The legend of the 17% hill

DonDaddyD

That's the road. What you want to do is head towards it from the Norbury Cross end. I don't care what Internet says the road is short but the f*cker is steep. Immediately steep.

Let me know how you get on.

roger_merriman

DonDaddyD wrote:

That's the road. What you want to do is head towards it from the Norbury Cross end. I don't care what Internet says the road is short but the f*cker is steep. Immediately steep.

Let me know how you get on.

google maps which most if not is built upon, only really gives loose at best idea. it claims there is a down bit on the nasty hill to my folks place, which there really really is not, it's all up....

Anonymous

When I used to commute in York area there was a short 8% bit, maybe 10, I aint sure, I used to struggle up that doing 10mph but as I had to do it every day I was soon doing 20mph up it

redddraggon

willhub wrote:

When I used to commute in York area there was a short 8% bit, maybe 10, I aint sure, I used to struggle up that doing 10mph but as I had to do it every day I was soon doing 20mph up it

You are my hero....

Bassjunkieuk

Well that was a nice surprise! As the road lies near the area called Pollards HILL I shouldn't have assumed it was all flat :-)
I came at it from the Norbury Cross end as DDD recommended and got my first surprise as I came up Northborough Road and saw that rise up ahead of me!
I duly turned off down Norbury Cross and that rounded the corner to find Ena Road.
The hill itself it probably only about 50m long but it does climb nicely! It's not the steepest I've seen and I didn't need to switch down to the 30 tooth granny ring up front, I think I did it with 42x25 and just powered up as it was so short.

I think it helps that on some of my commutes I do take in some longer hills, as well as one that is slightly longer and steeper within a mile of my house on the outbound one! In all honesty DDD if you can do Denmark Hill (longer/not quite as steep) Ena Road shouldn't prove a problem - personally I'm gonna give Northborough Road a go next time I'm down that way :-D

itboffin

redddraggon wrote:

willhub wrote:

When I used to commute in York area there was a short 8% bit, maybe 10, I aint sure, I used to struggle up that doing 10mph but as I had to do it every day I was soon doing 20mph up it

You are my hero....

Ugh! get a room :P

Steve Kish

I can take in Nightingale Lane on the commute home, which kicks up to about 18% at the top. It's about 300 yards long, with a bend.

Is this the one parallel to Highgate West Hill? If so, can be a bit of a bee-atch. My 38 x 26 at snails pace allows me to reach The Flask without collapsing .... just about!

roger_merriman

Steve Kish wrote:

I can take in Nightingale Lane on the commute home, which kicks up to about 18% at the top. It's about 300 yards long, with a bend.

Is this the one parallel to Highgate West Hill? If so, can be a bit of a bee-atch. My 38 x 26 at snails pace allows me to reach The Flask without collapsing .... just about!

no it's the steepish little hill from petersham road to richmound hill just shy of 20% at the very end by sounds of things which having ridden up it looks likely.

DonDaddyD

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Well that was a nice surprise! As the road lies near the area called Pollards HILL I shouldn't have assumed it was all flat :-)
I came at it from the Norbury Cross end as DDD recommended and got my first surprise as I came up Northborough Road and saw that rise up ahead of me!
I duly turned off down Norbury Cross and that rounded the corner to find Ena Road.
The hill itself it probably only about 50m long but it does climb nicely! It's not the steepest I've seen and I didn't need to switch down to the 30 tooth granny ring up front, I think I did it with 42x25 and just powered up as it was so short.

I think it helps that on some of my commutes I do take in some longer hills, as well as one that is slightly longer and steeper within a mile of my house on the outbound one! In all honesty DDD if you can do Denmark Hill (longer/not quite as steep) Ena Road shouldn't prove a problem - personally I'm gonna give Northborough Road a go next time I'm down that way :-D

(Pollards Hill = My -former- home turf)

I'm now utterly disappointed in life! That hill was a thing of legend steepest around the area.

There must me something wrong me.

Clever Pun

DonDaddyD wrote:

(Pollards Hill = My -former- home turf)

I'm now utterly disappointed in life! That hill was a thing of legend steepest around the area.

There must me something wrong me.

other than grammar?

Bassjunkieuk

There's nothing wrong with you DDD, it's just that your not as small as you used to be! I've been back to some of the parks I used to go to as a child and the pits and trees there that used to prove such an exciting draw seem decidedly smaller now!

roger_merriman

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

There's nothing wrong with you DDD, it's just that your not as small as you used to be! I've been back to some of the parks I used to go to as a child and the pits and trees there that used to prove such an exciting draw seem decidedly smaller now!

that can also cut both ways as i'm one not as fit as i once was and two a fair bit heavier hills that are no where nr as nasty such as nightingale hill to the ones i that still exist nr my folks place are lot more effort than they should be...

TopSpin

Steve Kish wrote:

I can take in Nightingale Lane on the commute home, which kicks up to about 18% at the top. It's about 300 yards long, with a bend.

Is this the one parallel to Highgate West Hill? If so, can be a bit of a bee-atch. My 38 x 26 at snails pace allows me to reach The Flask without collapsing .... just about!

I think the one parallel to Highgate west is Swains Lane. I ended up on it once when taking a wrong turn on the way home. Couldn't quite manage it & had to get off and walk :oops:

R34PER

how can we find the % of hills? there are a few near me that i'd like to know.

TopSpin

R34PER wrote:

how can we find the % of hills? there are a few near me that i'd like to know.

if you go on the course creator on here
http://www.bikehike.co.uk

you can map out a route and see the elevation of it.

Anonymous

R34PER wrote:

how can we find the % of hills? there are a few near me that i'd like to know.

GPS and NO trees.

roger_merriman

R34PER wrote:

how can we find the % of hills? there are a few near me that i'd like to know.

you can use all the google map based sites, or a GPS but they can be a fair amount out, probably the most accurate (bar measuring the angle one's self) is os map and measure distance/height the gotcha is getting the nasty ramps, or very short hills.

Steve Kish

Swains Lane

Yeah, that was the fooker!!

I lived in London for 30+ years - never found one steeper! :roll:

Anonymous

roger merriman wrote:

R34PER wrote:

how can we find the % of hills? there are a few near me that i'd like to know.

you can use all the google map based sites, or a GPS but they can be a fair amount out, probably the most accurate (bar measuring the angle one's self) is os map and measure distance/height the gotcha is getting the nasty ramps, or very short hills.

GPS is spot on here as long as there aint a forest above it.

roger_merriman

willhub wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

R34PER wrote:

how can we find the % of hills? there are a few near me that i'd like to know.

you can use all the google map based sites, or a GPS but they can be a fair amount out, probably the most accurate (bar measuring the angle one's self) is os map and measure distance/height the gotcha is getting the nasty ramps, or very short hills.

GPS is spot on here as long as there aint a forest above it.

for average yes i'm sure for peak i'd be surprised if it did or at least at least to a level one would trust the figures.

R34PER

willhub wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

R34PER wrote:

how can we find the % of hills? there are a few near me that i'd like to know.

you can use all the google map based sites, or a GPS but they can be a fair amount out, probably the most accurate (bar measuring the angle one's self) is os map and measure distance/height the gotcha is getting the nasty ramps, or very short hills.

GPS is spot on here as long as there aint a forest above it.

but it also involves buying a gps device :?
i had a play with one of the sites....unsuccessfully :roll: i think i may stick to the old "bugger me that was a killer" or "looks worse than it is" or "made me want to die".

jimmypippa

R34PER, That's my classification system.

What about: "I can't be that unfit, can I?" (This is usually a long, shallow climb into a headwind)

gbs

cjcp wrote:

I can take in Nightingale Lane on the commute home, which kicks up to about 18% at the top. It's about 300 yards long, with a bend.

Dunno what Broom Hill in RP is. It starts with a drag and, including the drag, takes me about 3 mins to complete.

EDIT: in terms of what I've encountered elsewhere, see JonGinge's post re the HOTA. There are a couple of 20%er bergs in Flanders, the Paterberg and Koppenberg being two. I've only ridden up the former, but, the only way I oculd get my fat rear end up was through a death-or-glory charge.

Using mapmyride.com I concluded that both Nightingale Lane and Broom Hill in RP exceeded 20% for short stretches. javascript:emoticon(':oops:') Elsewhere: the short pitch from Ham Gate to Queens Road max 18% and the approach to White Lodge from Sheen Gate max 15%.

roger_merriman

gbs wrote:

cjcp wrote:

I can take in Nightingale Lane on the commute home, which kicks up to about 18% at the top. It's about 300 yards long, with a bend.

Dunno what Broom Hill in RP is. It starts with a drag and, including the drag, takes me about 3 mins to complete.

EDIT: in terms of what I've encountered elsewhere, see JonGinge's post re the HOTA. There are a couple of 20%er bergs in Flanders, the Paterberg and Koppenberg being two. I've only ridden up the former, but, the only way I oculd get my fat rear end up was through a death-or-glory charge.

Using mapmyride.com I concluded that both Nightingale Lane and Broom Hill in RP exceeded 20% for short stretches. javascript:emoticon(':oops:') Elsewhere: the short pitch from Ham Gate to Queens Road max 18% and the approach to White Lodge from Sheen Gate max 15%.

most those seem a little high to be honest, google maps is great fun thing to play with but i'd not take it's figures too seriously. it's a simplified map of the world.

always_tyred

gbs wrote:

cjcp wrote:

I can take in Nightingale Lane on the commute home, which kicks up to about 18% at the top. It's about 300 yards long, with a bend.

Dunno what Broom Hill in RP is. It starts with a drag and, including the drag, takes me about 3 mins to complete.

EDIT: in terms of what I've encountered elsewhere, see JonGinge's post re the HOTA. There are a couple of 20%er bergs in Flanders, the Paterberg and Koppenberg being two. I've only ridden up the former, but, the only way I oculd get my fat rear end up was through a death-or-glory charge.

Using mapmyride.com I concluded that both Nightingale Lane and Broom Hill in RP exceeded 20% for short stretches. javascript:emoticon(':oops:') Elsewhere: the short pitch from Ham Gate to Queens Road max 18% and the approach to White Lodge from Sheen Gate max 15%.

The telemap data is pretty bad for shorter climbs, to be honest. I put in a few stretches near where I live and it tells me that there are descents on one of my favourite climbs. :?

I also did a brutal ride across Dartmoor last week. I passed 3 20% signs and a 25% sign. Telemap (which google uses) told me that the maximum (and that fleetingly) on my whole 40 mile circuit was 12%. :?

I think we often over estimate average gradients - anything over 10% that is stustained is horribly steep, and in the UK will be lumpy and comprise pitches much steeper. Other than going out with a spirit level thing on your bars and stopping to measure the steep bits, your best bet is an OS map - at least the data points are not joined by polygons.

Re: GPS - altitude is generally poor (in that plane the satellites your device is triangulating from are all very similar in distance from you). As such, you can stand still and sometimes get fluctuating readings, which are added to your totals over a ride. I have occasionally compared metres climbed measured barometrically (which would tend to under estimate - because you are over the top and heading down again before readings stabilise) and using a simple GPS. The figures were.... ahem.... different. Hugely different. I'm inclined to trust the barometric readings to within say 10% or something (they are much more accurate than that on a day hike) and to treat the GPS readings as almost meaningless.

The inherent fluctuations are likely to either substract or add spurious metres here and there. Given that you will only be reading a few metres vertically anyway, on that leg biting pitch of interest, this gives rise to misleading info, imo.

biondino

gbs wrote:

Using mapmyride.com I concluded that both Nightingale Lane and Broom Hill in RP exceeded 20% for short stretches. javascript:emoticon(':oops:') Elsewhere: the short pitch from Ham Gate to Queens Road max 18% and the approach to White Lodge from Sheen Gate max 15%.

Okay I know this one. The ride up to White Lodge is pretty gentle! Maybe it gets to 6% or 7% but no way is it 15%. I promise.

gbs

biondino wrote:

gbs wrote:

Using mapmyride.com I concluded that both Nightingale Lane and Broom Hill in RP exceeded 20% for short stretches. javascript:emoticon(':oops:') Elsewhere: the short pitch from Ham Gate to Queens Road max 18% and the approach to White Lodge from Sheen Gate max 15%.

Okay I know this one. The ride up to White Lodge is pretty gentle! Maybe it gets to 6% or 7% but no way is it 15%. I promise.

Somewhere in the thread there is comment that measurements over short distances are prone to error - I think that is plausible. The mapmyride results were derived from short stretches and I quoted the max gradient shown in the of 10 part segmentation.

In the RP area I rate1) Nightingale Lane and then 2) Broomfield Hill. I have climbed both on my hybrid with a low gear ratio of 0.8:1. I am not sure that the skinny tyres and lighter weight of my newly acquired Bianchi will offset the gearing disadvantage - lowest gear is 30/23=1.30. I would be interested to hear how others view these hills
.

PS Don't bother to make comments re fitness. I am a 67 newbie and so am too old to be bothered by point scorers.!.

roger_merriman

gbs wrote:

biondino wrote:

gbs wrote:

Using mapmyride.com I concluded that both Nightingale Lane and Broom Hill in RP exceeded 20% for short stretches. javascript:emoticon(':oops:') Elsewhere: the short pitch from Ham Gate to Queens Road max 18% and the approach to White Lodge from Sheen Gate max 15%.

Okay I know this one. The ride up to White Lodge is pretty gentle! Maybe it gets to 6% or 7% but no way is it 15%. I promise.

Somewhere in the thread there is comment that measurements over short distances are prone to error - I think that is plausible. The mapmyride results were derived from short stretches and I quoted the max gradient shown in the of 10 part segmentation.

In the RP area I rate1) Nightingale Lane and then 2) Broomfield Hill. I have climbed both on my hybrid with a low gear ratio of 0.8:1. I am not sure that the skinny tyres and lighter weight of my newly acquired Bianchi will offset the gearing disadvantage - lowest gear is 30/23=1.30. I would be interested to hear how others view these hills
.

PS Don't bother to make comments re fitness. I am a 67 newbie and so am too old to be bothered by point scorers.!.

no one is trying to score points here, all we are doing is saying that mapmyride in common with most online route sites is built upon google maps which is by no means 100% trustable, tends to be closer to the real thing on average % and on longer hills.

nightingale is steeper at very end while broomfield is more effort being steep for longer. both are fun wee hills.

homercles

I did Titsey Hill (16%) as part of a sportive last year. Looks like it has a near neighbour with a 25% stretch (stretch = 50yds :oops: )

http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article/mps/uan/2650

cjcp

Yep, both are very different hills. I can get up Broom Hill in a 53x19, but I'm out of the saddle. Nightingale, I'm in the 39 right from the start :P - it's a tricky ol' turning off Pertersham Rd (the road condition isn't great at the turning :? ) and I seem unable to turn in at speed. I was told that Nightingale kicks up to 18%, which must be that bit athe end. t's about the same as Whitedown, I think. No idea about Broom Hill - it's always a great work out though because of the drag leading up to it.

Actually, while we're in that area, do you chaps know what Star & Garter's gradient is?

I find Rchmond Hill a good work out at the end of the commute because of it's length, and King's Road.