Cycling UK Forum

meic wrote:A reverse google search would show (correctly for once) that hetiau means hats.
I would be somewhat confused at people yelling hats, hats as I cycled in Harlech but it would be a welcome change from "she's not pedaling on the back".

Not too bizarre when the traditional cycling related compliment is "chapeau"

Allez! Allez!
Is cyclespeak for "go! go!"

Of course you are only talking about the bottom fraction of ffordd penlech. If you go straight across Harlech upper high street it carries on to the top of the hill - over a mile with no breaks - although it does ease fractionally in a couple of places.

Hi,

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
Local to me, a beach road, chickened out on the tourer
40% = 22 degrees.........this is 26 degrees at an angle which makes it appear steeper, so its less than that but not much, need to measure accurately.

Update,
Cary Arms pub at babacombe torquay, is stated as 30% but measured steepest at 22 degrees which is 40% today, its a road all traffic to the beach with a car park at the bottom.

The pic above is a tarmac road which is now closed to traffic.
Watcombe Beach.
Went down there today and it is 23-24 degrees which is 44.5 %
Acxtually measured 27 degrees, but the phone will easily fit between the bumps in road
I am still chickening out getting up, I went down today on bike and managed to stop before the hand rail into the sea by 4 feet.
I reckon I could get up their when I grow some.
Slippy as heck today......................my mate did not believe me it was steep so he went down in the dark

He never made it to the bottom but ditched bike into hedge as he could not stop......in the dark yeh.

Clearly I don't actually know which is the steepest road in the UK. or exactly what the gradients are (who measured them anyway? and how?) but I can say that it is definitely pleasurably and satisfyingly possible to cycle up ffordd penlech across stryd fawr and up pen dref to the top of the hill, with camping kit on board. This is a lot more hill than just ffordd penlech, which is no-but a short little sprint. One then has an incredible view across the Irish sea and towards the Lleyn peninsular to the West, to Pwllhelli and Llanbedrog across the bay. To yr Swyddfa in the North (if it is not to cloudy and mist shrouded).

It is a very satisfying climb that I thoroughly recommend.

Not claiming as the steepest by any stretch but a short section of the Mam Nick climb out of Edale measures 48%. It's not a long stretch and you only hit it on the uphill due to the bumpy, twisty nature of the road.

There are certainly other climbs hereabouts with sections at least as steep, inside of hairpins for example. Official steepness I guess is measured over a fixed distance, an average over the length.

Giles Pargiter wrote:Clearly I don't actually know which is the steepest road in the UK. or exactly what the gradients are (who measured them anyway? and how?) but I can say that it is definitely pleasurably and satisfyingly possible to cycle up ffordd penlech across stryd fawr and up pen dref to the top of the hill, with camping kit on board. This is a lot more hill than just ffordd penlech, which is no-but a short little sprint. One then has an incredible view across the Irish sea and towards the Lleyn peninsular to the West, to Pwllhelli and Llanbedrog across the bay. To yr Swyddfa in the North (if it is not to cloudy and mist shrouded).

It is a very satisfying climb that I thoroughly recommend.

Plus One, the lanes behind Harlech are great, there are easy ways up too from Llanbedr, to Cwm Bychan (small valley)
Gerddi Bluog YH closed unfortunately c 1982

I managed the Harlech street whilst there in sept.Probably the steepest thing I,ve been up though certain short sections of Hardknott can,t be far off.Trek 2100 on 26tx34t rear.Biggest issue was mudguard overlap on the hairpins .Being "not suitable for cars" also helps.

Hi,
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegr ... istol/amp/
Vale Street Bristol just named official steepest street in England.
22°

22degs is 40%.
How do they decide one 40% is steeper than another?
Are there different categories for residential streets/rural streets etc?

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegr ... istol/amp/
Vale Street Bristol just named official steepest street in England.
22°

Can't see the link as I refuse to disable my adblocker.

I was in St Mawes a few short weeks ago doing my Parish Churches thing. Getting up to St Mawes Parish Church was very very steep, and I couldn't get right up there on Moulton even with a 16" bottom gear. The front end was lifting. I had to walk up Church Hill to the church. There's no room on the map to put any chevrons as it's only 100yds or so from the coast road. 20odd degrees is easily correct for it.

You can see the parish church. It's one of the few in Cornwall with a spire.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.15756 ... 312!8i6656
I had to get off on the bend by the parked cars, as the hill starts to bite there.

Its not the steepest but its the best name street in Britain, Skiddery Hill in Lostwithiel Cornwall.

Al

Hi,
To be official its got to be gradient over 5 metres and then the average has to be somewhere near whatever?
Theres a 30% hill near me on the coast Babbacombe Beach, its steepest at the inside corner of 40%, I used to do that hill of 200' on a 10.5 kg bike with 42x24
I reckon I could still do it....................on 42 x 24................ (46")
Any way I normally do it on 32X23 IIRC (38") 18 kg bike.
The one I posted further up has 46% in it at the bottom straight off a level road and no room for a run up, I have chickened out twice now
Might sill have a go well will for sure.
Many hills have part very steep bits but its all down to the average I think.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/0 ... l-bristol/
England's steepest street has been named by the Ordnance Survey for the first time as as a hill in Bristol, where residents tie their cars to lampposts to stop them from rolling away.
A spokesman for the Ordnance Survey said: "The calculation first involved defining the steepest section of the road, then cutting it into 5m chunks, then applying more software to interpret the maximum and average slope data from the grid for each 5m piece of road.
"Then the results have been put back together to give the average slope across the length of each road."


https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/tr ... t-roads-uk
Porlock will get you shaking as I had to stand on a 22" gear on the hair pin 20 kg bike
But its not that bad as even Babbacombe Beach mentioned further up by me.
They mention Porlock as its well known.

al_yrpal wrote:Its not the steepest but its the best name street in Britain, Skiddery Hill in Lostwithiel Cornwall.

Been in and out and up and down Lostwithiel many many times on the bikes.
I don't know the name Skiddery Hill.
Link please.

Lostwithiel Castle Hill takes some beating ........ it's the old packhorse route before the main turnpike A390 which is easy peasy in comparison.

Mick F wrote:I don't know the name Skiddery Hill.
Link please.

Alley(?) off Summers St - here it is on Google StreetView