When is a hill a hill?

[craigwend]

Difficult, maybe it depends on the local terrain.
In the flatlands around York/Hull a hump back bridge will seem like a hill.
OTOH If you go on one of Colinj's rides out of Hebden Bridge anything less than 1k at 14% you would barely notice. Almost.

eeek a hump back bridge!

I can get a nosebleed from the pressure change of 'climbing' onto the drive...

It's all a bit subjective really, if your from the 'flatlands' or little...

 

[Dan B]

It's a hill if you have to use the small chainring.

(I don't know how that translates to triples, sorry)

 

[srw]

(I don't know how that translates to triples, sorry)

On a triple you can do many hills in the middle ring. It's only the poor benighted fashion victims who insist on compacts or doubles who worry about that sort of thing.

 

[Yellow Fang]

If it has a name, it's a hill.

 

[smokeysmoo]

when I'm blowing out of my @rse. Lot of hills round my way

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Although I'd say Ditchling is a bit of an awkward shape for comparing hills, what with the umpteen switchbacks, altering gradients and false summits. The other week, I'd suggested to his mightiness Sir Dellzeqq, that Turner's Hill is a better yardstick for an SI unit (or 1.6 kilometrestick to be more accurate).

I dunno. I mistakenly did Turners Hill in my big ring one FNRttC last year. Ditchling red lines me in the small ring on a campag racing triple.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

It's a hill if you have to use the small chainring.

(I don't know how that translates to triples, sorry)

On a triple, if you have to use the small chainring, and you've less than 100km under your wheels on the ride, you have to climb it twice.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

It's a hill if you have to use the small chainring.

(I don't know how that translates to triples, sorry)

When I'm on gears I don't use anything other than the small chainring, so it sounds like even flat roads are hills.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

or merely a climb, or a slope?

What level of elevation over what sort of distance constitutes are real hill?

The unit of measure we could use to describe hills is the "Beacon" which is equivalent to a climb of roughly 150m over 1.5 km....

I quite often make mountains out of hills

 

[Crackedheadset]

or merely a climb, or a slope?

What level of elevation over what sort of distance constitutes are real hill?

The unit of measure we could use to describe hills is the "Beacon" which is equivalent to a climb of roughly 150m over 1.5 km....

That would be 10% which is fairly steep!!

Personally, anything that requires some sort of sustained effort which is outside my comfort zone, of which I may need to change down a gear or two and needless to say, am thankful when it's over.

And ''hils'' and ''slopes'' are the same thing imo, and you ''climb'' them.

 

[2wd]

Everythings a hill round here
Flattest bit of tarmac is Asda car park

Thinking about your right Paul

Damn tough being a cyclist in these hills of Shaw

 

[BigonaBianchi]

I have a criteria system based on the force of expletive I use as I climb it...ranging from " hmmm (small slope) to Holy F&%k*n Mother of God!! 1:20 hill)

 

[ColinJ]

I have a criteria system based on the force of expletive I use as I climb it...ranging from " hmmm (small slope) to Holy F&%k*n Mother of God!! 1:20 hill)

1:20 is only a 5% gradient!

 

[GrasB]

If it has a name, it's a hill.

This doesn't work for me. The steepest & longest climbs which force me off the top chainring are unnamed! However most noticeable but intermediate bumps in the landscape, which I can blase up at over 90rpm on the top chainring are named.

 

[Red Light]

hill, n.

Pronunciation: /hɪl/
a. A natural elevation of the earth's surface rising more or less steeply above the level of the surrounding land. Formerly the general term, including what are now called mountains; after the introduction of the latter word, gradually restricted to heights of less elevation; but the discrimination is largely a matter of local usage, and of the more or less mountainous character of the district, heights which in one locality are called mountains being in another reckoned merely as hills. A more rounded and less rugged outline is also usually connoted by the name.In Great Britain heights under 2,000 feet are generally called hills; ‘mountain’ being confined to the greater elevations of the Lake District, of North Wales, and of the Scottish Highlands; but, in India, ranges of 5,000 and even 10,000 feet are commonly called ‘hills’, in contrast with the Himalaya Mountains, many peaks of which rise beyond 20,000 feet. The pl. hills is often applied to a region of hills or highland; esp. to the highlands of northern and interior India.


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