The ramps for the overpasses on one of our local trails are about this steep, some less so. They are tough to climb and the longer your ride, the more you have to contend with. Sometimes, by the end of a ride I'm so tired I have to walk up them just to conserve enough energy to finish.

But if you keep your effort level constant and allow your speed to fall as you climb, you get less tired, which is something.

IMO SF ain't got **** on Seattle, mainly cause the hills in SF can be avoided to go most places you want to go....not so true in Seattle.

Yeah, we got mad street credz here!

From what I've read it would be right above the road bike's 98% efficiency (assume they were testing the best of the best to get that number, so would drop it down a little bit for your average road bike).

A planetary/internal gear hub is more in the 93% range, unless you get into the $1,000+ Rohloff stuff.

So going from 98% to say 99%, won't really be too apperent to the rider, while not being able to shift will make a world of difference in feel.

+1

biking in duluth is like swimming in the north sea

seattle has the most hilly downtown core of any US city.
there is no way around it if you need to ride downtown.. 38x20 would be the only way i could imagine doing it fixed.
instead, i just take long routes around and attack my downtown targets from easier (yet longer away) trajectory

If that is 33% then one of this hills is well over 33%. But it is only a block long. The other hill is closer to 15-20 from the pics I have seen, but it is closer to a quarter mile long. There are tons of very short yet very steep hill here in Collinsville IL, where I live. Luckily most of them are preceded by short downhill for me to gain speed, just not these two.

To everyone who says to change my gearing, I've been planning on it, just ran out of money for this project. I'm going to go with a 53:20 which should be the in between a 44:16 and 44:17. as long as the number of teeth on a cog is linearly equivalent to the cogs diameter. Does anyone know whether this is true or not? I've been wondering about it while doing calculations to see what gearing I should get that would be easiest on the budget and not having to replace the crank is always a cheaper solution so staying at a 53T chainring with a different rear cog size would be the best option for me.

So, basically you need my MTB to get anywhere there. These hills I'm having issue with are nothing when you have a lowest available gearing of 22:35..... actually they are still hard cause you have to have such a high cadence to even be moving at all. :lol:

Well my touring bike has a 22-32-42 crank on it.....

It's nice to have options.

That is what my MTB has on it, along with a shimano mega range rear cassette. :lol: It can conquer some hill... but sucks for road use.

true dat

http://gallery.me.com/aaronshort1/10...12948105370001

though I do use this bike for regular road use

The only places I ever avoided going in Seattle I've ever avoided riding fixed were Queen Anne from downtown and Discovery Park, and then those few roads going up from Alaskan or Pike Place to 1st (I've made it up one before but it wasn't worth the effort). There's a few others but nothing I'm ever around.

I ran 48x20 but now I ride the road bike round town.

Yes, I have walked my bike once because of a ridiculous headwind that was something around 20+ mph.

Last summer, I used a SS bike in the desert because I thought SS was fine for endless flatness. It is. It is not fine for endless headwind. I learned that I would have much better off bringing my road bike. :P

No effin joke, that. One of the very few things not to like about that town. Downtown's even a little freaky in a car with no snow on the ground.

i did lunges today after not doing them for 2 years. amazing how i immediately noticed the development of more muscle capacity on the ride home from the gym.

Me and my fiancé have started doing yoga, and not that just relax and stretch yoga. It involve these things that they call the "warrior position" it is like doing lunges on crack. My legs were killing me afterwards. I was hoping that yoga would make me more flexible for rock climbing, but I think it is going to make me gain muscle more than it is going to help be become more flexible.....

I think we could all go back and forth about differences in torque and acceleration between ss and multi-speeds. but really its about what kind of engine is behind that machine. and theres a supercharger ready to ride in this one.
:love::love::love::love::love::love::love::love: