Fastest way up hills: Zigzag

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080222/sc_livescience/fastestwayuphillszigzag

Dave
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i was readingthat, and wondered, how many millions was spent figuring that out
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Who cares, we all know money grows on trees.

Dave

I just wish one of those treees was in my back yard
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A method commonly called “paperboy” by roadies:-)
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…it’s fastest only for people who don’t have low enough gearing. Duh.

If you need to -

For example, there are several sections of Brasstown Bald (just over a 3 mile climb) during the tour de George where the grade is over 40%! with the final short stint near the top at 45.08%! It is all you can do to stand, mash in whatever granny gear you have and hope to not fall over after the preceeding 3 miles (about 11% avg grade for the entire distance).

WOW, never heard a grade that hard!

Dave

How about 433 ft in 4/10’s of a mile? That’s the steepest i’ve seen and i finally rode it today. Gradient anyone?

That would be a 20.5% grade. Steep.

It is mechanically similar to having lower gearings.

Not all of us ride around with a granny.

For example, there are several sections of Brasstown Bald (just over a 3 mile climb) during the tour de George where the grade is over 40%! with the final short stint near the top at 45.08%!

Sorry, think I’m calling bullshit on this one. 45% grade??? After doing several google searches, most sites seem to agree that it tops out around 24%. That’s a looooong way from 45.

http://www.mountainmapper.com/brasstown_bald.htm is one good site for the ride up …

Even the brasstown bald buster century site doesn’t claim anything like 40% …

http://www.brasstownbaldbustercentury.com/Ride.htm

trees were
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See where it says Very Steep Sections in red in your link - that’s where!

see: http://webmhcc.org/profiles/brasstown.htm for a precise breakdown.

It just depends upon how you measure and what sections. Now, I’ve been up it and I’d say 24% as well, since you have to measure some distance. But, again, there are just a few stupid sections where you better have some momentum (i.e. 5 mph instead of 2 mph) or you needs to paper boy up.