Question of the Day

by Chris... on Nov 17, 2008 2:20 PM EST in Cafe Happy Hour!

As the proud, recent owner of a doohickey that measures road grades, I can now say with authority that riding up a 20% incline for any length of time (over a minute) is inhuman. This raises an important question:

Can the state be enjoined, pursuant to the Eighth Amendment, from requiring any person to ride the Angliru?

I say it's a close call. Had I been general counsel to the US Postal Service in 2002, I would have required riders to sign some sort of disclaimer that they rode the Vuelta of their own free will. Going forward, it won't be an issue for the US government, though the 8th springs from English law, circa 1689, so perhaps Barloworld's lawyers might take a look into this.

1 recs | Comment 26 comments

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Yes

It is cruel punishment, but very fun to watch. And as long as people tune in, they will come up with crazy hard climbs. Levi’s comment after that climb tells you the difference between a pro and a mere mortal. He said it was “fun”

I have learned from my doohickey to look at some other data when it goes over 10-12% or I mentally start bonking. I use the bike 1 setting for climbing and the bike 2 setting for everything else. When I see that double digit number come up and my eyeballs start beating out of my head, i promptly go to bike 2. Although, it doesn’t last that long here on our little “speedbumps”

I would also like to add, that as the daylight seems to be dimming, i have found a new challenge on the bike. When out with the kiddos, trying to ride a wheelie in the big-ring. Go on, try it.

If you don't have time to do it right the first time, when are you going to have time to do it again?

by CannonDowell on Nov 17, 2008 5:23 PM EST 0 recs

Wheelies

Ouch. For some reason, my left knee ached when I read that.

The 20% ramp I found might actually be steeper. However, the only reason I know it’s at least 20% is because it’s over before the doohickey is through loading the grade. I actually had to take a different route than normal just to be on it long enough to get any kind of reading. Were it a sustained 20%, I would do more than switch to Bike 2. I’d switch routes.

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris... on Nov 17, 2008 5:32 PM EST up 0 recs

Yes indeed...

switching such routes makes the body ache much less. That “bike 2” idea sounds kind of silly. Although he probably got that advice from Drew.

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Nov 17, 2008 5:34 PM EST up 0 recs

I'm a perennial route switcher.

And we don’t have anything above 10% in my neck of the woods. I’m such a wimp.

by Albertina on Nov 18, 2008 7:25 AM EST up 0 recs

All this talk of doohikey's...

I’m jealous and curious to know if they are the cool garmin ones. I’m curious to know what some of you think about the new toys that came out this year.

My garmin (for the car, not the bike, of course) was smoking something funny last week. The directions one night on my way home caused me to do a double take as to where it wanted me to head. I opted not to listen and it “recalculated” properly about 2 miles down the road.

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Nov 17, 2008 5:33 PM EST 0 recs

heh

Edge 7. Brand new. Hasn’t smoked anything yet, though I don’t often use the maps.

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris... on Nov 17, 2008 5:34 PM EST up 0 recs

No complaints (generally) about my

garmin. Sometimes the smoking it does is actually not really wrong but better routes are known. If it ever took me a longer way around to a place I didn’t know, I of course would not readily know that, and if it got me to my destination smoothly, not sure I’d care.

Hope you share some fun tid bits on the doohickey. Sounds like fun games can be played on that. I’m more curious on how a non-pro would benefit from it. The maps feature would be cool for long rides, the gradient very cool to see. How did you get your Christmas present early?

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Nov 17, 2008 5:40 PM EST up 0 recs

Coupla things

This was more of a last-three-years of this and that present, so I like to think of it as late, not early. I blame the kiddos.

I do need to play around with the downloaded data and see what I can make of it. For starters, this might be the end of my war against profiles. They’re silly when it’s the peloton’s profile and they’re climbing something that looks like an inverted ice cream cone in the big ring. But when the profile is aggrandizing my efforts, well, that’s another matter entirely.

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris... on Nov 17, 2008 5:45 PM EST up 0 recs

For beautiful use of profiles

go : Gaul on the Monte Bondone. Climbprofiles cut into archive-film of classic Giro-stage. You will never speak ill of them again.

Carlos Sastre - Tour de France winner - Born From Jets

by Jens on Nov 18, 2008 2:28 AM EST up 0 recs

That is so awesome

Love the WWII soundtrack too.

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris... on Nov 19, 2008 1:54 PM EST up 0 recs

Constitutional lawyer porn!

Maybe we should fix up a Jefferson-Hamilton debate on 20%+ grades.

That’s JEFFERSON Soissons or perhaps his pal JEFFERSON Vargas and Tyler HAMILTON of course.

by ursula on Nov 17, 2008 5:47 PM EST 0 recs

There's a 20% grade in the Smoky Mountains called "Sweetie Pie"

that you would seriously enjoy. Some *sshole has even painted the name on it, so you can see it when your face is banging on the top tube on the way up.

by dheadrick on Nov 17, 2008 11:38 PM EST 0 recs

Charming

Must be fun on a wet day. Everyone loves paint.

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris... on Nov 18, 2008 12:47 AM EST up 0 recs

There's nothing sweet about 20%. Apart from watching other people on it ;-)

by Albertina on Nov 18, 2008 7:28 AM EST up 0 recs

East Bay madness

I had to refresh my memory on what 20% was. I was thinking the ToC stage of Sierra Road was at 20 but that just has occasional peaks of 20% per my doohickey with an average of around 15%.

So, I had to go to the holy grail of bitch climbs. The first is by far the worse. But the author’s idea is to do these all in one ride. I am not worthy.

by Ron... on Nov 18, 2008 12:54 AM EST 0 recs

see "dirty dozen" in past posts (37 % steepest, all 12 in a day).

in past post for videos. And here it is mapped. I have not seen a post about it this year. iIt is usually Thanksgiving weekend. Guess I’ll miss it AGAIN (not that I’d be riding it, but cheering for sure).

by JFS_PGH on Nov 18, 2008 2:48 AM EST up 0 recs

Here's another...

I remember reading your post on PGH’’s dirty dozen and thinking “brutal”…

If you are into reading about hill suffering (I do), read about the Samurai 7 post, also in the East Bay Hills of Berkeley/Oakland. It’s of course so much better when your read about it and then actually contemplate the hill from the bottom.

by Ron... on Nov 18, 2008 11:23 PM EST up 0 recs

Samurai 7?

Is this where they ask different riders about the course and get completely different accounts?

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris... on Nov 19, 2008 1:56 PM EST up 0 recs

20% only bad for macho-types...

…for the rest of us — folks with triples, who aren’t in a hurry — 20% is just quite hard, not inhuman.

Chris, you’re probably a lot faster than me, but I bet you tried to do that climb with a double chainring, right?

Next time just try a 10% grade in twice as big of a gear for almost the same effect. ;)

-Greg, with a 28/38/48 triple, mountain bike cogs, and happy knees

by gregm on Nov 18, 2008 8:57 AM EST 0 recs

faster

People always assume that about me. Nobody will ride with me, because they can’t imagine someone being so obsessed with cycling and having a sustainable wattage below 300. And yet…

Full disclosure: 39×23. Like I said, it’s a short ramp.

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris... on Nov 19, 2008 1:57 PM EST up 0 recs

lol, i'll take kids and a day job for 500...

That combination never made anyone any faster ;-)

by gavia on Nov 19, 2008 4:20 PM EST up 0 recs

compact!

Triples are nice, but compacts are God’s gift to bikers. You can do just about anything with a compact, and since SRAM makes an 11×26 cassette, you can get a good top end gear and a whopping easy gear. I’m getting one sent to me right now in Austria. I’m going to race on it too just to prove how awesome a compact is. I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t have a compact at this point, especially considering that you can put on a 52 tooth chainring and still run the 34 little ring…that’s a crank sent from the Heavens.

by jered on Nov 19, 2008 3:52 AM EST 0 recs

OK Jered

What’s your max grade? Ever done the Dirty Dozen?

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris... on Nov 19, 2008 1:58 PM EST up 0 recs

max grade?

Well, I do live in Austria…

There’s a climb down the road a’piece that averages over 10% for 9.5k – it gains over 1000m of elevation…that compared to the famous Col de la Madone that I rode over the weekend that gains the same elevation in 15k.

There’s a road right behind our apartment that averages about 18% for a mile.

We don’t have TOO much in the way of the 20+ percentages but TONS of 10-15% average climbs for 3-10k.

I’ll take a Dirty Dozen-esque climb or the Stillwater Crit climb from Nature Valley (20%ish) any day over extended extended periods of teen percentages.

I do want to do the Dirty Dozen at some point though, it looks cool.

by jered on Nov 19, 2008 8:48 PM EST 0 recs