Measuring grade for hills

"Beverly" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:zrTld.1238$aG3.1079
@fe1.columbus.rr.com:

Quoted message said:

I thought in some previous posts someone had mentioned a piece of equipment
they bought for their bike to measure the grade of hills. I really want to
find out the grade of the hills in the park I ride to practice climbing. I
did a google but couldn't find the thread.

Try this: http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/gradeslocal.html
There are also lots of electronic altimeters on the market. Over short
distances, low cost altimeters are less accurate than the method shown in the
above photo.

Beverly said:

I thought in some previous posts someone had mentioned a piece of
equipment
they bought for their bike to measure the grade of hills. I really want
to
find out the grade of the hills in the park I ride to practice
climbing. I
did a google but couldn't find the thread. Can someone point me in the
right direction?

Thanks
Beverly

That topic flew through here about a month ago and there is
a manufacturer that makes a bubble indicator that goes up
to 20%. Totally simple but you would have to go back
through about 10,000 messages to find it.
Let's hope that someone who knows is still on this group.
Bill Baka

--
Just Bill again

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 01:16:15 GMT, "Beverly" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I thought in some previous posts someone had mentioned a piece of equipment
they bought for their bike to measure the grade of hills. I really want to
find out the grade of the hills in the park I ride to practice climbing. I
did a google but couldn't find the thread. Can someone point me in the
right direction?

Thanks
Beverly

'Sky Mounti'

http://www.velimpex.com/fs_show_items.php?category_id=9&brand_id=2

Beverly said:

I thought in some previous posts someone had mentioned a piece of equipment
they bought for their bike to measure the grade of hills. I really want to
find out the grade of the hills in the park I ride to practice climbing. I
did a google but couldn't find the thread. Can someone point me in the
right direction?

Thanks
Beverly

http://www.adventurecycling.org/store/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=265

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Ken said:

"Beverly" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:zrTld.1238$aG3.1079
@fe1.columbus.rr.com:

Quoted message said:

I thought in some previous posts someone had mentioned a piece of
equipment
they bought for their bike to measure the grade of hills. I really
want to
find out the grade of the hills in the park I ride to practice
climbing. I
did a google but couldn't find the thread.

Try this: http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/gradeslocal.html
There are also lots of electronic altimeters on the market. Over short
distances, low cost altimeters are less accurate than the method shown
in the
above photo.

Oh yeah, I can see someone doing that. How do you mount it on a bike?
Did anyone ever measure Bear Creek road from Highway 17 up to Summit
road? Someone does make a bubble meter that fits on the handlebars.
Bill Baka

--
Just Bill again

Bill Baka <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Oh yeah, I can see someone doing that. How do you mount it on a bike?
Did anyone ever measure Bear Creek road from Highway 17 up to Summit
road? Someone does make a bubble meter that fits on the handlebars.

Less accurate than almost any other technique.

Thanks. You and Dan found the same item. This is just what I'm looking
for.

I just want some idea of how steep those hills are in the park where I climb
hills. I'll be ordering this and taking it on the next ride.

Beverly

"Frank Krygowski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Beverly said:

I thought in some previous posts someone had mentioned a piece of

equipment

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

they bought for their bike to measure the grade of hills. I really want

to

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

find out the grade of the hills in the park I ride to practice climbing.

I

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

did a google but couldn't find the thread. Can someone point me in the
right direction?

Thanks
Beverly

http://www.adventurecycling.org/store/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=265

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

How about a Topo map and a calculator?

Frank Krygowski wrote:
:: Beverly wrote:
::
::: I thought in some previous posts someone had mentioned a piece of
::: equipment they bought for their bike to measure the grade of hills.
::: I really want to find out the grade of the hills in the park I ride
::: to practice climbing. I did a google but couldn't find the thread.
::: Can someone point me in the right direction?
:::
::: Thanks
::: Beverly
::
:: http://www.adventurecycling.org/store/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=265

How easy are these to use? How does one position it on the bike so tha tyou
can read it while riding and show that the bubble is centered on level
ground? It seems this job might be tricky to use.

salmoneous said:

How about a Topo map and a calculator?

Only useful for determining an average grade, and often the topo
elevation differs from the road elevation.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Roger Zoul said:

Frank Krygowski wrote:
:: Beverly wrote:
::
::: I thought in some previous posts someone had mentioned a piece of
::: equipment they bought for their bike to measure the grade of hills.
::: I really want to find out the grade of the hills in the park I ride
::: to practice climbing. I did a google but couldn't find the thread.
::: Can someone point me in the right direction?
:::
::: Thanks
::: Beverly
::
:: http://www.adventurecycling.org/store/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=265

How easy are these to use? How does one position it on the bike so tha tyou
can read it while riding and show that the bubble is centered on level
ground? It seems this job might be tricky to use.

At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, set it and forget it! The
critical point is to make sure it reads level on level ground. After
that, I found it was set right for my riding position.

There are a few downsides, of course. You have to move at a constant
speed, or the acceleration will bias the bubble. It seems to take about
5 seconds in motion to get a good, stable reading, about 2 seconds if
the bike is stationary. You may have better luck (on the steep stuff)
if you stop and take a reading. If you're particularly retentive,
reverse the bike, read it again, and average the two. Finally, it
"only" goes up to about 20% or so, unless you've intentionally or
unintentionally biased it and know the bias.

(Can you hear Jobst screaming yet?)

The good parts are (1) it's on your bike wherever you start to wonder,
"Just how steep is this blinking hill anyhow?" (Note this can be
discouraging, when that gentle 4% hill sneaks up to an outrageous 16%.);
(2) it gives an instantaneous reading of whatever part you're on, rather
than an average over a longer span (particularly interesting if you're
on short rollers or curves where the grade changes rapidly); and (3)
it's good enough to measure the grade down to within a couple percent,
and is cheaper than all the alternatives except a long level and ruler,
and it's much less bulky that an 8 or 10 foot level. 🙂

Pat

Roger Zoul said:

Frank Krygowski wrote:
:: Beverly wrote:
::
::: I thought in some previous posts someone had mentioned a piece of
::: equipment they bought for their bike to measure the grade of hills.
::: I really want to find out the grade of the hills in the park I ride
::: to practice climbing. I did a google but couldn't find the thread.
::: Can someone point me in the right direction?
:::
::: Thanks
::: Beverly
::
:: http://www.adventurecycling.org/store/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=265

How easy are these to use? How does one position it on the bike so tha tyou
can read it while riding and show that the bubble is centered on level
ground? It seems this job might be tricky to use.

To check for zero, find a level surface, set it, then turn the whole
bike 180 degrees. Repeat. I've also checked it by being on a steep
grade (off the bike), turning the bike 180 degrees, and checking that
I get the same reading +/-. Same idea as checking a level or a 90
degree angle.

I've found that it's fun to have, but I wouldn't use it for surveying
or any legal purposes. The bubble moves slowly, and reacts to
acceleration including any jerkiness when climbing. For rough numbers
and a general idea, I've enjoyed it. But for me, I imagine it will be
like having a cadence computer- interesting and helpful for a period,
then I learn what 90/80/105 RPM (or 4%, 12%, etc. grade) feels like
and find that I hardly ever look at it. Then next time I do any
overhaul work, I'll pull it off and not miss it for a few years.

In article <[email hidden]>,

salmoneous said:

How about a Topo map and a calculator?

Topo maps are good elevation gain for long hills. On short hills,
there is too much round off error. Also, topo maps do not tell you
distance along the road, so you need to measure that directly.

Terry Morse said:

salmoneous said:

How about a Topo map and a calculator?

Only useful for determining an average grade, and often the topo
elevation differs from the road elevation.

Why is that? (Other than the fact that maps aren't perfect, of
course.)

--
Ray Heindl
(remove the Xs to reply to: [email hidden])

Ray Heindl said:

Terry Morse said:

salmoneous said:

How about a Topo map and a calculator?

Only useful for determining an average grade, and often the topo
elevation differs from the road elevation.

Why is that? (Other than the fact that maps aren't perfect, of
course.)

Roads in hilly areas are often cut into a hillside or have bridges
that don't follow the contours of the terrain, making it hard to
determine a road's elevation from contour lines.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

In article <[email hidden]>,

Terry Morse said:

Roads in hilly areas are often cut into a hillside or have bridges
that don't follow the contours of the terrain, making it hard to
determine a road's elevation from contour lines.

Also, map makers use a lot of averaging and interpolating to determine
those contour lines. Topo maps are generally accurate (+/- 100 feet)
at the top and bottom of a hill, but errors can be double that in between.

do not spam said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Terry Morse said:

Roads in hilly areas are often cut into a hillside or have bridges
that don't follow the contours of the terrain, making it hard to
determine a road's elevation from contour lines.

Also, map makers use a lot of averaging and interpolating to determine
those contour lines. Topo maps are generally accurate (+/- 100 feet)
at the top and bottom of a hill, but errors can be double that in between.

Plus, you can have lots of rises and dips within one contour interval.
A steep hill that starts out at an elevation of 1005', goes up to 1095'
then back down to 1005' might not even be visible on a contour map with
a 100 foot interval - at least, not directly.

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Beverly said:

I thought in some previous posts someone had mentioned a piece of equipment
they bought for their bike to measure the grade of hills. I really want to
find out the grade of the hills in the park I ride to practice climbing.

I can't really help you, but I've been following the thread since I was
curious. Last Summer one guy on a ride I led had something on either his
cyclecomputer that would read out % grade. I don't think he had a GPS
unit, I think it was a normal-looking computer. But I never took the time
to check it out; he was kinda complaining about how steep the hills were.

OTOH, I did measure my old commute hill like one follow-up suggested. It
was a bit tedious, but it presented a nice little challenge to turn that
information into a plot of the hill using a CAS program. Check out
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dlj0/commute.html for that story.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Some people used to claim that, if enough monkeys sat in front of
_`\(,_ | enough typewriters and typed long enough, eventually one of them
(_)/ (_) | would reproduce the collected works of Shakespeare. The
internet has proven this not to be the case.

David L. Johnson said:

Last Summer one guy on a ride I led had something on either his
cyclecomputer that would read out % grade. I don't think he had a GPS
unit, I think it was a normal-looking computer.

the specialized speed zone pro classic and turbo pro computers both have
an altimer and inclinometer & they're both around $100. my coworker has
one and my experience mirrors yours: he complains a lot about hills. it
*seems* to work ok, tho & it matches my own finely honed internal pain meter.

http://www.specialized.com/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=9899
http://www.specialized.com/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=9908
--
david reuteler
[email hidden]