Throwing down the gauntlet!

[Drunkskunk]

I'm Throwing down the gauntlet. Its time for you to step up and prove your worth on the field of internet battle!

Mano a mano, or Ebike-o a Ebike-o... something... My Bike against yours in hill climbing!

Since we're all honest people here, we can fight this out with maps and youtube videos. Just pick a hill and go climb it.

Here's my opening shot. 2 hills in Austin Texas. Jester Blvd, and Beauford Drive. I found jester blvd listed on a national forum for joggers as one of the hardest climbs in Texas. Its a good steady climb peaking at 28% grade. Its also a boring view, but for a jogger or a cyclist it's a smooth straight climb that will wear you down fast. While riding the area, I found Beauford Drive a block away. its a little shorter, but steeper, twisted, and more scenic. i spent a lot of time going up and down it, and completely destroyed a set of brake pads doing it.

I was able to hit 33 going up Beauford once, on a fresh battery. But I had to back out of the throttle for traction reasons. I never hit more than 33 going down for the same reason. I hit more on Jester but never looked at the speedo. The road surface on Jester is normal, but Beauford is grooved for wet traction, and my balloon tires just couldn't hook up.

Damn that was some serious fun! Austin is a great town. I want to go back when I can spend more time there.

[arkmundi]

I bow in submission to your general greatness and throw various objects of admiration in the vicinity of your path.

[MadRhino]

Too bad I am so far from Austin
I would be glad to race you up and down any hill, especially if it is steep and dirt

[Ypedal]

It is really difficult to show how steep a hill is on camera...

[dogman dan]

Steepest thing my bike ever climbed was about 20 degrees. Rocks, since soil likes to go downhill at 20 degrees. 28% is about 15.5 degrees, so my dirt bike would get up it. But not as fast as yours does, being a mere 28 mm magnet 9 continent motor.

Wish we lived a bit closer, I'd love to have somebody confirm that the trails dogman rides really are steep. They never look like it in the videos.

Steepest paved road of any length I've seen in New Mexico is near Madrid, where they filmed Wild Hogs. 18% grade for about a half mile. The time I rode it, I was going down though. That bike wouldn't have made it up it, only 800w.

For the newbs that haven't seen them, here's my bike climb vids. In the vids, the point I stall and have to stop is around 25 degrees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RpXuIyAnkY

In this vid, the hill at 2.32 is the really steep one, again close to black diamond ski slope grade where it stops me. Definitely scary coming back down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfwdkfNZ7RQ

and if you watch my vids at all, you have to watch the funny one, where a dog tries to chase dogman. The good part is at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7kBztwTA3U

[wesnewell]

One of th steeper hills around here.

Click to enlarge

[999zip999]

What ? I learned how to melt batteries and motors on my hills so just go around them. I learned to live another day.
Proops drunkshunk wish I could afford it.

[yopappamon]

90+ volts on a bike?!?! Thats's more than some ev cars! Excellent!

[wineboyrider]

Those hills ain't shit compared to what we got here. But, my builds are all commuter only and no fun....LOL

[AussieJester]

Gladly accept the challenge, midrives excel at hill climbing,
And my two speed box has just the gear to cruise up any hill at 50km/hr to the cows
Come home...and 100+ going down then lol.. Hehe

KiM

[izeman]

i guess hill climb just end where tires loose grip. isn't it? there won't be any paved road you can't climb with a 2kw+ mid drive in first gear i guess. so we have to go find some forests etc and there you have gravel, rocks and roots to pass. i guess this would be the challenge? or is it speed in relation to steepness? in that case i'm out

[amberwolf]

It is really difficult to show how steep a hill is on camera...

Just make one of htose weighted-needle indicators on a sheet of plastic or cardstock, with the angles marked on it, mounted on your bike where the camera can see it while you ride. This assumes you're honest about the markings, but if you can see the edge of the sheet and are starting on a flat surface, and the video is continuous, you can at least see the relative angle-change easily enough.

[ohzee]

Enjoyed the video & the humor.

Not much in the way of hills around here.

[wesnewell]

First attempt at adding a youtube video.It took over 3 hours to upload a 10 minute video to youtube.

[Danschutz]

Excellent video Drunkskunk!

[drew12345]

You guys should download RaceRender application and add gps data so you can display speed and grade of hill. The example below gets speed and grade from garmin. Rest is from cycle analogger. I am trying to make video of how to do but having trouble getting desktop recorder outputting video with good resolution. I think it's the crappy free desktop recorders I'm trying.

[wesnewell]

The rest of the videos.

[arkmundi]

You guys should download RaceRender application and add gps data so you can display speed and grade of hill. The example below gets speed and grade from garmin. Rest is from cycle analogger. I am trying to make video of how to do but having trouble getting desktop recorder outputting video with good resolution. I think it's the crappy free desktop recorders I'm trying... [youtube]yEUMumi9clw

That's frick'n amazing dude. Feel like I just struck gold in ESLand. I've gotta getme one of those!

[MadRhino]

...there won't be any paved road you can't climb with a 2kw+ mid drive in first gear i guess.

I guess 250 watts could do it too if geared down enough. Yet it is about how fast one can climb, and 2Kw will be very slow up a steep hill.

Mid drives do have an neat advantage at climbing, but they need to be built with a big motor to be good at speeding.

[izeman]

depends on what you call speeding. my dd hub drive does 45mph and is quite fast do my findings. it can do 30mph up a 10% grade. but not for very long before over heating.
my mid drive mac bike does a 30mph but can climb any steep single trail much faster than anyone w/o motor could even imagine. and to be honest much faster than i dare to ride it sometimes

[hjns]

https://vimeo.com/69832668

I guess 45kmh going up a 30% hill takes a lot of energy....

[cal3thousand]

Great video DS! Quite enjoyable to watch and listen to. Apparently you have skills beyond the ebike.

I have a couple hills around here that might be of fun challenge. One is a longer car 'hill' that is not ultra steep, but has a good elevation change and it should test out the long term heat handling.

And the other is a short but super steep hill that I'm a bit apprehensive to approach until I get more comfortable with my bike

[dogman dan]

It's pretty amazing what a typical 28mm hubmotor can do, with 1000w. ( running it on 48v, 22 amps controller) In those vids I put on you tube, I'm riding a slow turn motor, and giving it 3000w.

In general, it's extremely difficult to not wheelie off the bike once you are riding up 20 degrees. What stops me is generally wheel slip, which is then followed by a wheelie when it grabs again. Or, just losing ability to hang on, when the rocks get to grapefruit size. I don't have the strength I had when I was 25, and had a trials motorcycle.



Yesterday, I went out and did something I'd never actually tried before. I took the new version of the E-bikekit direct drive kit and rode the same single tracks in some of those videos. Mostly about 6 degree grade, or 10% with some short 15% bumps. But the rocky gully is about 300 vertical feet of continuous 15 degrees, which is 27 % !!!! You never see many that pedal ride up it, it's the go down route. No proof of the grade other than my word, but I did actually measure it with an angle finder. Not my first time doing this, I used to measure grades of backcountry ski slopes, and know how to do it accurately.

The stock E-bikekit goes up the 10% stuff without pedaling of course. We know it can do that, always have known that. But with hard pedaling, it also climbed the 27% with no problem whatsoever!!! Frankly, I was pretty amazed, other "ordinary" ebikes I have taken up that hill had me getting off and pushing it up. Aotema (36v) couldn't do it, Heinzmann (24v) couldn't do it, Fusin (48v) couldn't do it. But the 28mm 9 continent/muxus type Ebikekit ran up it easily.

It's not ideal, at the top of the entire ride, about 5 miles mostly uphill, the motor was at least twice as hot as a slow motor would be. But it didn't melt, and made it up 15 degree slope without having to get off and walk. Pretty amazing I thought. I knew I could get up 15% with pedaling, but 27%??? I didn't really expect it to go up that gully.

[Drunkskunk]

All great videos! I'm really liking those overlays as well. Anyone have a link for a "how to" on those?

I think I found a cure for the way cameras flatten out hills. In this thread someone had suggested a camera gimbal. I'm going to try one and see if it will keep the camera level.

I know we'd kicked around the idea of a spirit level for ebikes that gave the slope of a hill. I'd been working on a miniature one that would go around the handle pars, but gave it up when I found an app for my phone that worked even better. There's a free version for android. no idea if it's free on apple.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... eter&hl=en
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clinome ... 15117?mt=8
Good app, and works as accurately any hand held angle finder I've used. Kind of funny, though. I tried to use it on that road in my video. The road was steep enough that the phone kept sliding down the road. I had to run and dive for it as it was sliding away at one point. How often have you had to chase your phone down the road? Maybe I'm glad the camera wasn't on.

Anyways, keep the videos coming!