Road Bike, Cycling Forums banner
Cancel
Create thread New Forums

Is 13% grade steep?

1 reading
Jump to Latest
41 - 60 of 123 Posts
#42 ·
Did the "Ronde PDX" non-ride-ride recently, and, it goes through a climb that has a max 31% (AVERAGE is like, 22%? But only 0.2 miles).

They don't bother to pave this steep, most of the time, I have no idea whose bright idea that was...

55x11 said:
Looks like San Francisco to me. But amazingly enough, LA has steeper roads than the steepest in SF, and PA has the steepest road (longer than 0.1 miles) yet!
Click to expand...
 
#43 ·
Argentius said:
Did the "Ronde PDX" non-ride-ride recently, and, it goes through a climb that has a max 31% (AVERAGE is like, 22%? But only 0.2 miles).

They don't bother to pave this steep, most of the time, I have no idea whose bright idea that was...
Click to expand...
Sounds very steep!
Anything above 18-20% for even 0.1 miles is ridiculously steep in my opinion.

Canton Ave. in Pittsburgh, PA - 37%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Avenue

Fargo St. in LA, listed between 32% and 35%, depending on the source:
http://www.lawheelmen.org/fargo.htm
http://www.pbase.com/coaster/fargo_street_2005

Also, nearby Eldred, Baxter and 28th Streets in LA
http://www.walkinginla.com/2004/Feb15/EldredSt.html
 
#44 ·
9% and over is steep for most regular recreational riders.
If one doesn't do hills regularly, 9% for 1km will be moderate to hard cycling.

One way to view hills, is by your gear and cadence; or speed.
On a roadie with 700c wheels, 50rpm in 34/25 gives 8.7kph or 5.4mph.
If you struggle to maintain that, it's fair to say you are deep in anaerobic territory and will soon stop from exhaustion.

Also, hills are given average gradients. A 2km 15% hill near me has sections that are 28%.

I am a sports physiologist, and I'd caution anyone deconditioned, and everyone over 35 to respect hills. Very intense efforts on hills seriously stress cardiac muscle. This muscle is just as prone to inflammation and scarring from intense effort as skeletal muscle. As the inflammation settles, fibrotic scarring can occur in the heart muscle. It's called myocardial or cardiac fibrosis. Over time this can compromise electrical conductivity through the heart, and predispose to arrhythmias. This can then end intense exercise, require a pacemaker, or predispose to heart attack or stroke.

There's a growing occurence of this in middle aged guys taking up cycling, in addition to sudden death. Build your intensity up smart everyone.
 
#45 ·
"Incredibly steep"

VIDEO, cannot embed right now

55x11 said:
Sounds very steep!
Anything above 18-20% for even 0.1 miles is ridiculously steep in my opinion.

Canton Ave. in Pittsburgh, PA - 37%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Avenue

Fargo St. in LA, listed between 32% and 35%, depending on the source:
http://www.lawheelmen.org/fargo.htm
http://www.pbase.com/coaster/fargo_street_2005

Also, nearby Eldred, Baxter and 28th Streets in LA
http://www.walkinginla.com/2004/Feb15/EldredSt.html
Click to expand...
 
#46 ·
Now this is steep (km - horizontal, m - vertical) . To translate into feet, you climb around 4,500ft in less than 5mi.

Average: 17.6 %

Length: 7.5 km

Height start: 198 m

Height top: 1515 m

Gradient: 1317 m
 
#47 ·
ridenfish39 said:
Lincoln Gap VT was one of the toughest climbs I have ever been on. It is famed for having the steepest mile of paved road in the US at 20% to 24%.
There is a local road in Bucks Co I climb a lot that has a section that tops out at 27%.
Click to expand...
Uhlerstown Hill Road, across the river from Frenchtown, NJ? If there's a steeper hill in that area, I'm not familiar with it.
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#50 ·
agree that you need to include distance with grade.

a speed bump can be pretty steep.

i ride up a sustained 10.5% for about 1 mile to get home after every ride or commute. seems pretty steep to me, but ride-able every day if i don't attack.
 
#51 ·
I agree with those stating "it depends on how long" the climb is. 13% is steep, but not too bad IF the climb is relatively short IMO. But, it's those 5-7% climbs that last for miles that really get me.
 
#52 · (Edited)
Terex said:
Uhlerstown Hill Road, across the river from Frenchtown, NJ? If there's a steeper hill in that area, I'm not familiar with it.
Click to expand...
LOL....that's it. I love the fact they close the road in the winter. I went up it once one April and there was still snow on the sides.

I'm sure you've done Fiddlers also then. There is so much good riding in Bucks and in NJ it's amazing. I also love doing the dirt roads. Lodi Hill is steep as hell and it's unpaved, the best of both worlds. I went up it on Sunday as part of the 110 miles I did.
 
#53 ·
I'd argue that 12 or so is the beginning of steep-- but it depends on how sustained (like others have said). Many many many roads run sections up to 10%...so they can't all be steep.
17% brutal....then there's this dang thing
 
#54 ·
One of the harder climbs I've done is a 25% called Breakneck in Northwest Jersey. This particular time was the roughest because I was stupid enough to attempt it on a chilly day less than 10 minutes into my ride- big mistake. I was crawling at one point in my 39/25 and worried I would fall over! It hits about 20-25% at 600 ft and stays there for the rest of the climb, hitting 30% for just a few feet around one particular turn. There are steeper hills in the area, though, but I burnt myself out too early on this day (and pulled something in my back) and couldn't go ride them.
Image

Image
 
#55 ·
dr4cats said:
Alpe D'Huez climb is 8.5 mile long, 8.5% average grade and peak grade at 12.5%. And it is a *****; so to answer this question...it all depends how LONG the climb is.
Click to expand...
I've done it a few times, and I didn't think it was that steep. The first few pitches are nasty. 11%, I think. Then it eases up to a fairly reasonable grade for most of the way. The last pitch into the town is the worst, which is in the 12% range.
 
#57 ·
winstonw said:
9% and over is steep for most regular recreational riders.
If one doesn't do hills regularly, 9% for 1km will be moderate to hard cycling.

One way to view hills, is by your gear and cadence; or speed.
On a roadie with 700c wheels, 50rpm in 34/25 gives 8.7kph or 5.4mph.
If you struggle to maintain that, it's fair to say you are deep in anaerobic territory and will soon stop from exhaustion.

Also, hills are given average gradients. A 2km 15% hill near me has sections that are 28%.

I am a sports physiologist, and I'd caution anyone deconditioned, and everyone over 35 to respect hills. Very intense efforts on hills seriously stress cardiac muscle. This muscle is just as prone to inflammation and scarring from intense effort as skeletal muscle. As the inflammation settles, fibrotic scarring can occur in the heart muscle. It's called myocardial or cardiac fibrosis. Over time this can compromise electrical conductivity through the heart, and predispose to arrhythmias. This can then end intense exercise, require a pacemaker, or predispose to heart attack or stroke.

There's a growing occurence of this in middle aged guys taking up cycling, in addition to sudden death. Build your intensity up smart everyone.
Click to expand...
If you struggle to maintain ANY pace at ANY incline (including flat roads) it indicates you will be unable to maintain the pace and will slow down due to getting into anaerobic territory. So what is the point?

Similarly, intense efforts (high intensity training on flat roads is equivalent to hills by the way - nothing special about incline, it's about aerobic output) leading to heart attack or stroke?

Perhaps - in untrained couch potato folks and people with pre-existing and largely genetic heart disorders. But for most of us who are active (even, gasp, those old-timers who are "over 35") the dangers of damaging our hearts from too many intense anaerobic efforts have been overstated and largely debunked. Yes, hearts do get "stressed" during superhuman marathon-type efforts, but even those effects are transient and disappear quite quickly. I think we should be more worried about eating that cheeseburger than climbing that hill.

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/cardiac-fatigue.html
 
#60 ·
cda 455 said:
There's a 1/4 mile hill that connects to my neighborhood street. It's shaped like a fish hook with the bottom of the hill being the straight part of the hook and the curved part of the hook makes up a good 2/3rds of the rest of the hill. The last (Top) 1/3rd of the hill, according to Google Maps, is a 15% grade :eek6: . I've done the hill while seated every time I've ascended it.

I've just rediscovered how to climb out of the saddle so it will be interesting the next time I ride home how I'll do on the 15% grade part of the hill out of the saddle.
Click to expand...
Well, I did the hill today out of the saddle!

Up until now I've been using 22-28 (MTB with road tires) gears spinning at about 60 to 70 RPM's. Today I used 42-15 gears and 'flew' up the hill :D ! When I got to the top and turned onto my street, everything caught up to me; I was very winded but I recovered pretty fast.
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
41 - 60 of 123 Posts
About this Discussion
122 Replies
82 Participants
Last post:
SwiftSolo
Road Bike, Cycling Forums
posts
5.5M
members
208K
Since
1990
A forum community dedicated to Road Bike owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about bike parts, components, deals, performance, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
General Cycling Discussion Components, Wrenching Bikes, Frames and Forks Wheels and Tires Pro Cycling - Tour de France

Top Contributors this Month

View All

Recommended Communities

Community avatar for AVS Forum
AVS Forum
1.6M members
Community avatar for WatchUSeek Watch Forums
WatchUSeek Watch Forums
701K members
Community avatar for Stromer Forum
Stromer Forum
300 members