steepest trail ebiked?

[aaronski]

I was conversing with another member of the forum on hill climbing and realized that I had very little empirical data regarding my rides. I did a little digging and found veloroutes.org, which allow you to map your ride along with an elevation and and avg/max grade you're climbing. I have to say that the reality is less impressive than what I thought I was climbing. The trail that fried my controller was just a 16% grade.(though the max was over 30%). I did 1.3 miles with 803 feet of vertical and poof! I've included the grade chart and link to the trail itself, I thought some other might like to chime in with the nastiest trail they've ridden?

http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=40562

 

[pwbset]

Neat site! Pretty accurate too.. my commute is dead on 7.5mi just like they say, but they claim 1,688ft where as my GPS is more like 1,595ft. Close though. They also say max grade 30%, but I think it's more like 20%. It's flat the first 2.5mi and then averages probably 8-10% the rest of the way.



http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=40564

 

[dogman dan]

Once you get really steep, I think in degrees. Really really steep ski slopes are usually 30 degrees, and double black diamond is 35-40 degrees. Above 45 degrees, snow usually won't stick so good. Anyway, most hiking trails don't go above a blue square slope that is about 20 degrees since horses don't like it.

A trail for mountain biking is another story. Though mostly the ones I ride keep to a reasonable 5 degrees or so, there are the tricky bits that get steep, like slickrock sections, or trails that are made to be run downhill only.

Anyway, my local trails have some areas that are around 10-15 degrees for 50 feet or so. I allmost allways wheelie off there. With all I can pedal, and even a wimpy input from a 5304, I either wheelie, or go into wheel spin and stop. So I'd say about 20% is about the practical limit. More power is not really the answer, at some point, it just gets hard to stay on the bike. I used to have a trials motorcycle that could rock crawl up anything just about. There was a small mountain with about a 25 degree slope that had a trail on it made by descending bulldozers to a mine. I never made it up all the way. About a half mile up, I'd come off, and never be able to get going again. The trail was a series of rock steps, 2 feet tall. The bike could do it, but the rider would get tired and eventually wheelie or fall off.

 

[pkcheng55]

Thanks! This is a great tool which I'm looking for.

 

[Drunkskunk]

Awesome tool.
Over my usual routes, the greatest elevation change is 82 feet. (582 to 664 peak to peak) 82 feet! And people say texas is flat ...

 

[aaronski]

I would trade you, especially now that I'm riding my ebike without assistance until my new throttle gets here.. nothing like a 1500 foot climb to make you wish for power.

 

[docnjoj]

Try 5 degrees for a mile or so without a battery working and you will see steep!
otherDoc

 

[Russell]

Yes neat tool. I plotted one of my usual routes and found I climb just under 1370 feet, and of course decend the same amount, though it's over the course of about 31 miles.



-R

 

[amberwolf]

This is a very interesting tool, though I don't normally have to deal with steep.
This is the route I take up to a friend's place I am about to have to store some stuff at, and it'll be interesting trying to haul stuff up that hill on a trailer.

I'm pretty sure something is screwed up in that graph image, though--no way is it flat or downhill at any part of past my entry onto Dunlap Ave--it's all uphill from there even though the first three or so miles are a gentle slope, it's still definitely uphill. It starts to get steeper for the next mile, and after that it's all evil right up to the top end.
http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=40681

I can't even WALK the bike up the last quarter mile or so of that, without stopping to rest. I'm sure the motor won't be able to take it, even if I'm pedalling for all I'm worth the whole way up, with both of us running thru the lower gears, staying around 9-10MPH (the lowest speeds the bike is really stable at), even without the trailer.

I can barely ride up the whole thing on my regular unpowered upright bike in it's lowest gear (of 21). I'd probably have to stop and rest my knees a few times these days, given how bad they've gotten since I last had to do it.

 

[dogman dan]

I didn't play with this one. I just use map my ride which is similar, and I know how to use now. On map my ride, you have to look at hills in very short sections or you will get an average slope that is not so accurate. So looking at a one mile section gets pretty accurate, but looking at a half mile or quarter mile gets very close, showing every little roll in the slope. For me, I'd calculated my commute to have a bit of 10% slope, and found it was really about 6% with a short bit of 7%. If I map the whole ride, it shows as 5% since there are some flat spots on some parking lots.

Another road I thought might be 10% turned out to be 13%. The lesson was, it's really hard to accurately judge a slope visually unless you have a vertical thing to compare it with. Total vertical is hard to judge too, On the mt bike trails in the dona anna's the first mile seems to be a climb, but the gain is actually only 38 feet! There is some climbing, but it's ups and downs with less gain than you think. The whole trail system feels like a 2000 vertical climb, but is only 900 feet. Again, you go up and down enough to seem like a longer climb.