Maximum slope?

"Dave Salovesh" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Can nobody in this group trim anymore?

Hey, nobody's perfect. Look at some of my other stuff and you'll see that I trim better than most.
Pick on someone else.

Matt O.

In <[email hidden]>, "Matt O'Toole" <[email hidden]> opined:

Quoted message said:

Pick on someone else.

Yeah, you're not the worst, and yeah, you didn't make that mess by yourself.

I'm over it - hope you are too...

Feel better now?

--
Dave Salovesh [email hidden]

Has anyone measured the slopes on Moab's Slickrock Trail? They approach the point where fore-aft
balance becomes a problem.

Am I correct to assume that if you can climb those, you can climb any paved road in the world?

--
--
Lynn Wallace xmission.com~lawallOpen ↗ "I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we
could to protect our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security." --Microsoft VP in
charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.

--------------000306030902090900010202 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Jobst:

From the websit of the original posting:

"We hopped a bus down to Dunedin (we've seen the east coast before), and found the famous Baldwin
Street hill, noted in the Guinness Book of World Records as the steepest road in the world at
1:1.266, or an astounding 38 degrees. Stairs climb the hill on the sides, and people can get a
certificate for just walking up the thing."

If Rise/Run = 1/1.266, this is a 38.3degree hill. They may have taken the measurement at the
steepest point.

MOO, Matt

Quoted message said:

Matt Locker said:

Quoted message said:

>>What do you think, what is the maximum slope on a road, which is possible to overcome on a
>>bike? If I remember well on the Vuelta the max slope of some mountain stages was up till 23%.
>>Is it the maximum, or a man can overcome the higher slope?
>>
>>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>This year's Giro d'Italia had one short section of 27%. Filbert St. in San Francisco is 31.5%.
>The steepest road in the world is in New Zealand, and it has been climbed by bicycle:
>
>

scasagrande.tripod.comNZ3bOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Interesting. I'm not sure what to believe. The rider in the picture is neither in a position of
great forceful climbing nor is his equipment up to the task. It seems this is a posed static shot
or the hill is not as steep as claimed. It's hard to tell from an in-line photo. The text is also
not encouraging since 38 degrees is not even walkable, feet facing forward, However, the walking
people have their feet flat on the road. The ankle of the average human cannot approach that
angle. Filbert street uses stairs for pedestrians at 31.5%, this road is 79%. I don't believe it,
at least not for the portion of the road shown. The rider in the picture should do an end-over
just holding the rear brake at this inclination, standing as he is.

# We hopped a bus down to Dunedin (we've seen the east coast before), and found the famous Baldwin
# Street hill, noted in the Guinness Book of World Records as the steepest road in the world at
# 1:1.266, or an astounding 38 degrees. Stairs climb the hill on the sides, and people can get a
# certificate for just walking up the thing.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Where are the real figures?

Quoted message said:

I think you should look at the photo again. Look at the houses in the distance. They are a long
ways down a very short road. Look at the angle of the closest house on the right - which happens
to be at the start of the "relatively flat" section. The lead person walking may be partially on
his heel but is definitely climbing. The second person is entirely on her toes. The rider appears
to be in her lowest granny gear. It also appears that she is just about to transition from a
"relatively" flat section back into a steeper section of the climb - similar to the one that had
been crested 50 or so yards before.

I was sent an interesting URL that fits with my perception of steep streets:

onenews.nzoom.com0,1227,164476 1 5,00.htmlOpen ↗

I think that sums it up.

Jobst Brandt [email hidden] Palo Alto CA

--------------000306030902090900010202 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body>
Jobst:<br> <br> From the websit of the original posting:<br> <br> "We hopped a bus down to
Dunedin (we've seen the east coast before), and found the famous Baldwin Street hill, noted in
the <u>Guinness Book of World Records</u> as the <strong>steepest road in the world </strong>at
1:1.266, or an astounding 38 degrees. Stairs climb the hill on the sides, and people can get a
certificate for just walking up the thing."<br> <br> If Rise/Run = 1/1.266, this is a 38.3degree
hill. They may have taken the measurement at the steepest point.<br> <br> MOO,<br> Matt<br> <br>
<br> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href=""][email hidden]">[email hidden]</a> wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="[email hidden]"> <pre wrap="">Matt
Locker writes:

</pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <blockquote type="cite"> <blockquote type="cite"> <blockquote
type="cite"> <pre wrap="">What do you think, what is the maximum slope on a road, which is
possible to overcome on a bike? If I remember well on the Vuelta the max slope of some mountain
stages was up till 23%. Is it the maximum, or a man can overcome the higher slope? </pre>
</blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> </pre> <blockquote
type="cite"> <blockquote type="cite"> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">This year's Giro
d'Italia had one short section of 27%. Filbert St. in San Francisco is 31.5%. The steepest road in
the world is in New Zealand, and it has been climbed by bicycle: </pre> </blockquote>
</blockquote> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="scasagrande.tripod.comNZ3bOpen ↗">scasagrande.tripod.comNZ3bOpen ↗</a>

</pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Interesting. I'm not sure
what to believe. The rider in the picture is neither in a position of great forceful climbing nor
is his equipment up to the task. It seems this is a posed static shot or the hill is not as steep
as claimed. It's hard to tell from an in-line photo. The text is also not encouraging since 38
degrees is not even walkable, feet facing forward, However, the walking people have their feet
flat on the road. The ankle of the average human cannot approach that angle. Filbert street uses
stairs for pedestrians at 31.5%, this road is 79%. I don't believe it, at least not for the
portion of the road shown. The rider in the picture should do an end-over just holding the rear
brake at this inclination, standing as he is. </pre> </blockquote> </blockquote> <pre
wrap=""><!---->
# We hopped a bus down to Dunedin (we've seen the east coast before), and found the famous Baldwin
# Street hill, noted in the Guinness Book of World Records as the steepest road in the world at
# 1:1.266, or an astounding 38 degrees. Stairs climb the hill on the sides, and people can get a
# certificate for just walking up the thing.

</pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Where are the real figures?
</pre> </blockquote> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre
wrap="">I think you should look at the photo again. Look at the houses in the distance. They are a
long ways down a very short road. Look at the angle of the closest house on the right - which
happens to be at the start of the "relatively flat" section. The lead person walking may be
partially on his heel but is definitely climbing. The second person is entirely on her toes. The
rider appears to be in her lowest granny gear. It also appears that she is just about to
transition from a "relatively" flat section back into a steeper section of the climb - similar to
the one that had been crested 50 or so yards before. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> I
was sent an interesting URL that fits with my perception of steep streets:

<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="onenews.nzoom.com0,1227,164476 1 5,00Open ↗
.html">onenews.nzoom.com0,1227,164476 1 5,00.htmlOpen ↗</a>

I think that sums it up.

Jobst Brandt <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href=""][email hidden]">[email hidden]</a> Palo Alto CA
</pre> </blockquote> <br> </body> </html>

--------------000306030902090900010202--

Matt O'Toole said:

"Dave Salovesh" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Can nobody in this group trim anymore?

Hey, nobody's perfect.

Actually, anyone who's posting software performs a few simple checks is perfect when it comes to
taking a 50-line article and adding one new line to it without any trimming. Even without that
check, it is something that one should never do, and I think it's entirely possible never to make
that mistake.

Quoted message said:

Look at some of my other stuff and you'll see that I trim better than most.

However, your quoted text is consistently mangled by poor linewrap, rendering your articles
revolting. This is not something that should be tolerated.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]> flcl?

Quoted message said:

From the above URL "Baldwin's steepest section is 19 degrees from horizontal.

19 degrees from horizontal is still steep. That's 34.4 percent grade. Seems

On 'frisco's steepest, with pics:

mistersf.comindex.htmlOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

On 'frisco's steepest, with pics:

mistersf.comindex.htmlOpen ↗

Action shot of another Frisco Street, with Floyd Landis showing how to climb steep grades with
flair. Or is it attitude?

abbiorca.comimg 5942.htmlOpen ↗

--dt

"Steve Blankenship" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

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

Quoted message said:

George said:

Hi there, What do you think, what is the maximum slope on a road, which is possible to
overcome on a bike?

Quoted message said:

Nope on NZ, but I've done some climbs in the English Lake District that were signposted at 1 in 3,
or 33%. Hardknot and Wrynose, if memory serves. Also there were others (Honister?) that were
posted at 25%.

I've done these. Wrynose has a very steep up section riding from east to west. These passes were
certainly close to my limit for sustained climbing and harder than hills I have climbed in
"real" mountains in France & Spain where, considerately, the roads tend to switchback more to
reduce the gradient.

On the other hand I was carring a touring load and didn't have the ultra low gears now available -
there again I am somewhat older and heavier which might compensate.

It seems to me that it is the sustained gradient over a long stretch that is the problem on any road
climbs, rather than absolute gradient. Once a climb becomes to long to overcome by building up an
anaerobic deficit then you either need to be fitter or you need to spread the expenditure of enery
out by going slower.

Over shorter distances any gradient can be overcome. After all, I can bump up a vertical kerb no
problem and that is 100% gradient - steep, but not high.

Andrew Webster said:

Over shorter distances any gradient can be overcome. After all, I can bump up a vertical kerb no
problem and that is 100% gradient - steep, but not high.

Actually, a vertical kerb has an infinite gradient. A 45 degree kerb is 100%.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA terrymorse.combikeOpen ↗

Terry Morse <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Andrew Webster said:

Over shorter distances any gradient can be overcome. After all, I can bump up a vertical kerb no
problem and that is 100% gradient - steep, but not high.

Actually, a vertical kerb has an infinite gradient. A 45 degree kerb is 100%.

OOPS !! I feel pretty stupid now (no change there, then).

I'd better stick with what I know and quote gradients as 1 in 3 etc. in future.

Quoted post said:

Actually, a vertical kerb has an infinite gradient. A 45 degree kerb is 100%.

Also just to pick nits - the slope is the rise over the run (horizontal distance) not the rise over the travelled distance (hypoteneuse). The error is pretty small for 5 - 10% slopes but gets much larger with steeper grades; you need to ask Pythagoras for a little help in that case.

Badly paved road in Gorbio, 28%, and I walk all 500 metres.

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

Quoted message said:

Hi there, What do you think, what is the maximum slope on a road, which is possible to overcome on
a bike? If I remember well on the Vuelta the max slope of some mountain stages was up till 23%. Is
it the maximum, or a man can overcome the higher

slope?

Quoted message said:

Maybe The Guiness Book of Records notes some those records? Thanks for any reply, George.

Quoted message said:

I was sent an interesting URL that fits with my perception of steep streets:

onenews.nzoom.com0,1227,164476 1 5,00.htmlOpen ↗

I think that sums it up.

Fargo Street, in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, has been measured at 33% by a city engineer, and
it steepens a bit near the summit. It is all of 1/10th of a mile in length.

In fact, I've measured Fargo with the inclinometer on my Specialized cyclometer, and it corresponds
with the claimed percentage. On a road bike, it is a difficult climb for all but the fittest riders.
Mt. bike gearing has cut the hill down to size for more riders, but it's still not easy for anyone.

Each March, riders from around S. California meet at Fargo Street to try their luck on the hill.
Several riders were successful this year, including one woman and one child. Huell Howser profiled
this year's event (the 30th annual, sponsored by the Los Angeles Wheelmen) for a
t.v. documentary that's already aired a couple of times in S. CA.

There's a great picture - without a bike rider - at
members.lycos.co.ukFargo.jpgOpen ↗ - probably made in the 1940 or 50s, before the
street was cut by the Glendale Freeway. And I have a personal story (which is rather long and
self-congratulatory, but then I do hold the record for one day ascents on Fargo), at:
home.attbi.comFargoStreet.htmlOpen ↗

Dave

--

davewyman.comdavewyman.comOpen ↗ ibikebackroads.comibikebackroads.comOpen ↗

This mail is a natural product. The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its individual
character and beauty and in no way are to be considered flaws or defects.