X-cuse me, I just move from panckake flat Florida to hilly Arkansas and I'm at a loss with "grade measurement". I did my first ride today and there's a killer hill right in front of the apt complex. really fun going down, frustrating going back up.

My doubt is that the "my tracks" android app is saying that the min grade was -11% and the max grade was 7%. I'm gonna assume that the -11% was the killer hill going down. But why isn't there a max grade of +11%? Was it because I took so long going back up that it didn't register it?

Oh and is an 11% grade supposed to feel like a wall or am I just to fat for this sport?

grade = slope of the hill

so if y is your elevation displacement, and x is your horizontal displacement, grade would be y/x*100%. 7% vs -11% just means you were on the 7% climb for a greater distance than you spent on the -11% descent.

Everyone is too fat for this sport.

Don't worry about what the app says, ride that hill until its your *****.

I will. It's inevitable since it's the hill to enter/exit the apt complex :\ I shall master that hill, or else.

PS: What's the grade on Pcad's MT Doom?

How would I know. But good luck on mastering that hill.

2%.

Grades measured descending are often less accurate as you have less sampling of the slope as you're moving more quickly, I tend to believe grades measured uphill a little more.

Fun chart

https://www.neonmaterialhandling.com/...on%20Chart.pdf

Here is the nastiest climb I've tried.
I *might* have been able to do it if it was paved.
But the damned thing is narrow as hell, loose gravel, and full of drainage ruts.
IIRC, my Garmin was indicating over 20% near the top.

11% I consider a decent climb. 15% starts getting some respect. 20% I start cursing. 25% I start begging for easier gears and bigger lungs.

This is all relative to the distance of course, this weekend I'll be doing an 8 mile climb that averages around 11% or so for the last three miles. That thing sucks!!!

Bring the barf bag.

11% for eight miles without stopping is truly impressive. I just did 8% for 1.1 and was wondering who the joker that put pepper spray in my lungs was!

This grasshopper has much to learn...

I was excited that one of the climbs I do is a Strava segment, which shows elevation gain. But only 387 fteet in 1 mile. That's only 7.3% over the mile climb, pretty pitiful, especially the way it made me hurt (at first). But there are steeper sections, some false flats, and one slight downhill portion. I wanted to figure out how steep the steepest section is, but never plugged it into mapmyride, etc.

Edit: so I plugged the climb into mapmyride, and it turns out one section just before halfway is 18%. That 1/10 mile is the part that kills me, and I have another half mile to go to the top.

Any grade in the double digits at any good distance always made me wonder why I even got on it in the first place. But as soon as I finish the climb, I can't wait to try it again. Such a weird thing.

Slow down, sparky. 11% over 8 miles is roughly 4600ft. There is no climb in WV that big, given that the high point is 4863 and the low point is 240 and these two points are separated by 150mi.

If you notice I said the last three miles averages 11%.

Here is the climb. 8.7 miles, 2,760 feet climbing. Elevation difference 2,385 feet.

https://app.strava.com/activities/12332661#210699829

After looking closer the last 2 miles averages 11%. The sign says next three miles though. Oh well.

Wasn't disputing what YOU said, just what HE heard. Hell, I don't think there's a 4600ft climb anywhere east of the mississippi. Mount Mitchell gains like 5200ft from Marion but that can hardly be considered a continuous climb.

Just slightly beyond vertical most days, but MT Doom is of the uber rare "RVG" class of climbs. Only two other Randomly Variable Grade climbs are known to exist and they are both located within Area 33, the secret US cycling development facility.

I'll be doing this climb over the weekend as well. I would like to do them both in one day, have to see how the knees and quads feel.

https://app.strava.com/activities/12050627#207100473

Sorry, I changed it after I realized that I was wrong after all.

For the record, I'll be climbing roughly 1,000 feet over 50 miles on Sunday. So there.

After re-reading it he wasn't disputing what I said.

Reading is fundamental. You might want to try it. I didn't quote LowCel.

Overpasses?

Those are both outstanding climbs. I spend a lot of time down near Paint Bank VA and the climbs there are somewhat similar. Here's a good one: https://app.strava.com/segments/1190111