Hill climbs and Grades

Okay - i said there would be more than one today. Well sure enough - for some reason i'm being sucked into this cycling blogging whirlpool... why? dunno... seems to be appropriate and the only blogs besides Paul's (see i 'updated' the links and there he is) that i read on an even semi-regular basis are cycling related. I've dropped almost out of the car world with the exception of the friends from TDIclub and the local GTGs and all that.

more on to the point- i dropped Doug Jansen and email asking maybe if he might have run across the grades on a few hills i ride between the two facilities here in Providence... specifically College and Waterman streets between N. Main and Prospect. Essentially climbing up the hill to the college.

I know they are steep... being a seattle boy and commuting to the Pine Street Pro Shop, which back in the 90s when i worked there was owned by the Velo Stores folks. The shop's been long gone for a while... but its gets me back to cycling in the PacNW and the fact that i ain't no hill newbie. And based on my experience i knew these two were steep.

My guess was 10% or so... I've found that just before i got nailed by the flu/cold over Halloween i could make it up on my Paramount with the single 50toother in front and the 25 in back. Make it up mind you, not ride gracefully spinning. I think the 180 cranks and my 6'6" frame has something to do with it. Anyway, i did find that switching over to the Croll cyclocrosser with the 49/38 was a bit easier (38) but not a hell uvalot.

I'm going to take the liberty and quote Doug directly... cause damn that's steep as all can be... Its not quite as steep as Mt. Battie

Geoff,

I get a lot of queries like this. I always answer them when I have the info to share. Usually I have to burst somebody’s bubble, as grades are not nearly as steep as most would believe them to be. Probably not in your case. The peak grades for the two roads you gave me are around 11%. This is about the same as Mt Washington at 11.8%. These roads are actually in town and built up with business? Scary. Anyway, I poked around in Topo 5.0 in the same area and found many of the roads going up from the canal to be even steeper, such as Court St and Meeting St, in the range of 12-15% grade. Jenckes St peaks at 16%. S. Court St gains almost 120ft in a very short distance. Is that paved and ridable?

I dunno about S. Court Street I haven't ridden up there at all... kinda cool though - some confirmation that its a steep pitch...

i suppose since mentioning the two i should do the run down of the rest of the bikes i don't ride as much:

Klein Quantum Pro...
Klein Ardoit (1996 with a few updates but keeping the MC2 love)
Klein Mantra Carbon (black - XL - rigid Klein UniKlein fork)
Then there are the two mentioned:
Croll Custom Cyclocross
'86 Waterford Schwinn Paramount built with Columbus SL/SP tube sets...

i won't mention the bikes i've owned leading up to this stable (yet)... but lately only the steelies get ridden - the joys of apartment life with 2/3rds of your stuff in storage! That Mantra has plans to become a single speed - i've got the wheel built, the cassette, a billion busted rear-ders waiting to be turned into a tensioner... just... haven't... gotten to it yet...

peace out for now - gotta love commuting - time to burn off the holiday booze!