Steepest road in Melbourne???

Gags · Dec 30, 2006

Think I might have found the steepest bit of road in Melbourne.....open to
challengers....

I went for about a 2hr recovery ride this morning on my hardtail mtb along
the Yarra Trail towards Warrandyte and back. Just before coming to a
baseball field (not sure of its name) I left the path, crossed over the road
and found the old Templestowe Hill Climb Track. Apparently they raced there
up until fairly recently but it is now closed off to traffic and so I
decided to ride up it....sounded good in theory.

I soon found out that right after the start of the hill it kicks right
up.....the real steep part is not very long (maybe 80-100m or so) but it is
very steep. My first effort ended about half way up as I was going really
slow and drifted to the left of the road and into the rough stuff (the road
curves slightly to the left and the camber angles down on the left hand
side). I went back to the bottom and had a second crack at it and managed
to get to the top (just). I was in my lowest gear on the granny cog which
is 22/32 (17.875 inches for the 26 inch wheel!!!) and originally thought I
would be able to stay in the seat and grind my way up. This plan changed as
soon as it got so steep that the front wheel was coming off the ground and
so I ended up out of the saddle with my quads hitting the handlebars to keep
the front wheel down and I was grinding at a real slow rate. I looked at
the speedo once and I was doing 4 km/h!!! The hard bit was maintaining
balance and direction at such a slow speed and although I was swerving all
over the road, I did manage to get all the way to the top. I was using the
HRM during the ride and sitting on 120-130bpm but when I looked at the top
of the climb I was at 185bpm!!!

I would love for someone with a GPS or speedo with altitude on it to go and
measure the grade of the climb.....I remember one BR when we found a hill at
27% or something and I am pretty sure that this one is way steeper than
that!!

Just had a thought and googled "templestowe hill climb" and came up with
this.....

"The farm at the top of Blackburn Road was home to an implausibly steep
rise, effectively an escarpment, on which a section of track was built that
was known as The Wall. It stretched for about 100 metres at a gradient,
measured in feet, of 1 to 2.5........ .......By the second Templestowe
hill climb, more than a year later, the track was sealed and The Wall was
the steepest section of bitumen road in Australia. Any steeper and the
tarmac would have slid down the hill before it had set."

So there you go.....40% gradient and the steepest bitumen road in
Australia.....when is this one going on Cycle2Max.....maybe it could be "The
Real Wall"??

1 in 20..........pfffffttttt....try 1 in 2.5!!!!!

Gags

Bleve · Dec 30, 2006

Gags wrote:

> Think I might have found the steepest bit of road in Melbourne.....open to
> challengers....
>
> I went for about a 2hr recovery ride this morning on my hardtail mtb along
> the Yarra Trail towards Warrandyte and back. Just before coming to a
> baseball field (not sure of its name) I left the path, crossed over the road
> and found the old Templestowe Hill Climb Track. Apparently they raced there
> up until fairly recently but it is now closed off to traffic and so I
> decided to ride up it....sounded good in theory.

I've walked up it

The record up the whole course, is held by Allan Hamilton in a Porsche
930 I think, took him a bit under a minute, to do 1km. Set sometime in
the very late 60's I think?

TimC · Dec 30, 2006

On 2006-12-30, Gags (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> Just had a thought and googled "templestowe hill climb" and came up with
> this.....
>
> "The farm at the top of Blackburn Road was home to an implausibly steep
> rise, effectively an escarpment, on which a section of track was built that
> was known as The Wall. It stretched for about 100 metres at a gradient,
> measured in feet, of 1 to 2.5........ .......By the second Templestowe
> hill climb, more than a year later, the track was sealed and The Wall was
> the steepest section of bitumen road in Australia. Any steeper and the
> tarmac would have slid down the hill before it had set."
>
> So there you go.....40% gradient and the steepest bitumen road in
> Australia.....when is this one going on Cycle2Max.....maybe it could be "The
> Real Wall"??
>
> 1 in 20..........pfffffttttt....try 1 in 2.5!!!!!

Not being able to fire up opera in the time being...
Isn't that steeper than the steepest paved road in the world -- that
one in Dunedan? I'd hate to spoil their fun and all...

--
TimC
Some people claim that the UNIX learning curve is steep, but at least you
only have to climb it once. -- unknown

TimC · Dec 30, 2006

On 2006-12-30, Bleve (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>
> Gags wrote:
>
>> Think I might have found the steepest bit of road in Melbourne.....open to
>> challengers....
>>
>> I went for about a 2hr recovery ride this morning on my hardtail mtb along
>> the Yarra Trail towards Warrandyte and back. Just before coming to a
>> baseball field (not sure of its name) I left the path, crossed over the road
>> and found the old Templestowe Hill Climb Track. Apparently they raced there
>> up until fairly recently but it is now closed off to traffic and so I
>> decided to ride up it....sounded good in theory.
>
> I've walked up it

>
> The record up the whole course, is held by Allan Hamilton in a Porsche
> 930 I think, took him a bit under a minute, to do 1km. Set sometime in
> the very late 60's I think?

Faster than 60km/h? Must have legs 5 times the size of Robbie McEwan!

Oh hold on, a Porsche 930 is probably a car, isn't it? Soft.

--
TimC
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and
professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. -- Linus Torvalds, 1991

Resound · Dec 30, 2006

"TimC" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 2006-12-30, Bleve (aka Bruce)
> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>>
>> Gags wrote:
>>
>>> Think I might have found the steepest bit of road in Melbourne.....open
>>> to
>>> challengers....
>>>
>>> I went for about a 2hr recovery ride this morning on my hardtail mtb
>>> along
>>> the Yarra Trail towards Warrandyte and back. Just before coming to a
>>> baseball field (not sure of its name) I left the path, crossed over the
>>> road
>>> and found the old Templestowe Hill Climb Track. Apparently they raced
>>> there
>>> up until fairly recently but it is now closed off to traffic and so I
>>> decided to ride up it....sounded good in theory.
>>
>> I've walked up it

>>
>> The record up the whole course, is held by Allan Hamilton in a Porsche
>> 930 I think, took him a bit under a minute, to do 1km. Set sometime in
>> the very late 60's I think?
>
> Faster than 60km/h? Must have legs 5 times the size of Robbie McEwan!
>
> Oh hold on, a Porsche 930 is probably a car, isn't it? Soft.
>
Granted, but as cars go the 930 is anything but soft and over the course of
a minute it barely exceeded an average of 60kph. I didn't know there was a
piece of road that could do that to one of those. I'm sure that there are
some sharp corners in that 1km as well but it's still a faintly scary
implication.

SomeGuy · Dec 30, 2006

Gags said:
Just before coming to a baseball field (not sure of its name) I left the path, crossed over the road and found the old Templestowe Hill Climb Track.

OK you've got my interested now, I'm going to have to try this hill

.

Is the start the historical marker on http://tinyurl.com/ybywym ?

cfsmtb · Dec 30, 2006

Gags said:
Think I might have found the steepest bit of road in Melbourne.....open to challengers....

Here's an Age article that gives some historical details about the true "Wall".

Hitting the wall in style (March 8 2003)
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/07/1046826528573.html

Doesn't the BR go past , or near, the Rob Roy hill climb?

DaveB · Dec 31, 2006

Gags I had a look at the website but can't work out where exactly the
road is. Can you mark it with this, do a save route, and post the new url.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=610706

Dave B

SomeGuy · Dec 31, 2006

We ended up making the detour to the hill on our MTB ride yesterday. The road is in a pretty poor state (hardly suprising), with plenty of cracks and moss growing on it. The fact that it had just rained when we got there made it rather slippery too.

Both Duncan and I made it up after a few attempts, me with 22x32, Duncan on his 1x9 bike so 32x32. Those bloody fixie riders make the rest of us look soft!

Peter walked up the center of the road with his barometric altimeter equiped HRM to get some elevation information. No mean feat when your shoes won't grip the road I might mention. I'll get the data off him when I see him next, so we should get a reasonable idea of the gradient. I have this feeling it's not 40%, but we shall see.

SomeGuy · Dec 31, 2006

DaveB said:
Gags I had a look at the website but can't work out where exactly the
road is. Can you mark it with this, do a save route, and post the new url.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=610706

Dave B

It's the walking trail leading to a historical marker just below the centre of this map: http://tinyurl.com/ybywym . You'll cross a bridge just after passing the terminal station, and if you look left you can see the sign that marks the start of it.

gplama · Dec 31, 2006

SomeGuy said:
It's the walking trail leading to a historical marker just below the centre of this map: http://tinyurl.com/ybywym . You'll cross a bridge just after passing the terminal station, and if you look left you can see the sign that marks the start of it.

Heading that way this arvo, lets see how 39x27 goes

I'll post the Polar data if I can keep the bike in a straight line.

Skewer · Dec 31, 2006

DaveB wrote:
> Gags I had a look at the website but can't work out where exactly the
> road is. Can you mark it with this, do a save route, and post the new url.
>
> http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=610706
>
> Dave B

If you have Google Earth, here is a link to the KML
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Number/486527

And here it is in Bikely
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/The-real-Wall

--
--
Pete.B

Duncan · Dec 31, 2006

"SomeGuy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> We ended up making the detour to the hill on our MTB ride yesterday. The
> road is in a pretty poor state (hardly suprising), with plenty of cracks
> and moss growing on it. The fact that it had just rained when we got
> there made it rather slippery too.
>
> Both Duncan and I made it up after a few attempts, me with 22x32,
> Duncan on his 1x9 bike so 32x32. Those bloody fixie riders make the
> rest of us look soft!

Of course it should be pointed out that traction was the No. 1 issue.
Getting half way up, skidding out then having to sit on your bum and crawl
to the side to avoid literaly sliding back down the road was quite amusing.
Momentum and weight distribution was the key.
Now the next feat is getting up on a 2:1 ratio (in the dry). I put the
challenge to Oldy the SS climbing legend.

SomeGuy · Dec 31, 2006

gplama said:
Heading that way this arvo, lets see how 39x27 goes I'll post the Polar data if I can keep the bike in a straight line.

I was originally planning to ride the roady out there, but when I got there I realised it wouldn't have been much good. The surface is just too broken up and slick, and you'll struggle for grip.

On the topic of gradient, I got 31% from our elevation data. That's 21 meters climbed over 67.4m of horizontal distance covered (71.9m at the wheel). It'd probably be a bit higher if you stuck to the left (inside) of the road rather than the middle. I should also point out that this is less than precise, given elevation is being recorded in 1m incremements and distance in 2m increments. So assuming the data was recorded accurately I can say it's in the range of 27-35%.

If you want to see the data and my convoluted maths, go here: http://web.aanet.com.au/guy/hill.xls

gplama · Jan 1, 2007

Hill 1, Lama 0.

First thoughts... ***********! I looked at the first real rise and thought 'no way'.. then I went for it anyway. In 39x27 I could get the power down, but weight distribution went, the rear went wizzzzzz, and I came to a halt after about 30m! So I sat there in the middle of the road wondering how I'd get down!..

I've only seen a little bit of it, but it is truly amazing. I was going to take photos but I'll need a better camera than my phone has. We'll do a car trip out there one day and snap away.

As I was leaving there was a family reading the historical marker sign just off the main road. They laughed when I said "trust me, its realllllllly steep!", I bet they stopped laughing when they saw the monster themselves!

SomeGuy · Jan 1, 2007

gplama said:
I've only seen a little bit of it, but it is truly amazing. I was going to take photos but I'll need a better camera than my phone has. We'll do a car trip out there one day and snap away.

There isn't much to see. It ends at the top of the wall, which is 70 meters from where it starts. The rest of the track has been swallowed by the housing estate.

You're nuts trying on a roady BTW, I don't think you could get enough grip. I could get a low enough gear by swapping my 11-23 with a 12-27 (I've got one of those funky cranksets with three rings), but the slickness of the road would still do me in. Doing it on a SS will be fun though

.

hippy · Jan 2, 2007

SomeGuy said:
There isn't much to see. It ends at the top of the wall, which is 70 meters from where it starts. The rest of the track has been swallowed by the housing estate.

You're nuts trying on a roady BTW, I don't think you could get enough grip. I could get a low enough gear by swapping my 11-23 with a 12-27 (I've got one of those funky cranksets with three rings), but the slickness of the road would still do me in. Doing it on a SS will be fun though .

Photos don't do hills/steepness justice.. who's got a helmet cam?

hippy

Gags · Jan 3, 2007

"Duncan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "SomeGuy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>>
>> We ended up making the detour to the hill on our MTB ride yesterday. The
>> road is in a pretty poor state (hardly suprising), with plenty of cracks
>> and moss growing on it. The fact that it had just rained when we got
>> there made it rather slippery too.
>>
>> Both Duncan and I made it up after a few attempts, me with 22x32,
>> Duncan on his 1x9 bike so 32x32. Those bloody fixie riders make the
>> rest of us look soft!
>
> Of course it should be pointed out that traction was the No. 1 issue.
> Getting half way up, skidding out then having to sit on your bum and crawl
> to the side to avoid literaly sliding back down the road was quite
> amusing. Momentum and weight distribution was the key.
> Now the next feat is getting up on a 2:1 ratio (in the dry). I put the
> challenge to Oldy the SS climbing legend.
>
>

I rode back out there again tonight after dinner and decided to do a bit of
an interval session. I did the hill five times, with about a 2 min slow
cruise at the top to get my heart rate below 150 before going back down each
time. I went down along the fence near the housing estate and then joined
on the hill climb track at the bottom and did it all again. My HR got up to
180 on the first one and increased for each subsequent climb, peaking at 196
bpm on the final one. I used 22/28 this time around (20.4 inches) which was
my second gear in the granny ring. After the final climb I cruised back
down the road throught the housing estate (some nice houses there!!!!) and
then as I was going across the bridge to get back on the trail I thought to
myself "that bit of rubber looks a bit like a snake".....next minute the
rubber moved!!! It was a tiger snake about 4 foot long and I stopped and
stamped my feet a bit until it got off the road (I herded it to the side of
the road away from the Yarra Trail).

I might have to make this a regular workout and see how far up the cluster I
can get before the legs give out. Not sure that I will ever be able to make
it on the SS though (38/16) but hopefully I might make it out of the granny
ring!!!!

Gags

gplama · Jan 3, 2007

Gags said:
myself "that bit of rubber looks a bit like a snake".....next minute the
rubber moved!!! It was a tiger snake about 4 foot long and I stopped and
stamped my feet a bit until it got off the road (I herded it to the side of
the road away from the Yarra Trail).

Damn it snake charmer! That climb is just up the road from work... and I've just stuck my MTB up for sale so won't be riding it again

My long term goal is to get a Scott XC dualie by next winter for some 6hr/12hr action.. then I'll be up for some vertical snake action! oh god.. what have I just said!?

lama

Snuffy · Jan 3, 2007

Gags said:
I rode back out there again tonight after dinner
{snipped}

We didn't see you there

My bro and I took a trip out there last night too. My pathetic low speed handling MTBing skills meant that I only got about halfway up before I started to drift into the dirt by the side and freak out. My bro however managed to get pretty close to the top before bailing, which he says was caused by lungs not legs.

So... how steep is it?
http://tinyurl.com/yfwdqt

(forgot to bring a tape measure to figure it out)

Steepest road in Melbourne???

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