Rolling, hilly, or very hilly?

redddraggon

www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=5810

A "typical" ride for me in North Wales, and to me I'd consider it "hilly", your thoughts?

nasahapley

I'd agree Red, as a general rule I reckon on over 50 feet of ascent per mile being 'hilly', and over 100 feet per mile being 'very hilly'. At about 65 feet per mile, I'd definitely rate your ride as hilly, but I suppose it depends what you're used to.

alp777

Hilly......5000ft over 79 miles is not too strenuous.

alp777

but then i suppose it depends on how quick you do the ride?

IanTrcp

nasahapley wrote:

I'd agree Red, as a general rule I reckon on over 50 feet of ascent per mile being 'hilly', and over 100 feet per mile being 'very hilly'. At about 65 feet per mile, I'd definitely rate your ride as hilly, but I suppose it depends what you're used to.

Interesting concept / definition. I work in m and km so that's:

>10m per km = hilly
>20m per km = very hilly

My ride this morning saw just over 1000m of ascent over 90km, so just in the bottom of the hilly category. Seems about right to me. Thanks!

kettrinboy

as a comparison last year i did an 80 mile out and back Kettering to Coventry, just rolling Northants/ Warwicks countryside and racked up 3440ft/ 1050m of climb , sometimes its hard to compare different routes for hillyness because of the differing terrain, for instance i could do 80 miles around my local area and rack up nearly as much climb as on your ride but wouldnt call my ride hilly because it was all small hills and undulations , your ride however looking at the graph looks like its got 4or5 pretty big climbs in it bigger than anything round my area anyway so i,d call it hilly , somebody who rides up in the Cumbrian fells or the Pennines may not

roger_merriman

hilly probably but stats alone are fairly meaningless and google maps data is quite often just plain wrong, this said i think for very hilly i'd be personally thinking either long climbs such as a 1000ft plus over 3 or 4 miles or a few 20% or more to get into very hilly, but i grew up in a gorge so my idea of steep is some what more than most i think it's safe to say.

Frank the tank

Just to show my honesty and ignorance, how do you lot know how much "climbing" you've done in a ride?

Is it info gleaned from GPS's ?

trickeyja

Most of my rides are on the Cotswolds and I would consider them to be rolling - occasionally hilly.

However from Cheltenham most ways up the escarpment involve climbs with gradients of at least 1 in 10. There are several 1 in 4 roads going from Woodmancote to Cleeve Hill with the steepest being the notorious Bushcombe Lane :twisted: (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jtrickey/2530867606/)

This means generally I have a steep ascent to start off with, followed by rolling terrain, a couple of lesser climbs and a good descent (unless I'm deliberately throwing in as many steep hills as possible).

reppohkcor

trickeyja wrote:

Most of my rides are on the Cotswolds and I would consider them to be rolling - occasionally hilly.

However from Cheltenham most ways up the escarpment involve climbs with gradients of at least 1 in 10. There are several 1 in 4 roads going from Woodmancote to Cleeve Hill with the steepest being the notorious Bushcombe Lane :twisted: (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jtrickey/2530867606/)

This means generally I have a steep ascent to start off with, followed by rolling terrain, a couple of lesser climbs and a good descent (unless I'm deliberately throwing in as many steep hills as possible).

I'm planning to do bushcombe lane for the first time this week so wish me luck.

I'm usually around painswick, sheepscombe and cranham so manage plenty of 10-20% 'ers in one ride. I'm guessing you usually ride around the back of cleeve hill then?

trickeyja

reppohkcor wrote:

I'm planning to do bushcombe lane for the first time this week so wish me luck.

I'm usually around painswick, sheepscombe and cranham so manage plenty of 10-20% 'ers in one ride. I'm guessing you usually ride around the back of cleeve hill then?

Good luck! You should be able to manage it considering the hills round Painswick. It is very steep though, especially on the corner where I took that picture. I ride all over the Cotswolds but if I do go over Cleeve Hill, I prefer to go the steep way - usually Stockwell or Bushcombe Let us know how you find it!

If you're interested here's a video I took going down it a couple of years ago before I converted to a road bike! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmDiFm5kPPc
Check out the bit around 2 mins - that's the corner - just before the car passes.

fuzzynavel

Frank the tank wrote:

Just to show my honesty and ignorance, how do you lot know how much "climbing" you've done in a ride?

Is it info gleaned from GPS's ?

Hello Frank.

I take my data directly from a Garmin 705 which has a built in barometric altimeter.

Have a look at this one iI did today. I got caught up going the wrong way through a half marathon between Edinburgh and Prestonpans and had to slow down....so I added a few laps of Arthurs Seat (reasonable sized hill) at the end which you can clearly see from the data.


http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2969317

a_n_t

alp777 wrote:

Hilly......5000ft over 79 miles is not too strenuous.

did 5000ft in 42 miles today where were you red?

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7938978

redddraggon

North Wales, it's better than England

uk_mr_brownstone

trickeyja wrote:

Most of my rides are on the Cotswolds and I would consider them to be rolling - occasionally hilly.

However from Cheltenham most ways up the escarpment involve climbs with gradients of at least 1 in 10. There are several 1 in 4 roads going from Woodmancote to Cleeve Hill with the steepest being the notorious Bushcombe Lane :twisted: (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jtrickey/2530867606/)

This means generally I have a steep ascent to start off with, followed by rolling terrain, a couple of lesser climbs and a good descent (unless I'm deliberately throwing in as many steep hills as possible).

Resurecting an old thread after finding this using the forum search. I used to live in Bishops Cleeve and regularly rode up Buscombe and Gambles lanes- I'm sure Gambles (right at the top) is steeper, but that bit in your picture is definately the hard bit on Bushcombe! I now live in Glos and do Abbeymead to Cranham regularly (did it today) and the lane from Upton-St-Leonards to Cranham (Via Portway, behind Prinknash Abbey) feels like it beats all of those lanes up to Cleeve Hill in terms of steepness (although it's not as long luckily!). If you're after some training hills the various roads from Upton-St-Leonards up onto the A46 make a good alternative to the above mentioned Woodmancote / Bishops Cleeve ones