xg43x

Im no mountain goat, but Ive ridden up South Gate and halfway down North Gate and back to South Gate and felt like I had some juice left. Count me in.

Beaker

Cool - I think we'll have a similar amount of total elevation as a double Diablo, but with a larger percentage of summit wall style climbing by the end

xg43x

Bring on the pain!

tohso

how about moeser lane as a warm up?

shatdow

I am going to try climbing Marin this week to see if I can make it. May need to put the triple back on, current low gear is 42x26. That has got me up all the other climbs so far but the >25% on Marin might just be my undoing.

Beaker, I totally agree about Centennial, the section just after the right-hand bend past the first LBL gate is simply crawling.

Beaker

Now that's just not helpful

You can only make suggestions for additional pain if you're coming...

Beaker

If you can make it up the other climbs in a 42x26 then that's pretty darned impressive, whatever happens on Marin.

jeffy1021

I went down part of Marin from Grizzly Peak this morning and I do not see how anyone can ride up that thing. Even going down, I felt like I was about to fall over the bars. Props for for those participating in this madness.

Beaker

Sheesh - I would consider riding DOWN Marin to be a Death Ride all by itself! You'd always be more than welcome to join us after Marin of course.

Bostic

Looking over the road on google maps, it appears there is not much room to zig zag. When ever those images were taken there were a lot of leaves, debris, etc on the road. Not the type of thing you want the tires to slip on when out of the saddle in your lowest gear. Does Marin see much traffic early in the morning?

Beaker

Yeah - that's got me thinking a little bit too. The other climbs are all fine - but I do think we probably need to do Marin early to minimize potential for traffic. From my take, not having climbed it by *bike* yet, is that the first block is pretty steep, then the intervening blocks up to Euclid are moderate to pretty steep but nothing too far out of the ordinary compared to some other climbs in the area. The top three blocks look like the worst and yes, I'm thinking zig-zagging opportunities might be a little restricted, but there are bail out, flat options at every junction on the way up. I think that breaking it into bite size pieces is the key.

powpow

On the weekend it shouldn't be too bad, though you'll probably only want to zig-zag on one side of the road. Marin is a very fast way to get from Grizzly Peak down to the flats of Berkeley and Albany, so there is usually some traffic. Cars go slow on the uphill, but it's a well-used road despite its steepness.

Beaker

So how'd that work out for you? Are you still alive?

jonathanb715

I * might * be in. I've had a horrible couple of months with a lot of back problems, then was sick on the Death Ride (still did 65 miles/7,000 feet of climbing, but only 2 passes), so I might not be in shape. However, my ex. has the kids that weekend and no soccer games scheduled - yet. We'll see.

JB

Edit: I knew this would happen! Not even 24 hours after I posted, and I get word that the season-opening tournament is set for the 29th/30th, and my oldest son has 4 soccer games for sure (more if they keep winning). So now I'm out for the ride. I'm sure you're all shocked

spingineer

Ok, I'm in.

shatdow

Heh, wish I could say I got around to it, but did not. Out of town for work till the 4th, then *hopefully* will get to this ASAP.

spingineer

Damn, I'm out. Just found out I'm on call that weekend. It'll be interesting to see if this is tougher, or the BOO/Hicks, what I call Almaden Death Ride.

Beaker

That's a shame, Ron. Others who made the Almaden ride will have to make that call, but I *think* this'll end up being a more doable ride, especially with an early start. I'm not sure if I'll get to pre-ride Marin, but I think that the top section of that will be heroic - but short. And we do it first.

Beaker

Bump. I just got hold of a copy of John Summersons "The Complete Guide to Climbing (by bike)". The bay area looks a little under-done, but Marin does get the following starting sentence:

"Marin may contain the most difficult half and full mile of climbing in the U.S."

I updated the original post with a bikely route (incl. comments).

BenRidin

I noticed! Very informative.

Thanks for putting it together.

BR

chrisoco

Count me in.

uspspro

PS- we are doing it on the tandem

... unless my back doesn't get better.

It's still hurting a bit now, but feels like it improving. 99% sure it will be fine by this ride. 90% sure it will be good enough for Hamilton this weekend.

powpow

uspspro

28x28 low gear with a cadence of 40 = 3.1 mph

Hopefully, we won't go any slower than that... but it has happened before

Beaker

Updated the list

I still have a nasty feeling that I may well end up "leading" this ride from the back. Given that it's a bit twisty on El Toyonal, no-one's allowed to completely drop me until the end of Death Climb 4, mmmkay?