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View Full Version : Hills, hills and more hills



Possegal
05-13-2009, 12:27 PM
A while back I posted a picture I had taken of a street a few blocks from where I grew up. Everyone seemed to feel it didn't look like that bad of a hill. I figured it had to be a bad photo then.

Ladies (and some gents) I give you Boustead St, Pittsburgh PA.
http://tiny.cc/Lk6m0

And before anyone asks, NO, I've never taken my bike up OR down it. Heck, when showing it to out of town guests, I don't even drive my manual transmission car UP, only down. I have toyed with taking my bike, with the Garmin on, and walking it up Boustead, just to get the info. :) Though it looks like someone did ride this and the only hill in Pittsburgh worse than this, and put it up on motionbased. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6367988

Yeah, so coming from Pittsburgh, I have a special affinity for the new TE shirt - I love hills, I love them not. ;)

sfa
05-13-2009, 12:44 PM
Yeah, you know when they have to put stairs in the sidewalk that it's got to be a killer hill!

I think down would be scarier. I hate not feeling in control.

Cataboo
05-13-2009, 12:45 PM
Unfortunately, google doesn't have pics of the hill I grew up on. Or the ones nearby me.

Possegal
05-13-2009, 12:53 PM
I'm afraid I'd burn out my brake pads riding down it. :) There is a busy street at the end, but the road flattens out a good bit before then, so not like there is a real danger of riding out into it. Still, I think I'd settle for walking my bike up it. :)

Cataboo
05-13-2009, 01:05 PM
I think your hill is longer than the one I grew up on. Mine deadended on a busy road and didn't really flatten out. I never rode my bike down it & I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't, but my older brother & I tried to rollerskate down it once.

It did not end in a pretty fashion.

Possegal
05-13-2009, 01:07 PM
We used to sit on our rollerskates (then two can have as much fun as one!) and ride down the hills we lived on. This is one http://tinyurl.com/qu3858
I burned the wheels on those skates down to nothing. It's a wonder we didn't catch on fire from the sparks. :) THis hill I would ride up and down. Now, no way I'd go down it but I may try to bike up it. Though the bricks are not helpful. Used to sit in my wagon (which really, zero control of that thing) and go down the hills too. Man, I was a kid without fear (or brains, one could argue). ;) And clearly I had a much smaller butt, since now I think I'd lose a rollerskate there if I tried to sit on it and ride down a hill!

tctrek
05-13-2009, 03:42 PM
That is one heck of a hill... not sure I could walk up it :)

I grew up in New Jersey, flatlands, and moved to Florida, more flatlands... then got a job transfer to Georgia -- HILLS! There is barely anywhere you can ride in Georgia that is not hilly. Last year I walked up half of them. So far this year, I've managed to climb them all although super-slow.