At what point does a false flat become a climb?
 

Is it a function of grade or grade over distance or something else?

Inquiring minds.

It becomes a climb the instant you start pedalling up the grade, no matter the grade over distance! That's my opinion, anyway! :thumb:

When I am on the verge of being dropped.

As soon as you start changing to a lower gear- You are on a climb. To be a slope though is a different matter- and as for Hills_____________When do they turn into Mountains?

I don't think there is any technical quantitative specification. Basically, it's a perceptual thing. You think it's flat, it looks flat, yet your going pretty slow compared to what you're use to for how hard you're pedaling. Going the other way, you think it's flat, it looks flat, yet your going significantly faster than you would on a truly flat road.

This road appeared to be flat for 26 miles.
Looking back you could tell, but not while riding forward.

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...lesuphil-1.jpg

SKT, I suppose a false flat is technically a climb or a decent, but I still consider it the same as riding on level ground.

Brad

Go riding through Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway and you'll see some false flats.

I'm thinking that as long as you're sitting in the saddle and spinning away, it's a false flat. When you start standing on the pedals, lowering your cadence and grinding away, it's a climb.

A false flat is simply an optical illusion. There are different variations of these illusions. Here's one that many perceive as going up hill, but actually they are going downhill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJYuF2sYzGw

As soon as I have the need to downshift :D

This is assuming there isnt a sudden change in wind direction.

When your heart rate monitor starts to beep "over-range."

+1 As soon as I have to downshift.

When it hurts.

Hmmm is this a trick or something? A "false flat" can not be flat or it wouldn't be false now would it? Therefore it has to be an elevation increase. In other words, it is a climb. It might not be much of a climb. It might be what I would call a "rise". But it is just a matter of semantics.

I would just as soon avoid a discussion on the exact definition of what consitutes a climb. I mean we would have to hash out the minimum percent grade involved and the minimum elevation increase involved. Personally, I think "climbs" are in the eye of the beholder. If you think that it is a climb, it is.

Here's a pretty good definition of a false flat; take note of the last paragraph.
http://www.fitsugar.com/What-False-Flat-8216271
"You know that sensation when you're on a stretch of road, either running or cycling, and it looks flat but you're still huffing and puffing? When you look at the road or trail straight on there is no perceptible rise in the terrain, yet you're working extra hard to maintain your speed? That, my dear, is a false flat, and the roads in my neck of the woods are full of them. The slow creep of roads away from the San Francisco Bay offer many almost imperceptible uphill grades, but I have felt them elsewhere. False flats are deceptive and can be soul crushing; unlike discernible hills, there is no victorious summit creating a sense of accomplishment and a bit of glorious descent. One biking forum explained that the grade of these ascents as only being one to two percent, but that is enough to feel it on the climb up.

Coming down a false flat on the other hand makes you feel quite speedy, but rarely will one attribute their sudden speed to the downhill false flat. The term seems mostly used to explain the difficult, if imperceptible climbs."

False flat is just a name someone came up with to describe the perception of flat road when it is actually a grade.
One time I was in a group going up a slight grade along a creek. Vallygirl was there and she commented that the creek was running "the wrong way".

Did you ever see the movie "The Englishman who went up a hill and came down a mountain"?

Thanks, all, for your perspectives. I got curious about this yesterday... we have a number of these kinds of roads in town.
I look straight ahead and it's just a flat road. I look off to the side and it shows a pretty decent slant.
I checked my Garmin -yeah, I know- and it says it's around 3%
So, I got to thinking... is this a climb?

Something similar happens on a "real" (>6%) climb... look straight ahead and you feel like you're crawling.
Look to the side and you can see you're actually moving at a pretty good clip... and I only climb at around 6-8 mph

I think this is a philosophical question/issue, something akin to:

I pedal, therefore I am.

When we were kids, we would periodically go visit what we called "gravity hill". You could stop your car or bike, let it coast, and swear you were watching it roll uphill.

I call the next step up from a false flat an "incline".

Yeah, that's what is happening here, but instead of calling it "gravity hill" they credit it to ghosts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDeSS9isS9c&feature=fvsr

Off topic, but I just want to say I'd kill for a shoulder that wide, even in that treeless expanse!

Especially one like that with no rumble strips.

4 years ago and I climbed Ventoux. Not so much difficult but it was one continual hard slog in 28/28. Got to the cafe about 2/3rds up and you turn right up to a left hairpin.

Now remember that I was tired- legs were aching and I was in the lowest gear on the bike from about 1/2 mile from the bottom with a cadence of around70. First thing I noticed was that cadence went up to around 85 so I changed up a gear then another. False Flat? Noway- it was just that the 8% slope had turned into a 5%.

False flats? I've experienced a few of them and it they are optical illusions.

Way back when I was a kid, the main highway between Hobart and Launceston in Tasmania had a stretch of road that certainly looked as flat as a pancake. But this stretch also featured "The Disappearing House". As the car progressed along the two-mile stretch, the house in the distance would slowly sink and disappear behind a hillock. An illusion, of course, due to the very very slight decline in the road. REalignment of the highway eventually steered vehicles away from the illusion.

About 50km north of Hobart is a hamlet called Colebrook. Heading north out of town, for all the world a rider would expect to spin through the gears and pick up speed. But it is not unusual for neophytes to puff and pant and check their brakes in a vain attempt to see what is holding them back. The incline is so subtle that is it an illlusion.

The optical illusions can occur even when the road is flat. I could have sworn on the first night of the Last Chance 1200 heading east out of Boulder than the road was rising. Tunnel vision in a bicycle headlight created the illusion this time.

Over the range from where we live, the country appears for all the world to be flat, but putting wind aside, it's not unusual for our legs to start dragging ever-so-slightly as the terrain dips and rises.

Taking all that into account -- a false flat is a climb (or a descent if going in the opposite direction).

The Badger rail "trial" is like that. Where I start from represents the high point on the trail. It slopes in both direstions about 1-2% for several miles. It is a great ride in either direction because you feel like a well oiled machine! At the turnaround point you still feel like a machine, however, one with a sad set of wheels!

Ha, I did exactly that when cycling in the White Mountains last year. Eventually I stopped and let the bike roll backwards; only then I was convinced it was a climb.

When you downshift it's a climb.

When you run out of gears it's a hill. (Am I the only one who adjusts the trim on my biggest cog so that the chain ticks and lets me know that there is no more hope of relief?)

When you stand up it's a mountain.

KeS

Quite possibly.