Long rides

[violette]

I went for a ride on Saturday, did 73km. When I get to the last 15kms, there is a big hill that I have to go up, and I mean steepa and long. I have no idea on the incline percentage but cars even have a hard time going up. I made it half way up the hill, and my legs start feeling like Jello and I have to walk. Has this happened to any of you before.

[KnottedYet]

Yup. Just about every day! My mantra: There's no hill to steep to walk.

(just call it "cross training"! )

[violette]

Now that's funny!! Glad I'm not the only one, I thought I was a weenie

[Torrilin]

If cars truly have trouble going up, you're looking at over a 30% grade. If a tractor trailer would be going under 15mph at the top, you *know* it's steep. They're paid to drive, and they tend to be quite good at squeezing speed out of their trucks in bad conditions. Lots of drivers don't know how to get up steep hills, so it depends some on your area.

But yes, I've gotten off and walked, even on just little rises and bumps. Sometimes your body says no . Nothing wrong with it. And well, if it really is over 30%, you're not a weenie. You're... normal. It takes a fair bit of strength and endurance to get up a 30% grade.

[Eden]

I think you can back down on your gradients a bit even. Very few streets in the 30%'s even exist. There are a couple in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and New Zealand that are unoffical competitors for the worlds steepest street and they are all purported to be in the 30's.
Modern highways specify no greater than a 6% grade. It will start to feel quite hard when the gradients hits the double digits, in the 20's and the streets start to look quite vertical.
Here's a photo of a street purported to be 37%
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05030/448976.stm
and I can tell you from experience that if it looks that steep in a picture its really about 2x that bad....

[indysteel]

Yes, especially after an already long, hard ride. I did a local ride last week called JAWS. The route I did was 58 miles and had 5,000 plus feet of climbing. Many of the grades on the route were in excess of 15%. I had to walk the last third of one of them and was relieved to find out that another rider I know--who races competively--did the same. Of course, he did the century route and got to the hill with a number of extra miles under his legs, but still. The point is that it's tough stuff and sometimes your legs, lungs or both just don't have it in them. I do the best I can, so I try not to beat myself up when I have to get off and walk. Whatever gets me home safely.

[RoadRaven]

Doing a 100km ride is significant, and having a steep hill or set of climbs at the end is demanding.

I havent had to walk to come home (we have two significant short bet very steep climbs to get back to our place) but I have had to ride very slowly.

Eden... I have walked up Baldwin Street in Dunedin (last year in our South Island holiday) - and is damnedly steep - they have steps running up the side of it because steps are easier to walk than the grade - and anyone who has climbed much will know steps are usually more tiring to walk up...

How cars drive up it defeats me, and I think you would kill yourself if you biked down it (uni students have killed themselves in uni parties when they put each other in wheelie bins - for rubbish - and push each other down for "races")

[Torrilin]

They're not just in Pittsburgh, much of Pennsylvania has *very* steep roads... and that's where I grew up. Nothing as nasty as 37% that I recall, but 20-30% is not rare. Neither are emergency stop ramps. A car can handle those grades if the driver knows what they're doing, and a cyclist may well end up walking their bike.

Most places don't have grades that steep tho . Thank god.