that much far from what I currently ride (20kms, current commute is 15km) is all uphill, unlike my current commute which is mostly flat.

I'm planning to make a test ride over the weekend to figure out just how "impossible" the ride is (and exact data on altitude, Google Earth is a little wonky on the info, gives me a maximum 49% ascent, wth?). Plan B would carrying my bike on the bus in the morning and then ride home in the afternoon.

I'm really upset about this change and the prospect of not being able to use my bike at all during the week :/ I've even thought about leaving this job, but sadly there aren't many positions for my career over here. I'd have to move to a different city.

? Buses? Why can't you just keep biking to the same place and then take a bus?

Some of those grade calculations are a bit off, but 49%?? I'd ride that just for the bragging rights!

49% grade? How long an ascent could this be? Walk it up, if need be. Heck of a descent, though, going home.

Do you have showers at the new facility? If so....I'm sure you could get there via bike...will just be a serious training type ride if it really is up a serious grade the entire way. Then you get to just cruise all the way home.

Chile? which City?

Are they building in the Andes?! that 49% grade may be as the crow flies but hard to imagine they'd build a road that steep, especially in Chile where the soils are more susceptible to erosion.

maybe an eBike?

We have showers at our current location, so I don't see why not there too. Haven't been to the new offices yet though.

I want to thank you guys for your encouragement. My coworkers and fellow cyclists were pushing me down on the idea of keeping bike commuting, but you're making me feel it's possible. Some people already think I'm crazy for commuting 15kms.

The new location is outside of the urban limits of the city so employers there offer daily transportation, be it buses or vans (as there's no public transportation available). I'm thinking that it'd be easier to ride home than to try to ride against the clock, since I'm not really good at climbing.

I re-checked Google Earth and seems the error is because, at one point, the altitude drops down to 0 and then goes back again to the correct value. In reality it's more between 3%-6% average and 12% max.

I'll update when I have actually done a test ride to let you know if it was as awful as everyone wants me to believe it is.

Antofagasta, in the North of Chile.

Here's a screen capture of Google Earth, I chose a slightly different route than the one I'm planning to do (to avoid the altitude glitch).

Captura-de-pantalla-2016-12-14-a-las-14.14.39.jpg

Just commit to doing it. Assuming your office isn't on top of a mountain and your house is at the bottom, the grade probably isn't THAT bad.

I commute the same distance, 12 miles each way, 3 times a week. I don't have hills here, but I don't have showers either, and I wear a shirt & tie everyday. The only real challenge for you might be the climb, but I bet it isn't as bad as you think it will be.

My commute distance increased from about 11 miles (18 km) to about 16 miles (26 km) each way about five years ago. Initially I thought I might not be able to continue commuting the longer distance but decided to give it a go. Although my commuting time increased by about 20-25 minutes, it didn't feel much more physically demanding, and I have continued bike commuting at about the same frequency as before the move. My commute route is very hilly, but not extremely steep and the longest climbs are about .5 km.

If your commute is mostly uphill in one direction, then it will be a very easy ride in the other direction. Give it a try. You might find that it's not as bad as you anticipate.

I just looked it up. I think I want to move to Antofagasta lol!

OK, I just looked up your route on google earth and went to a street view. That's a pretty gorgeous ride, and the grade can't be absolutely terrible. If you take the bus I'm coming down there and doing the commute for you

https://www.google.com/maps/@-23.721...7i13312!8i6656

It seems like your total time isn't changing much. Can you offset your working schedule a half hour later, or your home schedule a half hour earlier?

Wait, you can't build a road with a 49% grade. How could anything even get up that without a chairlift?!

Looks like the record is 35% in New Zealand



edit: 35 is the record for residential street. Looks like 37 is the record overall, in Pittsburgh:

Cool! But 37 is not 49 tho. And it's damn short. I could push my bike up that for a few dozen meters.

If after your test ride it seems like too difficult (nothing wrong with doing it slow and it hopefully becoming easier over time), I was also going to suggest busing in and riding home. You might want to try to add a few more miles to the ride home to make it a longer workout.

I know photos have a way of "flattening" a hill, but that still looks steep! If I had to commute on that, I think I'd walk my bike in both directions.

Well, pretty much any grade on a road is doable with a granny gear...but yea, going down might be dicey, especially with cobblestones, especially with a cross street at a blind intersection at the bottom lol

Any grade? Not in my book. I rode to the top of Brasstown Bald in the north Georgia mountains one time, with grades exceeding 20%, and I fell over at one point because I couldn't turn the pedals any more.

I have a short climb on my route that hits 30% and it's all I can do to keep my front wheel on the ground. If I stand and lean over the handlebars, I can keep the wheel down, but then my rear wheel spins. I don't think I could ride 37% without really lowering my center of gravity somehow. Going down does look dicey with the cobblestones. And, with that cross street, there's no way to just coast through it.

Well what do I know, we dont have hills here

If you find you can't ride to work any more or that you can't do it as often as you like, you can read on the bus and take rides before or after work or maybe even on your lunch break.

I count mine too. 631 round trips so far!

Rick / OCRR