Most misleading gradient sign

[a.twiddler]

I still visualise hills better when written as 1 in 10, 1 in 7, 1 in 4 etc.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I still visualise hills better when written as 1 in 10, 1 in 7, 1 in 4 etc.

Although I grew up with it, I never got the hang of that. Here's a little chart

 

[Twizit]

Certainly, just to pick a famous example, the Hardknott does NOT average 33%!

Maybe not but certainly felt like it with 100 miles in the legs on the Fred Whitton!

 

[Hover Fly]

I cant understand the %age, 35% of what exactly? The ratio 1:3 means something, every 3 units along you go up or down 1 unit, it ain’t a fraction.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I cant understand the %age, 35% of what exactly? The ratio 1:3 means something, every 3 units along you go up or down 1 unit, it ain’t a fraction.

They're just numbers.

One expresses the forward travel units required to ascend one unit. The other expresses the ascent in terms of a percentage of forward travel.

One gives smaller numbers for steeper hills, the other larger numbers for steeper hills.

Neither takes into account the actual distance travelled, just the forward component of it.

Both fall to bits when describing a vertical climb, where there is no forward component. In this sense I guess degrees is the best way. Or maybe radians!

 

[swansonj]

... Or maybe radians!

I think all cyclists would agree that expressing hill steepness in fractions of pi would make a lot of sense.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

I think all cyclists would agree that expressing hill steepness in fractions of pi would make a lot of sense.

I had a cheese and ham pie in Llangollen immediately before that hill.

I regretted it.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I only looked on Strava because of the feeling in my legs! And I didn't take the instantaneous reported number on Strava, but the average over a significant distance.

Anyway, here's the OS. It's around a 25% average from the 150 to 275 contour.

View attachment 596549

Just for comparison, here's a later climb on same ride advertised at 17% (1:6)

View attachment 596550

The (very short) steepest part of this climb is far less severe that what the top one averages for half a kilometre!

Interesting no chevron on first extract. Single chevron means greater than 1 in 6 aka 16% or so.

 

[Craig the cyclist]

There is one on the Bristol to Bath Railway path, it's a lie, it's way nearer 1:110 in my experience

 

[Mr Celine]

Don't believe Strava. I'm on my phone so can't link to it but there is a segment called Roman Rd Climb to the West of Hownam in the Scottish Borders. The Strava profile includes a vertical pitch of several hundred feet. Presumably this is why they rate it as cat 2.
I've never needed a rope but a triple does help.

Here it is with its infamous vertical pitch, apparently 800 feet.

In reality the hardest part of this climb is just before the beginning of the segment, where a triple does help. The contour map shows the height difference of the entire segment as only 30m, or about 100 feet.

 

[Mike_P]

Have you flagged it with them? Also create a duplicated segment off your own record labelled corrected elevation to show them the difference.

 

[Mr Celine]

Have you flagged it with them?

Of course not.

 

[Mr Celine]

Of course not.

I haven't even cracked the 3500 VAM barrier yet.

Edit: Ben O'Connor only managed a VAM of 1576 on the Col de la Colombiere yesterday, less than half of what I have achieved on 'Roman Rd Climb'.

 

[MontyVeda]

I cant understand the %age, 35% of what exactly? The ratio 1:3 means something, every 3 units along you go up or down 1 unit, it ain’t a fraction.

as i understand it (which may be wrong) 100% would be 1:1 or 45 degrees.

but what i don't understand is...

... Here's a little chart
View attachment 596613

Why does 1:5 or 20% feel so steep, when 11 degrees looks like a gentle slope on a protractor?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I cant understand the %age, 35% of what exactly? The ratio 1:3 means something, every 3 units along you go up or down 1 unit, it ain’t a fraction.

Percentages are per 100 as in per cent. So it’s 35/100 which you could write as 35:100.