When I lived at the corner of Fillmore and Oak in San Francisco there was no way to avoid an insane hill - all four sides were bananas. The Haight Wiggle helped some but there was always some uncomfortable grunting at the end of my commute home.
On Jul 17, 1:55 pm, William <tapebu...@gmail.com> wrote: > I am not sure how people know the grade of a hill either, other than > just by eyeballing it. > > I would just eyeball it if it weren't right in front of my house. In > fact the hill up to my house is the kind that I have generally avoided > on bike rides. I've never ridden a bicycle up Moser or Centennial > here in the East Bay hills. > > Since it is right here, what I do is take out my 4 foot level and a > ruler. Just measure how high you have to elevate one end to make it > level. rise over run. > > On Jul 16, 5:56 pm, "David T." <davidtren...@yahoo.ca> wrote: > > > > > I just looked up something that I read in Frank Berto’s book: > > > “With a cyclist’s entire weight on the pedal, the maximum rideable > > gear in inches is seven times the slope denominator. Thus, a 1-in-10 > > incline requires a 70-inch gear.” > > > (In other words, on a 10 % slope, with all your weight on the pedal, > > and a 70-inch gear you would just be stationary. But in reality, if > > you pulled up on the handlebars, you could make a little progress. ) > > > If I work things out correctly, a 15 % grade would be 1-in-6.67. Using > > the formula above, this would give a maximum usable gear of 7 X 6.67 = > > 46.7 gear inches. > > > ( That’s the maximum usable gear, not that it would be a fun ride. ) > > > I am not sure how people know the grade of a hill either, other than > > just by eyeballing it. > > > But I can say, in my experience, riding a single-speed bike will > > gradually make you a better climber, so that after maybe six months or > > a year, you can go up hills quicker and easier than you would have > > done previously in a lower gear. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
