mschwett
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
interesting!! i haven’t found RwGPS to be off by much over any significant distance - but it’s very choppy and not accurate for very short segments.Very useful numbers! The SL and I will probably end up near 235 lb, but the power estimates are easily adjusted, as most of the power's lost to resistances proportional to weight.
Problem is, I have no trustworthy grade data. RideWithGPS clearly underestimates grades around here, and On the Go Map clearly overestimates. I usually figure about 5/4 of RideWithGPS grade with scant evidence to back it up.
On that basis, your SL breaking point sounds quite plausible. Fortunately, the steepest hills I've encountered here have all been under 1 km long.
what does strava say? you can upload a ride to the free strava and see the grades, very similar to RwGPS.
significant roads in california are rarely graded to over 8% for any length of time, but small rural/neighborhood mountain roads may well
be. i’d be pretty surprised if you have much over 10% except in an exclusively residential neighborhood.
as an example, the ride up mt tamalpais, mt diablo, mt hamilton, etc rarely exceed 8%, and when they do it’s for 50-100 feet. of course, in SF proper i live at the intersection of two streets which exceed 25% - but they don’t build cities like that any more


