sarhog

Yes. I got the bike thru mail order and it didn’t have a kickstand.

obrentharris 

So far this year 3,468 miles and 260,000'. About 1/3 of the miles and 1/5 of the climbing is with my wife on the tandem so I guess she should get some of the credit!
Age 69
Brent

downtube42

Earlier this year I did a 4 day ride. It was billed as 10k feet climbing per day; I failed to notice the last day was a zinger. Rounding a bit...
Day 1 was 10k feet up, 10k feet down.
Day 2 was 10k feet up, 10k feet down.
Day 3 was 10k feet up, 10k feet down.
Day 4 was 10k feet up, 6k feet down. NOT FAIR!

I'm thinking that net gain of 4k feet was probably darn near my lifetime net gain of altitude, since most rides are loops.

Amtrak home was net 6k feet down, with an average speed of 30 mph. I figure Amtrak owes me for that.

sean.hwy

If she used a smart trainer where you take the tire off and hook it up direct drive I find the "hills" accurate on Zwift. Zwift avg speed on flats/down hill is a joke. And it seems the trainers that let you keep your rear tire tend give you free watts/speed. Granted my pools is only 3 or 4 people. I know several people that have the cheaper and a few people with the Saris H3. The people with the cheaper trainers are faster than me on zwift uphill but not real life when we do group rides. While the other lady with the Saris H3 times up zwift hills and real life match me time almost exactly.

ehcoplex 

Apparently not if one measures using the Cyclemeter app on an iPhone. My rides are always loops, yet the stats consistently show more ft of descent than ascent...


To the original question, since getting back into cycling this spring my average is about 50' of climb/mile.

Hypno Toad

Zwift miles are virtual miles, but that doesn't make them easy miles .... Ride Report: vEveresting on Zwift & Coming Up Short

If somebody's doing a million feet of climbing on Zwift every year, that'd be amazing!

[Post assumes a smart trainer]

livedarklions

Well, either that's rounding error on the loops or you're gradually working your way to the center of the earth.

Seriously, it's funny that the app systematically errs on the side of descent. For sense of accomplishment reasons, I'd expect they'd do it the other way, or neutralize the error.

I've sort of decided for myself that the climb per mile stat is very close to meaningless as the denominator includes downhill miles. If you're riding up and down mountains (I'm not), that isn't going to give you much of an idea of the average grade that you're climbing at. Maybe one can half the denominator, but that assumes that the up and downhill sections are evenly distributed. I'm generally not comparing my stats to anyone else, so this is usually something I keep track of just for me anyway.

livedarklions

Zwift miles are a real workout. If someone wants to "pool" their mileage in both actual and Zwift cycling for their own personal reasons, I don't see a problem in that. But for competition and record-making purposes, those miles are not the same--"real" cycling involves dealing with the elements, real road conditions and risks of injury that just have nothing to do with virtual riding. Even if you're comparing it with indoor track cycling, there's the very real risk of crashing and, I imagine since I don't do this sort of riding, a lot of control factors that really can't be simulated on a stationary bike.

It's not to say one is better than the other, it's just that the resemblance is limited.

I do my indoor "training" on an elliptical, which I guess could technically be considered a form of cycling. I don't consider it any part of my cycling miles, but it's definitely a "real" workout.

pdlamb

20-odd years ago, someone on usenet was trying to set a record by climbing 100,000 feet in a year. I thought it was interesting, but since I didn't have an altimeter and there was no RWGPS/Strava/etc. around to calculate it for me, I thought it was a lot of climbing.

Since this thread kept showing up, I finally got curious about my own climbing. Apparently I've been underestimating myself! Helped by the pandemic and WFH, since an interesting weekday ride now has around 1,000 feet of climbing instead of 150' on the commute, I'm sure. Over twice that "record" and I'm still nowhere near a climber.

Hypno Toad

We agree, trainer stats and IRL stats aren't the same. My 10 mile ride at -20F isn't the same as my 10 mile ride in Watopia. My point is that we should not discount Zwift efforts just because it's on a trainer; but indoor stats deserve a different category to be an apple-to-apple comparison with others. I won't compare my vEversting on Zwift with my buddy John's Eversting on Ohio St in St Paul.

livedarklions

We absolutely agree, but in true BF spirit, I feel like we're failing to phrase this so it looks like we're fighting.

Hypno Toad

guachi

I have a Wahoo Kickr and initially my speed on Zwift was about 10% higher than real life. Then I got my new bike and now the two are very close. Downhill max speeds are still higher on Zwift because I can't crash and have perfect bike handling skills.

rm -rf

With lower gearing so I can stay seated on steeper hills, and a smaller group that doesn't push the pace faster than I can manage, I've been recording more elevation per mile in the last few years. We've been riding very quiet and scenic rural roads. My favorite riding: low traffic, shady climbs, and views from the ridges.
In 2020: 4700 miles and 255,000 feet. That's 54 feet per mile. I don't mind steep climbs, especially if there's a long, shallow downhill afterwards. 8-10% up: reasonable. 2% downhill: perfect!

I reposted this in 2016:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the 2013 "Annual Pissing Contest" thread, so perhaps the higher mileage riders were more likely to report.
Here's the first 125 posts that mentioned their miles (or km*.62) and their feet (or meters*3.28). Reports of miles without feet are on the X axis.

I did this pretty quickly, so there may be a couple of bad data points.

There's more riders over 10,000 miles than I expected.

About 50 feet per mile over the whole season seems quite common. That's the 45 degree diagonal line from the 0,0 point. But the riders over 4,000 miles tend to be above that line, more like 60+ feet per mile.

The flattest territory award goes to fmy906, with 3,052 miles and 8,068 feet. Wow, 2.64 feet per mile! EDIT--he reports that 1100 feet of the 8000 were in one away ride!
Hilliest is robbyville, 3,546 and 284,311 feet. 80 feet per mile.
(The entry at about 2,500 miles with 325,000 feet is an error.)




rm -rf is online now Report Post

downhillmaster

I rode 3,452 miles and climbed 3,452 miles last year.
Yep, every mile I rode was uphill.
I realized early on that the essence of cycling is bragging about your gear and your climbing, so 4 days a week I drive to the base of a small local mountain and ride up it. I then walk the bike back down and climb up it again. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Did I win?

Riveting

Uphill? If your mileage distance exactly matches your climbing distance, that's means you rode straight up (like in an elevator). Cheater!

mschwett 

but then your mileage traveled (by the flat distance standard) would be …. zero!

downhillmaster

Very steep local mountain

Riveting

TRUE!

And since there's no forward motion, what would be the gradient of that climb, straight up?

sarhog

Infinity.

spelger

It's a 100% grade.

canklecat

We don't have any mountains, just lots of rollers. I often repeat some of the rolliest loops. In good years without injury (2017, 2019 and 2020), 6,000-7,000 miles, 250,000 feet elevation gain. I'm 63. Due to injuries 2018 and this year were not good years so my mileage and other data are way down. OTOH, I resumed running this year so my total hours are the same, just running more and cycling less.

Riveting

Nope. 100% grade is only a 45° road angle, meaning for every 100' of horizontal distance (aka the run), you travel 100' in vertical (aka the rise). The Rise is 100% of the Run. Without hitting infinity, riding straight up is closer to a 10,000,000% grade.

Stairs in your house are typically 77.5% grade (10" run and 7.75" rise), or 37.78°.

spelger

sorry, if all your riding miles also equals all your climbing miles then you have ridden on average a 100% grade. you even backed me up when you wrote this:

also, riding straight up (with no horizontal movement) *is* an infinite grade, not even close to 10,000,000%

spelger

actually now i have to quote and refute myself. it is actually a bit less than 100%. if you consider the distance traveled along the actual path and not just the horizontal distance.