What's a hilly ride?

[Biciclista]

please let me to be the first one to apologize for typical American "we're the only ones here" mentality.
i'm glad you were able to do the conversion.

[Crankin]

I use the same "thinking" as Kfergos, probably because we live in the same area.
Every ride I do from my house includes a 10-15% grade short climb to get home. My regular loop rides all include small hills that are medium steep (but short). There is only one ride that I classify as "flat" that I do out of my door.
What I have found is that what some people call rolling, I call hilly, but they are short rollers that are 5-6%. It's just that there's a lot of those around here.
I have done rides with 4-6 thousand feet of climbing that usually involve very steep climbs that are short, but come one right after the other. Those are "very hilly" to me.
Unlike others here, I liberally use my granny gear and last summer I saw 4 mph on Mudgett Hill Rd. in Charlton, MA. It was about 1.5 miles, with some spots at 18-20%. I don't care how slow I go, my goal is to get up the hill. I have only walked once, and that also occurred last summer, in Blanford, MA. It was about 1/2 a mile of 15-20% grades, which then crested, so I got back on my bike. Of course, then there was about 2 miles of 10-15% climbing, but I did that one..

[Zen]

I don't do numbers or use gadgets. I don't even have a computer on my bike yet. Not sure if I will.
I just ride.
Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's easy.

[OakLeaf]

please let me to be the first one to apologize for typical American "we're the only ones here" mentality.
i'm glad you were able to do the conversion.

Oh, goodness, everyone posts in her local units, don't we? It certainly wasn't meant as an insult and I don't take it as an insult when one of the non-American gals posts something in km...

Anyway:

I can't edit the poll choices, but it's even simpler in metric,

50 feet/mile is close enough as never mind to 10 m/km
75 feet/mile say 15 m/km
100 feet/mile 20 m/km

Mmmmkay?

[sfa]

I'm not quite sure how to figure out all the numbers, but I count a ride as hilly if it crosses my mind more than a few times that I could be going faster if I got off and walked. Of course, with a good headwind, this can happen to me on nice flat roads.

Sarah

[papaver]

It all depends on my state of mind. Sometimes i have days that hills seem like they are flat and other days flat rides seem like hilly rides...

[ny biker]

I don't measure these things, so I can't choose an answer to the poll. I do know that "hilly" has changed for me over the years. The first time I did the Patuxent River Rural Legacy ride, I thought it was really hilly. But now, well it's not flat, but it's not really hilly either.

It's the same thing with ride distance. When I first got a bike after moving to DC, most of my rides were about 10 miles, I considered 25 miles to be a long ride, and a century was just crazy. Then someone asked if I wanted to join him for a ride from Harpers Ferry to Georgetown on the C&O Canal towpath, which is over 60 miles. After that I decided I wanted to do a century. So now for me 25 miles is a short-ish ride, and 10 miles is really short. But I expect that to change in time, and at some point I will be back to thinking that 10 miles is more than enough.

[hilldweller]

I'm not quite sure how to figure out all the numbers, but I count a ride as hilly if it crosses my mind more than a few times that I could be going faster if I got off and walked. Of course, with a good headwind, this can happen to me on nice flat roads.

Sarah

LOL Know how you feel

[kfergos]

This was frickin' hilly for me:


(bigger image)

Added up it totaled to 3,600 feet of climbing in 70 miles, with at least three climbs with grades over 15%. That's plenty, in my book.

[itself]

Hilly climb, try 9 miles of unreal hill from Rio Verde to what becomes Scottsdale, AZ. It's the hill that never ends, and part of the Tour de Scottsdale.

Lisa

[tribogota]

No computer, no idea, but I live at 2600 meters above sea level (Bogota) and we go up, it gets chilly and altiplano like, and we go down and it gets hot and humid with mango and coffee trees. It all seems hilly to me, but I have never ridden anywhere else, so not really sure.