Sapience

There's a hill near my house that's 18% grade according to my garmin 305. I can climb it in my lowest gears (slowest), but my heart rate shoots up to ~202 bpm by the time I am at the top. What is considered a steep climb, just so I have a comparison?

Crash716

I consider anything over 10% to be steep..there are so many variables that count though...ie..how hard did i prior to the climb..a 5% grade can hurt a lot based on speed.

18% though is damn hearty, how long is the climb?

urbanknight

It's a matter of opinion, but I think most people would consider 18% steep for a road bike.

Beaker

Really, "steep" is whatever you think it is. 18% is certainly steep, although it all depends upon how long the road was at 18%. It's not uncommon to hit silly %'s through switchbacks on climbs, while the actually sustained grade is significantly lower. If 202bpm is pretty close to your MHR (measured, not determined by a formula) then I'm guessing this must have been sustained for a while. Well done for making it up a tough climb either way.

JoelS

10% is steep, 14% is really steep, 18% is stupid steep, at 20% I start wondering if they ran out of money and couldn't afford another switchback.

BarryJo

Steep for someone in Iowa is probably different from steep in Colorada.

patentcad

I have a grade meter on my VDO bike computer. Anything over 9-10% is steep, anything over 12-13% is really steep. Once you get into the 15+% range, it's so steep that incremental increases in steepness (say to 20%) don't seem to matter much, and there aren't too many grades that exceed 20% anyway. 99% of the steepest paved roads are in that 15-18% range, a few start tipping over 20%, but that's rare. The steeper grades coming up Mt. Doom (that's what I call the hill I live on, a mile long) range from 8% - 17%.

10 Wheels

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Sapience

Here is the readout from my garmin; point of interest is right at 7 miles. Not a very long hill at all, but I am new to cycling, as well as just leading an active life style, so it challenged me quite a bit. I'll take a picture of it and put it up here in the next day or two, it looks like you're approaching a wall.



Edit: I guess you have to click to enlarge the picture

Mark Kelly 

To the residents of Baldwin Street, 18% is tame.

To the rest of us, it's lungbustingly steep.

It's all relative.

johnny99

Relative steepness depends a lot on the length. 18% is tough for 1 mile, not so tough for 100 feet.

ericm979

Nice! I've done a lot of tough climbing, and I'd count that one as "steep" for sure.

The more abrupt the change in slope the harder it feels- a 12% hill after a flat seems a lot worse than a 12% pitch in the middle of an 8% climb. This one has that going for it as well. Where is this?

johnny99

State Highway 108 in eastern California:

Sapience

Wouldn't a sustained grade of 18% for a mile+ mean I would climb hundreds of feet in elevation?

umd

Yes, but 18% for how long? I'm guessing that the OP saw 18 flash on the screen for a moment. But maybe it was sustained.

If you really want steep, there are some sustained 30+% paved grades around the world...

agarose2000

My GF in Norcal lives on a friggin 18% hill that's legit - 1100 feet elevation change and about a mile change from bottom to top, with max19% but close to 18% the entire nonstop climb. It's brutal - and when you have to do this climb EVERY time you come back from a ride, it gets tiring quick! Triple please!

umd

Also, it should be mentioned that if you are working harder than you want to, and you are in your lowest gear, you can either tack across the road, or you can stand up. It is easier to sustained slower cadences standing up. Many people incorrectly assume that standing up means that you must work harder, i.e. a "sprint" type effort, but it does not need to be the case. Stand and drop your cadence, and it's like you are climbing stairs, slowly.

Romans8:28

Check it out:

https://googlesightseeing.com/2009/06...epest-streets/

Cool site..... takes you right to "street views" if you click the photo's

johnny99

It's not a real climb without hundreds of feet of elevation change. Anything less than 500 feet is a roller or a speed bump.

johnny99

10 hills in San Francisco with grades from 30% to 37%: https://www.weathersealed.com/2009/11...san-francisco/

umd

18% for a mile would be 950 feet.

nitropowered

I consider anything over 10% steep.

patentcad

If you're a UCI pro.

The idiotic statements I see on the 41 make me wonder how many of you morons actually ride a road bicycle. You know. On the road. In the real physical world and everything.

JoelS

Wow, I guess we have very few "real climbs" here. Though a 400 foot gain at 10% surely feels like a hill.

GP

If you see little piles of concrete at the bottom of a hill, the road might be steep - steep enough for parts of the load to come out of the concrete truck.