Ummmm ... noooooooo ...

1speed

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Last night, my wife and I went to Warrington Movie Theater to see the one-night showing of DemandFilms' MAMIL. It's a documentary about cyclists, specifically middle-aged cyclists and how they are kind of driving the industry. MAMIL, for those who may not have heard it before, is a term that was coined around 2010 and means Middle Aged Men In Lycra. The doc was pretty entertaining. But that's not what this is about. Of course, since it was a random Wednesday night, most of the people in the lobby beforehand were cyclists, and most, if not all of them were middle-aged dudes who came in groups. While we were walking in, one group of guys ahead of us were talking and one guy in particular was dominating the conversation, telling everyone else about his recent cycling trip. He was relating the story of one challenging ride. He said (and was showing everyone his Strava file) how the ride started with a long climb right out of the driveway that gained 700 feet in the first five miles. One guy in the group asked what the grade was, and this guy said, "Oh, it was 10-12%. You know, some sections were less and some were more. But it was about 10-12% overall." I just looked at my wife and mouthed "bullshit." Then I pulled out my phone and calculated the actual grade. For 700 feet over 5 miles, it's actually averages 2.6% grade.

I figured this guy was either pulling a cyclist's version of a fish story, or he was really terrible at ninth grade trig back in the day. It also made me wonder how often he tells his buddies he "Everested" while riding along the beach in Jersey.
 
oobaa47

oobaa47

Well-Known Member
Hey 1speed, stop listening in on my conversation, it wasn't meant for you..........you're just jealous of my exploits......you wish you had half the Strava KOM's as I do......
 
Kaleidopete

Kaleidopete

Well-Known Member
1speed said:
Last night, my wife and I went to Warrington Movie Theater to see the one-night showing of DemandFilms' MAMIL. It's a documentary about cyclists, specifically middle-aged cyclists and how they are kind of driving the industry. MAMIL, for those who may not have heard it before, is a term that was coined around 2010 and means Middle Aged Men In Lycra. The doc was pretty entertaining. But that's not what this is about. Of course, since it was a random Wednesday night, most of the people in the lobby beforehand were cyclists, and most, if not all of them were middle-aged dudes who came in groups. While we were walking in, one group of guys ahead of us were talking and one guy in particular was dominating the conversation, telling everyone else about his recent cycling trip. He was relating the story of one challenging ride. He said (and was showing everyone his Strava file) how the ride started with a long climb right out of the driveway that gained 700 feet in the first five miles. One guy in the group asked what the grade was, and this guy said, "Oh, it was 10-12%. You know, some sections were less and some were more. But it was about 10-12% overall." I just looked at my wife and mouthed "bullshit." Then I pulled out my phone and calculated the actual grade. For 700 feet over 5 miles, it's actually averages 2.6% grade.

I figured this guy was either pulling a cyclist's version of a fish story, or he was really terrible at ninth grade trig back in the day. It also made me wonder how often he tells his buddies he "Everested" while riding along the beach in Jersey.
Click to expand...
He might be confused too, like I was looking at maps and stats. Here is an example from my 'hood.
notice it says 17.3% grade
Iron mt climb2.jpg
 
1speed

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Kaleidopete said:
He might be confused too, like I was looking at maps and stats. Here is an example from my 'hood.
notice it says 17.3% grade
View attachment 64144
Click to expand...

That's a single point, not the whole thing. This guy specifically said it averaged 10-12%. (And BTW, this overall looks like you're gaining about 600 feet give or take in a little over two miles, which makes your average 5.6%. Having a single point that's 17.3% on a 2 mile climb that averages 5.6% is not surprising at all.)
 
jShort

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Not related at all, buy similarly....

Some moron that works on my floor grabbed a conference room to take a personal call right next to where I was sitting. But he left the door open so of course it echoed and I heard everything.

He was going on and on about how he's so articulate and calculated in his arguments. Then how some guy was just arguing back with idiotic responses and how eventually the guy just had to give up and call him a "shit head". But only after he clearly got under the moron's skin.

Then he mentioned how this argument was on Facebook.

I literally started cracking up. Moments later the door was shut.
 
1speed

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Mitch said:
@1speed please due the math for me on this. Not sure where @rick81721 rides now in Florida but I did a walk at my Moms place last week and the Ele for 3 1/2 miles was killer. More then 17% fo sure.
<iframe height='405' width='590' frameborder='0' allowtransparency='true' scrolling='no' src='https://www.strava.com/activities/1405570420/embed/010c9fa253a8936401c1788ab3773526a8d4c0b6'></iframe>
Click to expand...

The percent grade is just the rise/run. Picture everything as a right triangle - the bottom is the run, the opposite side is the rise. So in your case, we have:

angle.jpg


CORRECTION: One quick clarifying point - I made a slight mistake here. This is not exact, but it's actually pretty close. What you actually traveled was the hypotenuse for 3.6 miles - because you were gaining elevation as you went. But that yields more or less the same results. The "correct" triangle would be:

angle1.jpg


SO it's actually 12.5%
 
Last edited:
Mitch

Mitch

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
1speed said:
The percent grade is just the rise/run. Picture everything as a right triangle - the bottom is the run, the opposite side is the rise. So in your case, we have:

View attachment 64148

CORRECTION: One quick clarifying point - I made a slight mistake here. This is not exact, but it's actually pretty close. What you actually traveled was the hypotenuse for 3.6 miles - because you were gaining elevation as you went. But that yields more or less the same results. The "correct" triangle would be:

View attachment 64149

SO it's actually 12.5%
Click to expand...
You missed my point. This was at my moms place in Florida. Its FLAT!. STRAVA does not work well for me.
Thanks for trying to teach an old dog.
 
1speed

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Mitch said:
You missed my point. This was at my moms place in Florida. Its FLAT!. STRAVA does not work well for me.
Thanks for trying to teach an old dog.
Click to expand...

In my defense, I just spent an entire Saturday in Florida going up and down quarry walls and even though total elevation wasn't a lot, it never felt like it was flat ...

Actually, that isn't really a Strava issue - that's the device you're using to measure your elevation. If you're just using the Strava app, it's your phone's GPS that's messed up. If it's a Garmin or other external device that is being uploaded into the Strava app, then it's that device that's off. My Edge 520 is shitty with elevation (my 510 was much better - both more consistent and accurate.)

The file you have there says you climbed 2479 feet. If you look at the detail, which I did not do originally, it looks basically like you fell down a thousand foot hole a couple of times. First, do you recall that happening? And second, regardless, I think we can safely paraphrase the great Chumbawamba by way of explanation:

angle3.jpg
 
rick81721

rick81721

Lothar
Mitch said:
@1speed please due the math for me on this. Not sure where @rick81721 rides now in Florida but I did a walk at my Moms place last week and the Ele for 3 1/2 miles was killer. More then 17% fo sure.
<iframe height='405' width='590' frameborder='0' allowtransparency='true' scrolling='no' src='https://www.strava.com/activities/1405570420/embed/010c9fa253a8936401c1788ab3773526a8d4c0b6'></iframe>
Click to expand...

Haha the fake cat 4 climb segments I was talking about are in NJ, I haven't found any here yet. There's one on wertzville rd,IIRC
 
Mitch

Mitch

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
1speed said:
In my defense, I just spent an entire Saturday in Florida going up and down quarry walls and even though total elevation wasn't a lot, it never felt like it was flat ...

Actually, that isn't really a Strava issue - that's the device you're using to measure your elevation. If you're just using the Strava app, it's your phone's GPS that's messed up. If it's a Garmin or other external device that is being uploaded into the Strava app, then it's that device that's off. My Edge 520 is shitty with elevation (my 510 was much better - both more consistent and accurate.)

The file you have there says you climbed 2479 feet. If you look at the detail, which I did not do originally, it looks basically like you fell down a thousand foot hole a couple of times. First, do you recall that happening? And second, regardless, I think we can safely paraphrase the great Chumbawamba by way of explanation:

View attachment 64152
Click to expand...
Funny, I never looked at the graph before. This was tracked on my Garmin Vioactive watch. After my walk /run around her development I jumped in the pool for a dip and got caught in one of those Florida Storms. I then jumped out of pool to get phone to take some cool pictures of said downpour, that would account for me getting back up again.. I guess the GPS under water goes nuts..

1519326919186.png
 
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