^^^ What Bruce just asked, please answer so we know.

Bill

To find grade without having all the fancy equipment, I take a topo map to see the elevation change and then divide the elevation change by the distance along the stretch of road and then multiply by 100 to get the percent grade. Example 100 feet of elevation over 100 feet of ride would be 100% grade which is only a 45 degree angle of climb. Some of you could probably do that in the big ring.

I started riding again after 100 years only 11 months ago. At the time I under stood gearing mechanics but had no idea what rations I needed for the steep hills around Las Vegas. I bought a Giant Defy 2 compact with a 12-25 cassette. Not good. But the bike was stolen. Now I had an idea of what kind of climbing I had to do and replaced the Giant with a Trek 2.1 with APEX. The casstte on this thing is 11-32. I didn't miss gears to much because the Giant was a 9 speed and this one is a 10 speed. Funny thing, the Giant was an endurance bike with heavy 25C tires and the Trek frame is a bit more aggressive with thin walled 23C tires. As it turned out I end up in 28 instead of 32 largely because the geometry is more efficient. One day I expect the 25 will work just fine as I am getting stronger everyday.

In my dreams. LOL.

Does anyone have an on-line site that will allow me to click on roads to get elevations? I've been searching for the past 15 minutes to no avail.

No, but you may want to check local bike clubs website. We have a site that lists the profile, elevation and % grade of the more significant local climbs. The other way to get elevation is to use Google Earth. Open the program and select the city. You can zoom in to find the road that you want. Mouse over the rode and at the bottom you will see the elevation in meters.

If you use Ridewithgps and go into create route mode, all you have to do is create a very short route segment and the elevation profile will pop up. Just click "undo" and select another "segment"

See my Avatar:rolleyes::rolleyes:

All I want to know is how the council employee who measured the degree of Slope on these hills managed to underestimate by at least a couple of % and then managed to bribe Garmin to agre with him.

Any "Estimation" that we can do is only approximate and in general will only give an average.

Supposing you know that a certain height climb is 200ft. (From Maps or survey) And that the distance covered to get that height climb is 880 yards which is 2,640 ft. Divide the 200 into 2640 as a percentage and it will be 7.575% slope. Or will it because that is an average and some parts will be steeper and some will be less. I have a 5,000ft long hill (Good enough for this )that is offroad and is a climb of 680 ft and that will give an average of 13% Yet my garmin shows anything between 8 and 22% for that hill. Believe me- I know when I hit the 22%.

Anyone else having problems posting a reply here? I've been trying using Mozilla and now I'm using Microsoft. But, using Mozilla I have no problems posting on other sites. I'm confused.

Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. Great companion to hill climbing cycling.

http://i414.photobucket.com/albums/pp230/igonator/5.jpg

http://i414.photobucket.com/albums/p...onator/RMT.jpg

Yeah, ridewithgps.com works great, and it's very easy to draw a route, give it a name, and save it.

See this thread reply for some more info you can get on hills from ridewithgps routes. You can see local grades in the middle of a climb, total elevation, etc.

I got on ridewithgps and mapped a route but I can't seem to access the elevations for the entire route. One section of the ride (about a 1.8 mi. segment) is blue and I don't know why. It's the only section with the elevation data at the bottom. How do I get back to elevations for the entire route?

You might try http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/

Kind of got ridewithgps figured out. At least I mapped my 24 mi. ride and it showed 1650 ft. of climbing. Have no idea how that compares to anyone else's rides though. Is it a decent amount of climbing?

Most flat-landers will find it a bit of a push. Many hill country people will call it a moderate ride. Grade and overall elevation will matter.

Generally, the flattest ride we have locally is 50 feet per mile. If I leave my house and ride up and down the local hills to the top of Skyline it is 100 feet per mile. On occasion, I ride to my wife's office for a lunch ride with her and we climb Mount San Bruno which is 1400 feet. The ride to her office along the bay is flat and all the climbing occurs up the mountain. That is a tougher ride than the 50 feet per mile flat to rolling.

I would definitely say that 1650 feet is descent in 24 miles of riding. If all the climbing is on one steep section then it is hard.

1650 feet per mile? I thought he said 1650 feet in 24 miles. 1650 feet in a mile and asphalt will sag off the mountain in hot weather. That's better than a 30* grade. If you gain 1650 every mile for 24 miles you will out climb Mt Everest. LOL! I'm not wishing to be a smart ass; I must have missed something.

Have to agree with Igo but on a 24 mile ride I doubt you would be climbing continually. I have a 30 mile ride from home and have 5 miles with a few ups and downs. Next mile is a 500ft climb- then 1 mile rest and in the next mile is another 500ft. Fast downhill and the next 3/4 mile and 450ft climb So in about 4 miles I will do 1450 ft of climbing. Then if I want I can do 2 miles for coffee then another 1,000ft of climbing on two hills in the next 2 miles. So around 2,500 ft of climbing in a total of 8 miles but on a 30 mile ride.

I would look at 1650 ft in 24 miles as being a respectable ride but it is not a mountain. They have something like 5 to 6,000 ft elevation on 10 miles or so. Now that can be hard.

My favorite ride accumulates 2500 feet in 25 miles. Much of this ride is boogy time but there are short sections of 18% grades that are a smack down for me, but my bike legs are getting studier every day.

Just for fun, on a perfectly unbroken grade, in this country-lower 48, 583 feet per mile would be the maximum grade one could achieve at 24 miles if the summit of Mt Whitney were 24 miles from the coast. But buzzards would be picking out my eyeballs somewhere between mile 3 and 4. :twitchy:

The 12-30 shifts beautifully with the Ultegra Di2. I did need to turn the "B" screw to a near limit. I will revert to an Ultegra cassette after Ride the Rockies.

The climb up Cadillac Mountain in Acadia Nat'l Park is 1000ft in 3.3 miles. It's a pretty consistent grade. I've done it twice after riding the Park Loop Road, which is 1200ft of climbing in about 16 miles, never without stopping a few times to eat something or breathe. It is work! Worth all the effort though. My gearing was 34 front/28 rear. I wouldn't want to do it with gearing much higher.

http://users.rcn.com/jimmuller/pics/near_the_top.jpg

When I finished last year I did the park Loop Road again. My altimeter read 3400ft total climbing. Of course, a lot of the Park Loop Road's uphill is done by coasting down the previous hill! That helps a lot. ;)

jimmuller,

Did the lack of a shoulder on that highway bother you? Where is Cadillac Mountain? I assume it is in one of the Maritime Provinces.

Cadillac Mountain is in Acadia National Park, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. And that's sure not a highway! It's a parkway, plain and simple, with nothing at the top except a little gift shop and this view:

http://users.rcn.com/jimmuller/pics/top_of_Cadillac.jpg

Occasionally one has to pull over to let a tour bus go by on a tight switchback, but mostly one is engaged in a mighty struggle against gravity.

I live for this stuff. My hood is gorgeous too.

We Europeans have it right---Or rather the French do.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=249229

Mont Ventoux and this is the Cycle track on the Ascent. Descent and no need as the cars can't keep up with the bikes due to the speed limit.