If it doesn't slow you down at least 50% it ain't no stinking hill. On the flats I will be doing 14 to 18 MPH. On a real hill I am down to 3.5 MPH before I start doing switch-backs on 20% grades.

The only hills where I live are overpasses. It gets old quickly. Treasure those hills.

Richard

Well ..... I'm slower on the way up and faster on the way down. It all evens out in the end.

there's a big difference between 20mi at that speed and 75 miles at that speed. Yowch.

I think you're calculating the grade incorrectly. Either that, or it's 10 feet long. There's very little chance you can sustain 8 mph on a 26% grade. The most I've ridden is 11% and it's steep. Most average people have trouble WALKING up 11%. A highway on ramp is, I believe, about 4%. A 26% gradient would be more than SIX times that steep.

how much does a hill slow me down? kinda depends on the grade, doesn't it. there are all sorts of hills around here. some i can blast up 17 mph singing the national anthem. others slow me to a crawl. wjatever/

Some of the figures people are giving here would require over 10W/kg, so I assume they're very short hills...

Hills are what you want to make them. Where I live there are no long hills- Ok a slope for 2 miles at around 5% that takes it out of me but The hills only rise for 600ft at around 12 to15%. They are not hills- just pimples- but do 4 or 5 of them and they are enough. Now if you want a real hill- try offroad. Grades and distance about the same but try them after a wet rainy winter- or in the middle of it and see how a short 15%er can slow you down.

Last year I got a road bike and a certain road hill I do on the MTB with slicks on is hard- The road bike on the same hill but higher gearing is hard- Only thing is the road bike is faster.

Wait, are you saying that because you can't do it, I can't?

Don't you know who I AM?? I'm the Juggernaut, Bytch!


But seriously, it is 26%. It's not very long for sure, but I do have problems with front wheel skip. At my weight, 8mph calculates out to 874 watts. Being that my sprint is somewhere in the 1400's, the physics seem more than realistic.

I have been analysing the data from our last tandem century. On one of the climbs we did approximately 1600 ft in 8 miles. The climb went serious for the last 5 miles where I recorded grades running from 10 to 27%. There was one very brief section of 31%. We found ourselves thinking the 5-7% sections were nice breaks. We were slogging it out in grandma for most of the climb and were passing many singles as we were able to maintain a very steady, relentlous rate of climb. My recorded speed at 27% grade was 5mph. I did not record anything lower than that.

The answer is yes the hills slow you down but if you use the downhills and flats efficiently you can maintain a very decent overall average. We are learning more about our climbing abilities with each new challenge.

For some reason people think if you go uphill at 10mph, and go down the hill at 30mph then your average speed is 20mph. That is not correct. You cannot get the average back with the downhill. The same is true for a headwind. For example if you go uphill for one mile at 6mph it takes 10 minutes to do the climb. If you head downhill at 30mph then it takes 2 minutes to go downhill for a total of 12 minutes for the 2 miles. That is an average of 6 minutes per mile, or 10mph.

It really sucks for headwinds because you have no hill climbing to show for it.

Richard

I have to get a ton better just to suck at climbing!

Incorrect.

You will find that when it comes to average speed the ascents will slow you down more than the descents will ever compensate for.

I feel as if I should have put a 50% to 75% option on here. Too bad I can't edit polls.

The answer is yes the hills slow you down but if you use the downhills and flats efficiently you can maintain a very decent overall average. We are learning more about our climbing abilities with each new challenge.
For some reason people think if you go uphill at 10mph, and go down the hill at 30mph then your average speed is 20mph. That is not correct. You cannot get the average back with the downhill.I did not mean to give the impression you could automatically return your average by speeding downhill. What I meant was what I thought I said but maybe not clear enough. If you are on a long ride and you climb several thousand feet at 5-10 mph over a long period, it will indeed take a long time to increase your average above a 5-10 mph. If you use your flats and downhills efficiently then you will improve your overall average above said climbing averages.

Yes I have no doubt that you can go faster on descents, and flats than going uphill. I don't dispute that. My only point was related to the example I posted, which shows in order to get a 20mph average when doing a 6mph climb for a mile, and 30 mph on the descent you would need 5 miles of descent versus the 1 mile climb to get there. Most of the hilly rides I do are organized, and are loops. That means you climb as much as you descend. There is nowhere to make up the average versus a flat ride.

My post was not directed to you personally. It is just a common thing I see.
Richard

Point taken and understood.

The handy way to talk about hilly routes is the amount of climbing per mile. The more climbing per mile, the slower the average speed. I'll throw out some personal estimates for a long ride of several hours:

Vertical Feet/mile -> Average Speed Range (mph)
Steepness of the road is also a factor, since you slow down more on steep climbs and you can't make it up on the descents. Compare Breathless Agony and Mulholland Challenge, for example. Their vertical stats are about the same (106-108 ft/mile), yet my average speed at Breathless was about 1 mph faster than at Mulholland. The difference is that Mulholland has several steep climbs, while Breathless mostly has long gradual climbs.

Yep, blame that darn viscous air we have to move through. That's what limits our speed on the descents. And turns.

I hit 57 mph on a hill once. I was flying.

The math is correct but are the hills the half mountains like we have here in W PA that you have to tackle no matter where you ride. Always cuts your average mph, regardless of how great a climber you are.