What Does 25% Grade Look Like?

[Wahine]

If you have a Garmin Forerunner, it relies on satellite info to calculate elevation and grade percentages. These are not accurate. I have done rides where the total elevation climbing was 4500 ft and my Garmin Forerunner has come up with almost twice that. If you have the Edge, it has an altimeter built in to it and may be more accurate for straight elevation numbers but again I'm not sure if it calculates grade based on rise over run or from satellite info.

Looks steep though and good on ya!

[Duck on Wheels]

Hmmm. Wonder where my old pictures from Kvam i Gudbrandsdalen are. I'd have to digitize them, but I do have a shot or two of the old road heading up there. I remember when I bought my first car (an East German Trabant, 2-cylinder 2-stroke with a gravity fuel line) my friends up there told me I should have read the handbook first because a Trabant would not make it up their hill with its 30% grade on the zig below their zag. I thought I might have to do like my folks' painter friend did when he drove his Model A Ford up to his place on top of Sonoma Mountain -- drive it backwards do keep the fuel flowing to the motor. But I didn't have to do a 3-point turn on that narrow little road and back up. The 30% stretch must have been short enough that the fuel already in the motor lasted through it. Don't think my "fuel" would get me up that hill on a bike, though. I can hike it, but I'm sure I couldn't ride it.

[SouthernBelle]

True that they don't build road grades that steep now, but they used to build roads just up and over anything. We've got roads around here from early 1800s, long before we were a state. So the original roads might have just been paths, but now they are maintained roads.

[Thorn]

Can't vouch for that hill, but I concur you can find roads that steep. They aren't common, but they exist.

You can't necessarily trust the instanteous readout on your GPS--consider if one reading was off by -30m and the next reading off by +30m. However, the average will be close. The Garmin software does pull out the outlyers and correct against topo data (if you send it up their website).

The organizer of one of my favorite charity rides likes to describe the SW corner of mystate as "a place where they'll hang asphalt off the side of a cliff and call it a road". I suspect that a lot of rural areas in the country that haven't seen a lot of citification are the same.

[michelem]

Kelownagirl posted this link a while back (found it through a search). I've found it helpful. Just plug in distance and gain and you get percent grade:

http://www.csgnetwork.com/inclinedeclinegradecalc.html

[IFjane]

True that they don't build road grades that steep now, but they used to build roads just up and over anything. We've got roads around here from early 1800s, long before we were a state. So the original roads might have just been paths, but now they are maintained roads.

Susan - you are right. Here in the east (and in the west) early highways are simply paved cart paths through the mountains and over hills. That's what makes them so tough. By the time the engineers got to the Rockies they had learned how to make roads. They had much longer climbs but at much less grade.

[SouthernBelle]

This morning will out taking some docs to be signed by a client I had cause to think of this thread. I decided to check out a rode I had never ridden or driven on to see if it was suitable for a ride. At first it was your normal 2 lane country road. Then it suddenly turned into a single lane, curvy, up and down hill roller coaster ride! I was concerned that I would meet a vehicle coming the other way.

But it was newly paved.

[Mr. Bloom]

they used to build roads just up and over anything. So the original roads might have just been paths, but now they are maintained roads.

About 100 years ago, in a land far, far away (that is, The University of Alabama), the UofA decided to put sidewalks on campus.

The school of engineering was engaged to design a layout for campus sidewalks.

The engineers came up with a magnificent plan that was going to efficiently guide the campus foot traffic.

The University's Dean looked at the elaborate plan and simply commented:

"Why don't you simply put the sidewalks where paths are worn in the grass?

I guess this explains why:
- the Stadium still bears Dean Denny's name , and
- Auburn has the good engineering school in Alabama

[BadgerGirl]

I am curious as to where you are at in Colorado Solo. I am sure I can find some good rides for you if you wanted a little steeper.

[Tuckervill]

Auburn has the good engineering school in Alabama

Ha! Good one.

Karen

[SouthernBelle]

I want you to know that I am restraining myself from comment.