Road Gradient Signs

prawny
prawny Posts: 5,440
edited July 2009 in The bottom bracket
Are they average or max gradient?
Saracen Tenet 3 - 2015 - Dead - Replaced with a Hack Frame
Voodoo Bizango - 2014 - Dead - Hit by a car
Vitus Sentier VRS - 2017

Comments

  • addicted to Langbar
    addicted to Langbar Posts: 124
    They are the maximum gradient. If you want the average gradient for a hill you would need to plot it on something like bikeroutetoaster or bikehike and use the elevation options and a calculator.
  • prawny
    prawny Posts: 5,440
    Cheers :D
    Saracen Tenet 3 - 2015 - Dead - Replaced with a Hack Frame
    Voodoo Bizango - 2014 - Dead - Hit by a car
    Vitus Sentier VRS - 2017
  • beverick
    beverick Posts: 3,461
    Also, you'll sometimes find several signs on the same hill as the gradient varies.

    Bob
  • Biscuiteer
    Biscuiteer Posts: 143
    On one local hill, I'm warned it being 16% going up, but if I turn round at the top and go back down the way I came, the sign only says 12% :roll:
  • BazookaMoor
    BazookaMoor Posts: 77
    addicted to Langbar wrote:
    They are the maximum gradient. If you want the average gradient for a hill you would need to plot it on something like bikeroutetoaster or bikehike and use the elevation options and a calculator.

    Thanks for the info, was wondering this myself.
  • tlw1
    tlw1 Posts: 22,183
    they are the minimum - because I can't be that unfit :)
  • iain_j
    iain_j Posts: 1,941
    I treat them with a pinch of salt. Signs on the Horseshoe Pass say there's a 20% bit, but I've struggled more on hills which have been signposted 16%. Went up past a 25% signpost last weekend and didn't even need bottom gear on it.
  • fletch8928
    fletch8928 Posts: 756
    i say bring back the olde signs. 1 in 4 always sounded harder that 25% and 1 in 10 seemed loads easier than 10%. I think they maybe the max but if you have hairpins then i think it goes out of the window (check chimney bank at Rosedale for my logic on that)
    fly like a mouse, run like a cushion be the small bookcase!
  • dag_on_a_bike
    dag_on_a_bike Posts: 581
    I've been to France several times and encountered signs on various roads that say 5% yet when looking at them they look far worse.

    Must be the same concept as the road that look flat but definately feel as if you're going up.

    Perhaps I just need to get my eyes tested.
    There's no such thing as too old.
  • ademort
    ademort Posts: 1,924
    Live in the Netherlands and have never ever seen a hill gradient sign. Sadly, we have no hills, sad innit :cry: .
    Ademort
    ademort
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  • Le Commentateur
    Le Commentateur Posts: 4,099
    signs.jpg

    Be afraid, be VERY afraid...
    Un uomo solo al commando
  • prawny
    prawny Posts: 5,440
    I worked out the hill that I live at the top of this morning, the sign at the top says 9%, there's no sign at the bottom(?) average gradient works out to just over 7% for 700m.

    I thought it was hard, no I realise I am a fat weak girly man :oops:
    Saracen Tenet 3 - 2015 - Dead - Replaced with a Hack Frame
    Voodoo Bizango - 2014 - Dead - Hit by a car
    Vitus Sentier VRS - 2017
  • Surf-Matt
    Surf-Matt Posts: 5,952
    45% :shock: :shock: :shock:

    A few 20% hills down this way. And one is 30%.

    My drive is 150 yards long and 33% - most delivery trucks can't get up so they drivers have to park at the bottom and walk :lol:
  • Chaz.Harding
    Chaz.Harding Posts: 3,144
    Le Commentateur

    Where is THAT!!? I really want to (try!) and ride it now!
    Boo-yah mofo
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  • Le Commentateur
    Le Commentateur Posts: 4,099
    It's called 'Scanuppia' and is a concrete surfaced goat-track road in Italy, near Trento and Lake Garda.

    I believe that only a handfiul of people have ridden all the way up, though pauses to put a foot down are apparently OK. I don't know if it has ever been conquered with a completely non-stop ascent.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulJsjynZEZc
    Un uomo solo al commando
  • geoff_ss
    geoff_ss Posts: 1,201
    That looks like a hill to ride on a trike. You can go VERY slowly on a trike without falling off though I should think there's a danger of the front wheel lifting there.

    Geoff
    Old cyclists never die; they just fit smaller chainrings ... and pedal faster
  • Le Commentateur
    Le Commentateur Posts: 4,099
    Geoff_SS wrote:
    That looks like a hill to ride on a trike. You can go VERY slowly on a trike without falling off though I should think there's a danger of the front wheel lifting there.

    Geoff

    Like that scene in Belleville Rendevous with the gangster's 2CV. :D
    Un uomo solo al commando
  • freehub
    freehub Posts: 4,257
    I'm sure I'd get up that without stopping even if it means literally track standing all the way up.

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