Since I started using Cyclemeter, it tells me I've ridden 897 times with an average distance of 27 miles and an average elevation gain of 750 ft. That's a little under 28 ft/mile, aka not very much climbing at all. That does include a couple of years riding in Florida, though.

I am not sure what my average is precisely, but living in a hilly area, I know my "flatter" routes are about 50ft/mile and a hilly one is over 100ft/mile climbing. So the avg. here is likely around 75ft/mile or so, but possibly a bit more.

My average ride this year is just under 50 miles with a little over 3000 feet of climbing, pretty much any ride around here will average at least 50' per mile.

Average ride is 27 miles
Average gain 1,223 feet or about 410 meters or 45’ per mile. Total gain as of last month, 182,300’,

is this a useful metric?

this thread is really really old by the way.

More useful than (yuck) average speed imo.

Agree it’s an old/zombie thread but we should probably forgive the new guy who bumped it.

I'm re-gearing my MBGR for the hills on the routes where I live now. Back over a decade, before the move that put me here, the stock gearing (bought new April '72) was just peachy for the (mostly) flat terrain.

There's a hill here Strava pegs at .69 mile in length, 250' elevation. I use it for component testing as well as a measure of my fitness.

Yes, very useful for me, as it directly affects the average speed I can expect when I plan my rides - there's a direct correlation in my records between average speed and feet/mile. A ride with 100ft/mile can take me twice as long for the same distance as one of only 50ft/mile. Therefore this affects when I decide to start the ride - the hillier (slower) ride will start earlier in the day, and end about the time I like to get back.

The smallest route I typically go on since moving to The Bay Area is about 25mi and 1,150 ft. I have a handful of routes between 30-35mi that are around 1,800 ft, and those are my most common, allowing me to get about 100 mi a week and 5k ft of climbing in over 3 rides, excluding errands and such.

Yesterday was a big one at 40mi and 3,400 ft

Gotta love thread revive!

My average ride is 50km & 900m of total elevation at 32kph. For imperial lovers, it's 30mi & 3000ft at 20mph, more or less.

20 mph solo on a 100 ft/mile course is fast, REALLY FAST!

Chapeau.

Thank you! To play the devil's advocate, what goes up must go down! ;) Group rides are even faster, but my power remains the same thanks to the laws of physics!

I start and end at the same place. My elevation gain is zero. But there is a lot of climbing involved in getting there.

You know he meant the total elevation during a ride, right? :innocent:

I design my group rides for 50'/mile. That seems a comfortable amount for many riders and usually good for flat skills as well as climbing skills.

My usual 60-mile loop has about 3000 ft of elevation (rolling hills)

Since I've been using Strava(2019,) I'm averaging about 122'/mile. All the riding here is either up or down, even the "flattest" ride I did this year was 86'/mile gain.

Such an underachiever. 😉 Keep it up!

My average loop ride outside my door is about 120' per mile.
If I feel up to it and include the steeper grades, that can kick up to 150' per mile.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f11517eabd.jpg

now that we are pissing here is my stream...
only 70'/mi but i claim tiredness after 8 hours of work.
i'm actually more impressed that i got a few PRs on this ride.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5bd817b4d2.png

A big climbing day

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...197b3b183.jpeg

i still question the usefulness of this metric. i often read that 100 ft/mi is some sort of benchmark. but that is not quite a 2% grade. i doubt most here are riding 2% grades from start to finish. most of mine are 5+%. maybe a better metric would be average grade for distances with grades > 0%?

you are 100% correct but would need a spreadsheet to do the calculations ride after ride.

I'll bet that most of your rides are actually 0% grade (average) from start to finish.

Think about it.

I think that would be virtually impossible to calculate for a ride of any reasonable length, unless there is some software out there with which I'm not familiar. (And no, a spreadsheet would be of no help.)

of course, all my rides start and end at the same place. but that is not really what this thread is about, although the title is misleading. but i think you already know that.

yes, i agree, very unlikely without to compute in your head or with a simple calculation. piece of cake with a small program though. spreadsheet...? yeah, no way.