Was just browsing my strava history and compares ft of climbing with amount of effort

My commute is around 320ft on the way in and 450ft on the way home. The way back has a noticeable hill (Highgate Hill in London if you’re interested)

My ride the other night with a mate has about 800ft of climbing and I don’t really remember the inclines in the same way, though there are a couple of sections that require a bit of an effort

Those sorts of rides I’d class as flat

For my big days out (bikepacking) the rides are in the four thousand feet plus territory

Where’s the changeover for you? When do you go from a flat ride to a hilly ride?

I live under the Malverns. There are flat rides?

If it involves the mountain round here…

Flat?… Swinley 😛

Though it doesn’t mean it’s easy. Cobbles and ginger is tough stuff to ride 😉

No where round here is flat plus I live at the top of a bloody hill.
Standard mtb round here looking at my strava is about 1200ft per 10 miles. We do one 3 1/2 hr 30 miler that is nearly 4000 ft 😯

height gained means nothing without knowing how far you’ve gone. A hilly mtb ride for me has 250-300+M climbing for every 10km ridden.

height gained means nothing without knowing how far you’ve gone. A hilly mtb ride for me has 250-300+M climbing for every 10km ridden.

Yeah something like that. A typical Lake District ride for me is about 30-35km and 1000-1200m of climbing – I think the Lakes is quite hilly.

Severn Vale, Norfolk, canal towpath etc.

Degrees of ‘flat’? Broadly the above (flattest last)

Standard mtb round here looking at my strava is about 1200ft per 10 miles.

Round here it’s
250m/10km (1600ft/12 miles) not dick waving but thats not that bad for t’mountain just a hilly ride really, other places it’s hard to get that elevation with the distance, as always it’s about what you do with it that counts

I only deal in KM ridden and metres climbed. I have no idea what most of you apart from MikeWSsmithers are on about.

and are you on about road or MTB?

Thats MTB for my on t’mountiain rides, my not on’tmountain ones come in about the same it’s just not the same if that makes sense 😉

Road riding in the Fens often to 50 miles with only 1000 feet of climbing. In fact if I was mad enough I could easily to 10)+ miles with less that 1000 feet of climbing. I’m slow up the hills but I’d take rolling hills over flat roads and headwinds any day.
10000ft in 100 miles in North Somerset / Exmoor was the hilliest I’ve done but the figures don’t tell the whole story as none are the climbs are that long but they are very steep so it’s hard to get into a rhythm.

My typical ride is 400-600m per 10km, so a flat ride to me would be something like 500m or less over a 20-30km ride. Biggest mtb ride of the year was 60km/2513m, so still roughly 400m per 10k.

I’ve got one I do every now and then. Saltburn to the South Gare near Redcar and back. 285 feet of climbing in 23 miles. It’s anti mountain biking 😳

Flat is harder to define than hilly but less than 150M in 10km would be about right. But it depends on how the height is gained much more, 2 rides recently one was 40km and 600M climbing the other was 10km and 150m, the first was out and backdating the canal with 2 big climbs and descents in the middle the other was much more continuous small ups. The 1St I’d say wasn’t a flat ride as canal path aside it was lumpy, the other was because it without any filler distance it still fell under the limit.

1000ft / 10 miles is my break point where i classify a ride as hilly whereever i am…

I can do an off-road ride beside me and it’s about 19km and 60m of climbing, i think that’s pretty flat.
Although it’s flat it means your pedalling all the time so you get just as knackered as a ride with a bigger climb and a good descent.
most of my rides are a bit more hilly than that though.

If you have to stand up occasionally because your bum hurts, it’s a flat ride.

If you have to stand up occasionally because your legs hurt, it’s a hilly ride.

Our local caf-n-back ride is 37km, with 800m of climbing (more climbing is on offer en-route, less climbing not so much)

Distance is a good shout. My ride to work is 10 miles, a potter around in the evening is more like 15 miles, but the former is on road and the latter is off road

The off road vs road hilliness I’m not sure is relevant, hilly is hilly no? Off road is harder, but there are various degrees of off road too

I don’t have any figures, but I like the fact I have a relatively flat option compared with you guys!

Looking like 1,000ft in 10 miles starts as being classed as hilly, maybe 1,500 ft.

If you have to stand up occasionally because your bum hurts, it’s a flat ride.

If you have to stand up occasionally because your legs hurt, it’s a hilly ride.

likes.

wrightyson – Member
Standard mtb round here looking at my strava is about 1200ft per 10 miles. We do one 3 1/2 hr 30 miler that is nearly 4000 ft

People may think the south is flat, but my Surrey Hills rides can be around that rate. Depends where you go. Many just climb up the first hill and play on trails. I often like to do a number of the hills and while the highest is only 900ft (base 300ft, approx.), the up and down over a series of hills adds up the climbing.

Likewise, done a 26miler SH ride at just under 4000ft. Strava says 3.5hrs but that was back in the days of an old phone using auto pause that doesn’t show the full elapsed time so likely it was much longer with stops and messing about.

Nothing compared to proper hills, but no, not flat down here.

Vale of York, I can do a 30 mile road ride and barely go over 100ft of climbing. The only real inclines are the bridges over railway lines.

I often consider a move to where there are hills, I might cry for the first few months but I should soon get fitter 🙂

1000ft for every 10 miles on a road ride is definitely hilly. And it’s fairly average where I live. So 500ft of for every 10 miles can have a good bit of climbing and descending, but it feels relatively flat to me, and is my preferred terrain. Varied. Rolling hills, and fast.

Properly flat becomes a bore. Pedalling at the same cadence, the same speed, for hours on end… Fine for touring, pottering along watching the view and lugging heavy bags. But not on a fast road bike.

MTB is different. Rides tend to be much shorter, and with many trails going up and down the side of the same mountain/hill, 2000ft for 10 miles isn’t out of the ordinary. But it’s all relative to how far you’re travelling. You wouldn’t want to do that over 100 miles.

150m or less climbing is quite flat, anything over 300m quite hilly for a typical 2-3hr ride

Anything under 1000m is an evening bimble. 😉

I live in Hertfordshire so any climb higher than 50m is big for me.

We’re mostly weekend warriors so on trips away to Wales and Peak District we tend to aim for routes around 20Km with around 500m climbing. These are pretty testing for us but there is a bit of reserve in tank just in case. A few days back to back of that and my legs are feeling it.

Once went to Lake District and were doing routes around 35Km with 1000+ metres of climbing I was knackered at the end of each day barely made it back to camp each day. Loved riding the technical trails but I need to work on the fitness a lot more so I can sustain the riding over a week without fading too much.

Any ride near me in East Angular is pretty flat – it’s annoying as I am not sure how it’s possible to train for hills, living where I do.

Taking a relatively typical ride from Strava

– 34.5miles with 863ft of climbing…..

If I head over towards Oakham though it does get a bit more hilly….

– 43.4miles 3619ft of climbing……

A ride around Mawdesley, Lancashire. The flattest, most snobbish, inbred, desolate and lifeless area of the UK. The scenery is flat and dull and the you’ll spend most of your time dodging scowling snobs in Range Rovers and avoiding potholes. You’ll have to ride on these roads because there are no off-road tracks across the endless, monotonous, industrially farmed stinking flat cabbage fields that pass for countryside around these parts.

My ride home last night was 19 miles, with 394ft of climbing.

I think most of that is the bridges going over the canals and motorways.

mawdesleytractor – Member

A ride around Mawdesley, Lancashire. The flattest, most snobbish, inbred, desolate and lifeless area of the UK. The scenery is flat and dull and the you’ll spend most of your time dodging scowling snobs in Range Rovers and avoiding potholes. You’ll have to ride on these roads because there are no off-road tracks across the endless, monotonous, industrially farmed stinking flat cabbage fields that pass for countryside around these parts.

You’ve just described the Fens perfectly, apart from no mention of the obligatory headwind that will feature strongly on any East Angular cycle ride; normally on one of the dead straight roads that run along the edge of a featureless dyke.

Is Mawdesley twinned with The Fens? 😀

I’ve always used the south downs way figure of 100ft/mile as the benchmark of when a ride starts to have a respectable amount of climbing in it.

If you have to stand up occasionally because your bum hurts, it’s a flat ride.

If you have to stand up occasionally because your legs hurt, it’s a hilly ride

That’s a nice definition.

My local off-road rides involve a muddy blast through tame parks with the odd woody section. It’s not very long but I’m quite enjoying it. A fair few cheeky foot paths but they’re deserted at night

Pretty good considering I’m in London, though on the very edge of it

I was thinking about this recently and found that in the Tweed Valley & Pentlands I seem to have a broad preference for rides of around 18-20 miles with 3,500-4,000 feet of climbing. When I’m visiting my parents on the Berkshire/Wiltshire border (as I am now) I struggle to get 1,500 feet in 20 miles!! I can’t believe how easy the ‘hills’ that I used to consider a major achievement when I lived south permanently are now.

If you’re blowing out of your arse, it’s hilly. If not, find some bigger hills.

(Have to laugh me saying this mind, lost my mojo completely last year, so hardly been out on the bike, even for commuting, gearing up to to get myself back into it though, it’s gonny be a long road, but I’m game! 🙂 )

Currently any form is incline = hilly! But I’m working to change that! 🙂

Mugdock loop I used to do was about 24 miles and 1800 ft. 3 or 4 reasonably steep hills in it, but you wouldn’t call it particularly hilly. Hilly, for me mind, but a dawdle to the whippets you see kicking about!

If you have to stand up occasionally because your bum hurts, it’s a flat ride.
If you have to stand up occasionally because your legs hurt, it’s a hilly ride

Nice, but could be skewed depending on your bum padding : leg muscle ratio.

Any circuit is flat on average.

[Quote]I’ve got one I do every now and then. Saltburn to the South Gare near Redcar and back. 285 feet of climbing in 23 miles. It’s anti mountain biking [/quote]

Skinningrove to Saltburn on the footpath used to be a favourite as a loop from Skelton via the farm tracks to Skinningrove, fish and chips at the pier and back up the woods/river.

mildbore – Member
Any circuit is flat on average.

If you’re going to get mathematically pedantic then surely ‘hilly’ is better defined as

(Sigma)0-S ((dh/ds)^2)^1/2

Skinningrove to Saltburn

I love the ride between the 2 towns via the path on the cliffs, although it’s been a bit blustery the last few times I’ve done, I’ve been having to pedal to get down to Saltburn 😐

Ha I can imagine, I rode it in the dark the first few times, then did it in daylight and realised theres one fast bermed-ish corner that is VERY close to the cliff edge.