Hill gradients

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RichardB

Slightly retro
Location
West Wales
Maybe a silly question, but ... I see a lot of references to 10% hills and +25% hills, and so on. I've got a lot of steep hills around me, but I have no idea how steep they are in terms of numbers, and how they compare with the hills in other areas. Is there a way of finding out the % gradient of a hill? I've tried measuring horizontal distance on a map and comparing it with spot heights and contours, but it is far too crude to be useful. Google maps will give elevations and metres climbed, but not the gradient of individual slopes, as far as I can see. Is there a website or app that gives this info?
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Making it part of a Cycle.travel route and hitting the elevation graph button or reading a map with contour lines will give an estimate.
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
% gradient is an indicator of how much climbing is done.

A 10% gradient climbs 100m of elevation over 1km of distance so would be twice as steep as a 5% gradient which would climb 50m over the same distance.
 

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
I think Google maps does elevation data on routes plotted for cycle use too; although I'm not sure how accurate it is.

Strava and various propriatory GPS-based systems will do it, but I'm guessing you'd know this already if you used one so probably not of much use.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
This any help?
Grades Degrees.png
 
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RichardB

RichardB

Slightly retro
Location
West Wales
Search for the segment on Strava then paste the segment number into the veloviewer url below.

As many stats on the hill as you could wish for.

Eg this one left me mildly fatigued...

https://veloviewer.com/segment/6677392

Thanks to all for the input. I do understand what a gradient is, and as said above I have tried using contours etc on maps but found it to be vague and inaccurate. Roubaixtuesday's link here is just what I was looking for - average and maximum gradients for any given section. Cheers.
 
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RichardB

RichardB

Slightly retro
Location
West Wales
There's a hill near me which (according to the signs) is 10% going up it, but 20% going down...

Heh. There used to be a farm shop selling amazing artisan cheeses near me. It was uphill all the way there, and I swear uphill all the way back again.
 

CanucksTraveller

Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Location
Hertfordshire
Neither here nor there possibly, but if you wanted to know as you ride, then gadgets like (for example) the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt tell you the gradient percent as you climb, and they're accurate.
 

steverob

Guru
Location
Buckinghamshire
There's a hill near me which (according to the signs) is 10% going up it, but 20% going down...
There's a route I do which has two hills quite close by to each other and both have 10% signs on them. However one of them seems (based on the stats that my Garmin produces anyway) to refer to the whole hill being 10% average, while the other seems to refer to the steepest part being 10% (the whole hill averages about 6%), so even the sign makers can't decide what they're measuring for!
 
You can get clinometer apps to measure the gradient at one spot. Some roads have gradient signs which is useful for calibrating your legs.
 
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RichardB

RichardB

Slightly retro
Location
West Wales
You can get clinometer apps to measure the gradient at one spot. Some roads have gradient signs which is useful for calibrating your legs.

I've just checked the price of the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt, and suddenly the idea of a phone app seems very attractive! Will follow that up, thanks.

There are no gradient signs where I do my cycling. I can remember gradient signs in North Yorkshire (Sutton Bank and Rosedale Chimney Bank) and on Porlock Hill in Somerset, but other than these I can't remember the last time I saw one. Shame, because I loved seeing them as a child.
 

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
and they're accurate.

Therein lies the rub.

I've looked at one of my favourite climbs on various websites and the info varies wildly.

Obviously, it cannot all be accurate and none might be.

There's no way to tell which is which.

I suppose if you use the same gadget/app all the time it would give you a comparison.

But I wouldn't trust any of them.
 
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