SuperRecord

I have been searching for hill challenges and I'm interested in a simple inclinometer.


I found this:

Link: https://a.co/d/dAEE3JO


and


https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...inometer&hl=en


I'm leaning towards the app, cause I don't need to see the inclinometer every time I ride. Its only for new challenges that I want to reference.


Any comments, suggestions? Thanks

base2 

Ride with GPS has a hill finder option in their route planning. It tells you biggest, steepest longest. Descents too.

If you've got a Garmin, %grade is an option for your data screen.

I didn't click on your links, but This is my 2 cents anyway.

2_i 

I have the Sky Mounti one:



It is OK. A bit slow adjusting, but this is presumably needed to avoid erratic ups and downs. It works fine at low temperatures unlike some other liquid-filled instruments.

steelbikeguy

I've got the Cline-ometer app on my apple device, and it's quite nice for making measurements of things in the shop and such. Definitely a nice tool for checking frame angles too. I hadn't considered using it when stopped on a slope or such, but it might work okay. The cost is certainly minimal.

I've also got a Sky-Mounti liquid inclination sensor/indicator. It takes a bit of effort to get it zero'ed out, but in terms of making continuous inclination measurements while riding, it works well. It does have the limitations that will be found on any device that senses the gravity vector... it will be affected by fore and aft accelerations. If you don't have a smooth pedaling style while climbing hills, the bubble will move in response.
There is always the option of stopping and checking the reading, such as I did on this 19% hill near St. Louis....



One limitation that might matter is that it only fits "traditional" round handlebars. ..or at least that is true of the ones that I own. I'd check the manufacturer's info if you are concerned about it.

Steve in Peoria

pdlamb

Zero'ing the Sky-Mounti is overrated. I left mine about 3 degrees off, and mentally adjusted, until I couldn't make it up one hill. It was maxed out, so I turned the bike around and measured 22 degrees.

That said, and inclinometer is rightly defined as a gadget. You don't need one, it doesn't really tell you anything significant, but it's fun to play with (and useful in silly arguments over who rode the steepest hill!).

SuperRecord

Those bubble type do appeal to my keep it simple philosophy. I just downloaded the following (plaincode): I've decided for the time being I can scout out the challenging hills and stop to measure. I think the continuous need to know is going to take me beyond my skill level as a rider. This is from someone who is contemplating going back to a flip phone. If I do that, then I'll liking get one of those handlebar bubble types.

Thanks all, those look like good ones.

SuperRecord

Trust me, i am not interested in bragging rights. its purely for training purposes. i hope to tackle Mt. Washington in New Hampshire some time in the future. A dubious goal maybe, but since I cycle alone I like to gauge how much I've improved; and besides, doing the same hills over and over gets old.

Tourist in MSN

You have to make sure that you are going at a constant speed when you take a reading. If you are slowing down or accelerating it will show an error. Or, if you are on a hill and come to a complete stop, that too would be accurate.

I have used the Ski Mounti one on a couple tours. It was interesting to see how steep the uphills were.

CO_Steve

I've used Clinometer a bunch and it works well. It will do a better job than I reading golf greens.

noglider 

I had no idea people do this.

sweeks

This is the feature ("bug"?) that makes this kind of device really only accurate when the bike is stopped. I can pedal smoothly on a relatively flat road, but there's no way I can do that on a 10% grade. That's the reason I took this thing off my road bike. But wait...

It *is* capable of serving a purpose! I have a folding commuter bike with handlebars that rotate to fold and unfold. It's nice to be able to place the bars and the brake levers in the same position quickly and repeatedly. Likewise the headlight. The inclinometer facilitates this very effectively.

01 CAt Man Do

I just purchased a new bike computer that has a hill gradient read out. I have no idea how it will work as I haven't gotten it yet but I'm hoping it will work well enough to satisfy my idle curiosity. For me I just like to know the steepness and / or length of the hill I'm about to tackle ( if only to provide something for general reference ). Not that I'd use it all that much but there are places I've ridden in the past that had me saying to myself, " Gee, I wish I knew this road had this killer hill before I tried to ride it". There's been a time or two when I was wishing I knew the degree of incline on a particularly steep section ( or a planned route ), just for curiosity sake ( and to save me from trying to kill myself. I like a good challenge but I'm not getting any younger if you catch my drift ).

As for planned rides, there is a website I used to have on my former computer that let you plan a route and then let you see the grade of the hills. It was a free site. Can't remember the address now. It used to show the % grade by color on the actual map as well as a graph under the map. A similar website is Mapometer but Mapometer doesn't have the color indicators on the actual map. While graphs are sometimes useful sometimes graphs can't always show a particular short section that is very steep unless you can expand the graph. Most websites won't let you expand a graph.

Anyway, thanks to all for the links to those cheap inclinometers. I doubt I'd use something like that on a regular basis but nice to have on those really hilly rides

Tourist in MSN

I use a Sharpie pen to mark my bars exactly where they should be relative to the stem.


A friend of mine has a GPS that reads the percent grade. Sometimes we will be pedaling up a shallow hill and he will suddenly say - WOW, it is now 20 percent grade. GPS gives you horizontal location and vertical elevation, grade can be calculated from that (change of elevation divided by change of horizontal position), but the recreational grade GPS units we use can give you a lot of error when trying to calculate an instantaneous slope readout. On my GPS units I shut off the WAAS correction to save batteries, that cuts my accuracy by tens of feet for location. Elevation data from GPS units usually has double the error of the GPS horizontal position.

sweeks

That would be simpler, but my stem is adjustable both at the steerer and the handlebar, and sometimes I ride with the bar low (headwinds) and sometimes the bar is higher. The inclinometer allows me to quickly level the bars regardless of their height.

"Andros" stem allows the bars to be higher or lower, as needed.

sdmc530

surak

Garmins like my Edge 520 use a barometric pressure sensor to detect grade changes. It is more accurate and responsive than GPS. Even Strava defaults to trusting grades calculated from devices equipped with barometers rather than overriding it with their own elevation change calculations.

canklecat

I've used apps to check inclines. Turns out the existing data on maps is already correct. So I quit worrying about it, unless I happened across a hill that was too short and steep to be on any existing map data. Then I'll dig out the phone and fire up the inclinometer app. Two of my bikes have horizontal top tubes so it's easy. Just set the phone across the top tube and check the angle.

We have a few short, steep hills with double digit grades so I'll tackle those occasionally to test the legs and lungs. Most of our climbs are rollers that average only 2% overall. No real mountains here.

johnlink

I sold my Sky Mounti because the movement of the bike made getting a reading difficult since the bubble would move.

sierrabob

If you don't have an inclinometer, you can just dismount, take a picture and measure it with a protractor. Don't tell anyone that you were just out of gas and couldn't climb any further. This climb is in Athens. Measures 12 degrees, or 21.2557%. Ouch!



Surprise: 21.3% is too steep for my 34x32 gear! Had to walk final bit.

01 CAt Man Do

I just downloaded the free app and I don't see it as being useful. To be useful I would have to be able to calibrate it to zero at the angled position I have my phone in while mounted to my bike. Otherwise it's useless IMO as a cycling tool. Hopefully my bike computer ( that I'm still waiting for ) will not be the same way.

CO_Steve

There is a calibration function in the app. I haven't tried to intentionally calibrate it to an angle, don't think it would be happy with that.
OTOH, calibrate it to zero, mount it , put bike level, and do the math on hills.

zacster

My Wahoo Bolt has grade but I know it isn't instantaneously accurate. And you know what, when I'm riding up anything steep enough to want to know about I'm usually too focused on pedaling to look. And similarly on downhills, I'm focused on the road when I'm doing 30+ on a downhill. I mostly use it to look at the metrics after the ride.

01 CAt Man Do

Found the calibration setting. You're right, it ain't happy messing with it when at an angle. Oh well, it is what it is. My phone mount sits at a 20° angle where I have it on my stem. I can either do the math or I could choose to mount it to the bars where I can adjust it to 0°. I'll just do the math since likely I'll only use it on the rare occasion when I know I'll have a known mammoth climb.

Seattle Forrest

I rode over Washington Pass from the valley floor yesterday, more than 4,000' of vert. Never looked at the grade. It was steepest on the way to Cutthroat, I wonder if I can figure that out retroactively.

SuperRecord

I now use maps.google.com by placing a marker at the start and finish and use the bicycle feature to cover routes that are not always proper roads. Then I use Rise/Run x 100 to get gradient.