Cycling commuters, a diminishing breed?

[Karlt]

Call it stupid but my satnav wants to send me up Hundall Lane Old Whittingham and that looks shallower? The climb up to Norton looks challenging and worse coming back, though.

Hundall Lane? That's the one with the transmitters on top. The final section is about 20%. Not sure which Norton you're referring to here.

So has my maths failed me or is that only about 4.3% average gradient?

Only? Lesser mortals, e.g. me, find that hard for two miles. Certainly causes a sweat to break out.

For what, 20 metres? Average on OSM looks like 4%.

OSM is crap. Look at it on an OS map. Canal is at 65 metres. Brim is 130 metres. Bottom of the hill rises 40 metres in about 500 metres horizontal. It's an average a little below 10% and has distinct "lips".

I might live on the edge of the fens now, but I lived at the foot of a short Mendip climb (Kewstoke Crookes Lane / Monks Hill: 600m, 12% average, 25% max) for six years and I was often very very slow but it wasn't my sweat corroding the bikes!

Bully for you. However, we're not all supermen and I, like most cyclists around here, find these hills cannot be done without exertion and sweat. Your point seems to be "I could do that easy so you must be shite"

 

[mjr]

However, we're not all supermen and I, like most cyclists around here, find these hills cannot be done without exertion and sweat. Your point seems to be "I could do that easy so you must be shite"

But the points are actually:

• stuff like 5% is annoying rather than sweaty but you and "most cyclists" seem to be hitting some fairly ordinary hills rather hard and that's probably why you're sweating;
• I'd be up for your earlier challenge "I defy anyone to get up the hills around here without breaking out into a sweat" and I suspect quite a few people would be - it just might take a long long time

 

[Karlt]

But the thing is this is in the context of commuting. The commute takes 50-55 minutes as it is. We hit the hills hard because otherwise we'd never get there.

 

[Absinthe Minded]

I read a report today that said cyclists will outnumber car drivers entering central London in rush hour in the next few years.

The number of car drivers fell from 137,000 in 2000 to 64,000 in 2014, while those of cyclists trebled from 12,000 to 36,000 over the same period.

So, cycling commuters are not a diminishing breed on my commute, in fact I see so many more on the roads lately and some of the ASL's are full up with us these days.

 

[Karlt]

I read a report today that said cyclists will outnumber car drivers entering central London in rush hour in the next few years.

So, cycling commuters are not a diminishing breed on my commute, in fact I see so many more on the roads lately and some of the ASL's are full up with us these days.

What's true of London is almost certainly not true for most of us.

 

[Absinthe Minded]

What's true of London is almost certainly not true for most of us.

I think we're all very well aware of that.

 

[StuartG]

What's true of London is almost certainly not true for most of us.

Except that at this rate London cycling commuters will, if they haven't already, outnumber all the non-London cycling commuters combined. Then it will be 'most of us'.

Same applies to bus riders which are rapidly increasing in London whilst declining elsewhere - and gives us many more bike friendly bus lanes as a bonus.

 

[Absinthe Minded]

Good points!