What's the grade?
 

Ok...so the past few days I've been trying to challenge myself with hills that before I avoided like the plague. Today I rode up a pretty scary hill around 11am and did it around 8 mph from bottom to top. Does anyone here have any idea how to figure the grade of a hill? For those of us (ME) who are mathematically challenged....keep it simple. :D

Rise divided by length. If you gain 200 ft. of altitude in a mile: 200/5280 = 3.8% grade. We math-impaired people have to stick together.

Thats not a hill- Its a slope. Sorry about that but I divide height climbed into distance so 200metre climb in 1000metre will be 200/1,000 will equal 1 in 5 or 20 % Exactly the same maths but why worry- Hills are only good for going down and then the only thing to worry about is do my brakes work.

I've found it best just to go down hills.

Yeah, but what i can't figure out is how much elevation has been achieved in a given distance. How does one know that?

I have a cyclometer that will indicate the grade. While it's not 100% accurate it works pretty well.

Google Earth or http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/