What is the steepest rd in Sydney?

[matt1986]

I'd be really surprised if Wakehurst Pwy hits 17%....

Me too, I ride the Wakehurst Pwy frequently and Awaba on occasion - if Awaba is 15-16% then I really can't see the Pwy hitting 17%. That said, I'm not convinced that Awaba peaks at 16% either. I'm going to ride it today and post the ride data.

[matt1986]

First time climbing it in 39x23 = exhausting. Managed to clock 23rd in the Strava leaderboard, but still ~30 seconds off KOM!

Here's the ride data:


It appears to start at about 12% and gradually increase till 18%, before easing up after the roundabout. The Wakehurst Pwy never gets that steep.

[grandpasmurf]

Years ago I rode up the old road from Douglas Park & I know that was very steep.


Can someone explain to me how the % of gradients are worked out.

Thanks.

[sogood]

Can someone explain to me how the % of gradients are worked out.

Vertical rise
---------------- x 100 = % grade
Horizontal distance

[Fe]

A fat guy I know rides Bowen Mountain every couple of weeks. He is always dribbling on how there are sections at +20%.

He's about 100kgs. He must do it at walking pace or something like that.

http://app.strava.com/segments/1107316

[Chuck]

A fat guy I know rides Bowen Mountain every couple of weeks. He is always dribbling on how there are sections at +20%.

He's not dribbling

[uncle arthur]

According to news.com.au, it's this one (or it's in this article)

http://www.news.com.au/realestate/lifes-uphill-on-sydneys-steepest-street/story-fncq3era-1226537755811

[george-bob]

WHOAH! that looks brutal! 250m of 25% is 63m of climbing, yikes! I will defintely have to give that a go sometime soon.

[gbh]

250m is a bit misleading. If might be 250 m from Manning Road at the bottom to Edgecliff Road at the top, but (coming from the bottom) it's blocked off at about 200m, and the last 40m of that is one way - the traffic all goes left at Chester Street (which is not steep) and then uphill again on Stanley. So whe you're riding it, it's really around 160m at something close to 25%. I'd actually guess a little less than that, but it pitches up right before Chester Street and would definitely be 25%+ for the last 20m. Then the rest of the way up to Edgecliff is a climb, but not in the same league.

[The_Eggman]

Getting up to Earlwood (sth of Marrickville& Cooks River cycleway) can be fun, but there are few ways in.

Being a 'returned cyclist' after 25yrs out of the saddle, the easiest route I've found is up Wardell Rd from Dulwich Hill, I've progressed to coming up Bass St (short and reasonably steep) and then onto Wardell.

I have come in via Wolli Ave twice and that was fun, if short.

I'd like to tackle coming in via either Thompson St (off Permanent Ave) or Burlington Ave, again short and steep.

The challenging entries (for me at least) will be either coming in via Bayview Ave from Tempe (near the Canterbury/Tempe Velodrome) or up Homer Street from Marrickville, both around 400m long, not too sure of the rise.

45-50m is about the max vertical regardless of whether you come from Bayview, Homer or Wardell.

Bayview you get the vertical in 400m
Homer over 600m
Wardell over 1.4km

[Fe]

A fat guy I know rides Bowen Mountain every couple of weeks. He is always dribbling on how there are sections at +20%.

He's not dribbling

Meh, rode it. Surly there is steeper and longer in Sydney.

[baralah]

According to news.com.au, it's this one (or it's in this article)

http://www.news.com.au/realestate/lifes ... 6537755811

My vote would still go for Royal National Park. 4km's climb towards Bundeena and another disgusting 3km's pretty steep climb after the creek. Did that yesterday from Surry Hills, and that sucker costed me 3,950 calories.

[kom123]

I use to live on the Ryedale Road hill when I was a kid (since about 1974) and my folks still live there. Interesting bit of trivia they actually trimmed the top off with a grader because at one stage cars could nearly get airborne on the way down if they got enough speed off the crest! As you can imagine we saw a few nasty accidents over the years and had a few cars in our backyard at times. One year someone sent a large chunk of concrete flying through the back window of the house into one of the chairs in the sunroom. Could have been quite nasty and we thanked our lucky stars that no one was sitting there at the time. One of the crazy kids I use to know who lived in Fifth Avenue could come down that hill on a skateboard and wore a baseball glove so he could lean right over and use it to turn into Sixth Avenue! Anyone who knows where I'm talking about will know why I call him crazy

[slowK]

An earlier poster (bud) mentioned Princes St up to Morrison Rd in Putney - it's the steepest I know in the areas I cycle.

I bought a SkyMounti inclinometer for $5 off eBay and took it for a ride up there today. The SkyMounti is basically a calibrated mini spirit level which attaches to your bars. I'm sure it's not very accurate, but it gives me some rough estimate of gradient.

It read 22-23% on the steepest ramp near the top. I was in a 34/30 gear at about 60rpm.

[tubby74]

[quote="slowK"]An earlier poster (bud) mentioned Princes St up to Morrison Rd in Putney - it's the steepest I know in the areas I cycle.

[quote] any chance you could run the inclinometer on dyson street, just the other side of the ferry wharf?

[slowK]

any chance you could run the inclinometer on dyson street, just the other side of the ferry wharf?

Sure. I might get a chance tomorrow, otherwise next week.

[slowK]

Rode Dyson Rd Putney as requested:

[img][IMG]http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx78/slowK/photo-4.jpg[/img][/img]

And Princes St:

[img][IMG]http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx78/slowK/photo-3.jpg[/img][/img]

If the photos don't load, Dyson Rd was 20% at its steepest, and Princes St was 22%. (From what I gather from the instructions for the SkyMounti, you set it up so that the front and rear edges of the bubble both sit at the 0% marks. Uphill gradient is read at the front of the bubble, and downhill at the rear of the bubble.)

[slowK]

Well those links didn't work.

Trying again for my own knowledge.

Dyson Rd

[img]<a%20href="http://s743.beta.photobucket.com/user/slowK/media/photo-4.jpg.html"%20target="_blank"><img%20src="http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx78/slowK/photo-4.jpg"%20border="0"%20alt="Dyson%20photo%20photo-4.jpg"/></a>[/img]

Princes St

[img]<a%20href="http://s743.beta.photobucket.com/user/slowK/media/photo-3.jpg.html"%20target="_blank"><img%20src="http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx78/slowK/photo-3.jpg"%20border="0"%20alt="%20photo%20photo-3.jpg"/></a>[/img]

[slowK]

Having photobucket issues.

Last try.

Dyson:



and Princes:



(so - in Photobucket, you need to choose the "direct link" option rather than the "IMG code for forums, boards". Live and learn.)

[chenitomosquito]

Arden Street Coogee going up that hill from the roundabout towards bondi.
and a couple of streets near Tamarramma

[Jace]

Timhorn where do you start Rainbow heading west? There is bugger all climb there, unless you link it with Oberon and Dundas which is 40m in 270m. I dont think there is anything tougher in the east, even Arden heading north between Dolpin and Alison is 37m in 330m, and that sucks because of car traffic.

This is it fellas http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/301275

Lets see if we can out do this, i am always looking for a challenge close to home.

I had a crack at this today. OMGosh I didnt think I was making it to the top once I got the later part of Dundas St! Somehow got over it but it was an absolute killer!