Originally Posted by
KC8QVO
John N Thanks for the comments! Excellent info.
Is it as simple as taking the mileage and dividing by the elevation gain? So it is a metric that would be specific to the standard mile and foot units?
You are absolutely correct - the Index method, by using the two raw data points of the mileage and total elevation gain of those miles, misses the large climb I had on ride #2. That is precisely why I put it in as an example and is also very much a root of this thread. That leads exactly to my planned trip where I analyzed the overall trip miles and elevation up front then zoomed in on the high peak in that elevation chart to the planned day where that elevation was. The point was the numbers only tell you one thing. You need to open up the aperture a bit to gain a better understanding of the trip as a whole because what one segment looks like as being "moderate" to "hard" becomes a bigger drag when it is day after day of the same. Everyone's fitness level and gear choices are different and we need to be as in-tune with that as we can be to maximize the enjoyment from our trips and not set ourselves up for too much pain.
I would think it would work with kilometers and meters also but the numbers might have a different range. Since I only deal in miles/feet, that is all I have tried.
While I totally understand your point, I guess after decades of riding, I feel that at least for me, if I know what the climbing index is, I know the
overall difficulty of the route. Sure I might have a monster climb followed by a descent for the rest of the ride, or I might have a whole bunch of little 20' climbs but for me, it all seems to average out on the difficulty. By this I mean that if I know the index is say a 55, I know I will have climbing. Whether that is a lot of short ups and down or one massive climb, I do not know. I typically find I am about the same tiredness on a CI of 55 regardless of the topography. Multiple days of a 55 CI would be tough but again, it really would be the same difficulty (to me) if it was climbing in the Ozarks or doing a 20-mile mountain pass climb. If you have a 15 CI, you MIGHT have a big climb but the rest would be downhill and/or pancake flat. A typical rail trail is usually around 10-20 CI overall. But as you said, if you just look at the graph of a RWGPS route, you can get a pretty good idea where the tough climbs are.
Now if somehow I could incorporate the wind factor, I would be super content.
Tailwinds, John