The Toughest Road Climbs in NJ

Finally got the numbers on Federal Twist yesterday. The top section just makes your 250' requirement:

Federal Twist Bottom
Includes low grade section between first and second steep sections.
Vertical: 114
Distance: .46
Grade: 4.7%
Average Speed: 12.2

Federal Twist Top
Vertical: 256
Distance: .47
Grade: 10.4%
Average Speed: 8.3

Federal Twist Total
Vertical: 370
Distance: .93
Grade: 7.6%


Speed coming back down, 50+, waaaaaahooooo
 
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stb222 said:
Finally got the numbers on Federal Twist yesterday. The top section just makes you 250' requirement:

Federal Twist Bottom
Average Speed: 12.2

Federal Twist Top
Average Speed: 8.3

Speed coming back down, 50+, waaaaaahooooo
Click to expand...

Impressive!

This is how I know I'm in an entirely different league than most of the riders here...I can barely maintain 5 mph on some of the uphills and I know I've never hit a real climb on my rode bike.
 
A quick visit to the New Jersey forum of roadbikereview will lead you to climbing threads and a website by a guy named Ken Roberts that has painstakingly done most of the math on the hardest climbs. Fidlers Elbow and Breakneck are tied for #1.

Fidlers is a great climb in a great, super quiet area. A quick visit to Google Earth will show other options up the same ridge, almost all of which are outstanding climbs. If you want something really long but not steep, Harmony Brass Castle will meet up with Fidlers. The descents vary by road. Fidler's is too steep, Harmony too shallow for top end speed, but others I can't recall the name work well.

Breakneck, which I've only gone down once, is traffic hell. No desire to go back but I hear nearby roads are almost as steep and much nicer.

One NJ climb isn't going to kill you. It's the constant up-down that gets you.
 
goldsbar said:
A quick visit to the New Jersey forum of roadbikereview will lead you to climbing threads and a website by a guy named Ken Roberts that has painstakingly done most of the math on the hardest climbs.
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The unexplored life is not worth living. Says some famous philosopher.

As rlb (and maybe others) have pointed out, GPS data is too inaccurate for this, for both Ken and myself. You'd need military-grade GPS to be able to get the real numbers. We don't have that.

It's really about having fun with something. I haven't picked up this project this summer like I thought I would. I need to get out to several of the big roads for my own sake.

I can't imagine going down Fiddler's, or Iron Bridge for that matter.
 
Norm said:
You'd need military-grade GPS to be able to get the real numbers.
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Come to think of it, I have access to survey grade mobile GPS and have GPS trails for all of the local roads (which alot of these climbs fall under) for the central region of the state, which includes Hunterdon and Somerset Counties. I also have access to LiDAR elevation data. Maybe be something I can work on if I get bored.
 
Norm said:
After this weekend's ride, it struck me that we need a list of road climbs in the state. It would be cool to try and do something similar for off-road riding. But I think the road is a lot more tangible since you can map out a lot of the climbs to get some sort of baseline.

So here are some climbs that I would throw in the list of tough NJ climbs. I hope to be able to maintain this list over time as I ride more of them.

Just came upon this...a very interesting topic...don't know what ride you had just done...but we did the Hillier Than Thou in 2007 on our tandem and it included Fiddlers Elbow & Iron Bridge and about 10 more epic climbs in that area. We have the cue sheet if you would like it. It runs 100 miles with 10,000 feet of climb. Our deal was, we would walk nothing and we also would not traverse the road to get up...so straight up every hill we rode! It was a beautiful day and we finished within the time limit at less than 7 1/2 hours including rest stops. A very epic ride....especially on our Co-Motion road tandem.

Larry & Brenda
TeamBreeze
...on the road on our Co-Motion and off road on our Screamcycle 🙂
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When you are measuring these with your Garmin, do you do it manually? i.e. take a note of the elevation at the bottom, then at the top .. and also keep your eye on the grade as you're going up? Or is there some way to do it post-ride?
 
soundz said:
When you are measuring these with your Garmin, do you do it manually? i.e. take a note of the elevation at the bottom, then at the top .. and also keep your eye on the grade as you're going up? Or is there some way to do it post-ride?
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The real time elevation and grade data is horrible on the garmins. I have seen 35% grade on mine, so I don't even have it on my display anymore.

You hit lap at the start of the climb and then the end. You can view the elevation on garmin connect.
 
stb222 said:
You hit lap at the start of the climb and then the end. You can view the elevation on garmin connect.
Click to expand...

That's the one.

I'm amused by the grade numbers. Garmin might as well include a Coolness Rating on the GPS. It's about as useful.

I'd love a cue sheet of the HTH ride!
 
If the garmin could use a basemaps datum, or its contours it might be able to make that "actual" number work. But not with 20' USGS contours. You would need something stupid like 2' contours.....then of course the basemap would be about a terrabite in size.
 
Norm said:
That's the one.

I'm amused by the grade numbers. Garmin might as well include a Coolness Rating on the GPS. It's about as useful.

I'd love a cue sheet of the HTH ride!
Click to expand...

Norm down the road from where I live there's elevation cap I found on top of a huge rock off the side of the road. It was put there by the Army Corps of Enginners back in the 70's
My 705 was just 1 foot off (high) of their elevation. There are also a few tough climbs around here where the gradient is known and the 705 is pretty much on. What do you think?

RC ... :hmmm:
 
I think a broken clock is right twice a day. Or a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.
 
RacerChick said:
Norm down the road from where I live there's elevation cap I found on top of a huge rock off the side of the road. It was put there by the Army Corps of Enginners back in the 70's
My 705 was just 1 foot off (high) of their elevation. There are also a few tough climbs around here where the gradient is known and the 705 is pretty much on. What do you think?

RC ... :hmmm:
Click to expand...

Most likely they are using the same datum. Works fine while you are not moving. But with USGS 20' contours, there is no way for the garmin to do the rise/run calculations instantanously.
 
I can't imagine going down Fiddler's, or Iron Bridge for that matter.[/QUOTE]

Months before we did the race in 2007 we passed Fiddler's Elbow..had never seen it before...and our friends said they would wait for us at the Ice Cream Shop down the road if we wanted to ride up Fiddlers...so we rode up it on our tandem...but we then had to turn around and go back DOWN it to get to where we needed to be....going DOWN was way worse... we even shifted back on the bike.....and this was the slowest we've ever descended on our tandem....glad the brakes held out!
 
staghill?

just out of jersey, not really accessable by riding, but you could drive there and do repeats. Six hundred forty something vertical feet in 1.5 miles,ten would be 6400 feet in 15 miles ,well 30 miles if you count the coasting.
 
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