C
On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 16:37:19 -0500, [email protected] wrote:
>>>There simply are not that many dirt roads with 20% grades. The OP did not
>>>indicate anything like that, just poor road surfaces.
>>
>>_ You don't get out west much do you? There are hundred and
>>hundreds of miles of forest roads with grades like that or
>>worse.
>
>If there are that kind of grades out west..... should
>one get a bike with disk brakes?
>
>I live in Missouri.... the flat part. That's why I ask
Dear Me,
Dear, me, no!
Despite inflated claims, 20% (and steeper) grades on public
roads are quite unusual anywhere in the U.S.
Dirt roads (as opposed to trails and 4-wheel-drive tracks)
are even less likely to have any significant stretches at
20% grade or steeper.
Without extensive drainage work, such roads would erode
severely as soon as rain fell in the forests mentioned.
When wet, even well-drained dirt roads that steep would also
be well-nigh impassable for ordinary traffic.
On the internet, steepness is often exaggerated.
Here's a site where you can see over seven thousand European
bicycle climbs, few of which exceed 20% grade for even short
stretches:
http://www.salite.ch/struttura/default.asp?Ultime=3
The lack of this kind of methodical mapping of bicycle
routes can lead to all sorts of strange claims concerning
grades.
Recent claims in this newsgroup concerning a public road in
Colorado, for example, appear to have drawn a straight
1-mile path between two contour lines on a topo map and
calculated the grade on that basis--even though the actual
road, clearly visible twisting on the map, was over 2 miles
long.
Carl Fogel
>>>There simply are not that many dirt roads with 20% grades. The OP did not
>>>indicate anything like that, just poor road surfaces.
>>
>>_ You don't get out west much do you? There are hundred and
>>hundreds of miles of forest roads with grades like that or
>>worse.
>
>If there are that kind of grades out west..... should
>one get a bike with disk brakes?
>
>I live in Missouri.... the flat part. That's why I ask
Dear Me,
Dear, me, no!
Despite inflated claims, 20% (and steeper) grades on public
roads are quite unusual anywhere in the U.S.
Dirt roads (as opposed to trails and 4-wheel-drive tracks)
are even less likely to have any significant stretches at
20% grade or steeper.
Without extensive drainage work, such roads would erode
severely as soon as rain fell in the forests mentioned.
When wet, even well-drained dirt roads that steep would also
be well-nigh impassable for ordinary traffic.
On the internet, steepness is often exaggerated.
Here's a site where you can see over seven thousand European
bicycle climbs, few of which exceed 20% grade for even short
stretches:
http://www.salite.ch/struttura/default.asp?Ultime=3
The lack of this kind of methodical mapping of bicycle
routes can lead to all sorts of strange claims concerning
grades.
Recent claims in this newsgroup concerning a public road in
Colorado, for example, appear to have drawn a straight
1-mile path between two contour lines on a topo map and
calculated the grade on that basis--even though the actual
road, clearly visible twisting on the map, was over 2 miles
long.
Carl Fogel
