Riding up a steep hill

If a hill is too steep to ride, I walk the bike. It doesn't happen often and it adds a slight amount of extra distance, as the unloaded front wheel gets bigger. But the inaccuracy is spread out over the course, and is unlikely to amount to much.

In any case, what other option is there?

If you have an accomplice that could ferry you up the hill, you could measure the course in segments and ride down the hill segment twice to determine it's length accurately.

When I encounter a course with a significant hill (they sometimes occur in NH), I use my electrically assisted bicycle for measuring.

Ron

I prefer walking on steep hills.
a while back Pete & I were measureing a steep hill section of a course. Pete got off and walked the bike holding down on the handlebars, loading the front wheel.
I rode up the hill and although I thought I got the better measurement, Pete beat me on that mile segment by about 3 meters.
I re-learned the Old Bull/Young Bull lesson that day.
An alternative would be to ride down the hills but that makes for extra work and can be difficult to convey to a certifier. Does riding DOWN hills not have some effect on the measurement due to added speed, riding the brake, or not pedaling?
I suppose you could calibrate walking the bike, then note sections where the bike was walked. This would probably be best if the course was mostly hills.
About a year ago I added a 70cc gas engine to the bike I measure with so hills and long hot days are less of a problem.

If the course is similar to the original Wheeling 20k, I think I remember that the uphills were shorter and steeper and the downhills were long and not as steep. Riding it backwards might be a simple solution to your problem.

Ah, the variables we encounter in our endeavor to accurately measure courses!

As Mike and Pete said, the un-weighting of the front tire adds length to the uphill section. The steeper the hill, the more length is added. But, if you wobble, you are canceling that un-weighting factor to some extent. If you wobble too much, you over-compensate for the un-weighting, and the segment is shorter than what your Jones would indicate. Such a dilemma!

Unless the hills are longer than a couple-hundred meters, and so steep that you wobble excessively or walk, I don't think it should be a material difference. If you do walk, be sure to lean on the handle bars as you walk, to give some compression to the front tire.

That will be an issue I will try to address when the snow melts - the difference in clicks between uphill and downhill rides on various grades of roads. Anyone else is welcome to note their observations, so we can compare variance, and also reference tire types - hard pneumatic road tires, hybrid-bike tires, mtn. bike tires, and I will contribute data for airless tires with a 120 psi equivalent.

This has already been covered experimentally, but who knows? Knowledge is power.

Past Posts

The most extreme uphill I’ve measured was on a 100 km point-to-point course. It also had a 60 km event which tied in to the 100 km course.

The course had one major hill, which rose 600 meters over the first 21 km, them descended gradually to the finish.

We laid out a cal course near the start on a flat road, calibrated, and loaded the bikes into a truck and drove to 21 km. Then we measured back to the start.

We repeated this procedure when we measured from 21 km to the 100 km finish. There were 5 riders, and the entire measurement took two days.

Read all about it in Measurement News Issue #81, January 1997. To find it go to www.rrtc.net and search for the Measurement News Archive. Or go directly by using

http://www.runscore.com/coursemeasurement/

It was one of the most tiring and most scenic routes I’ve had the pleasure to ride.

Pete, a very interesting article you wrote! Glad you were mostly-unhurt after you "pitched over the bars".

As the immortal A.C. Linnerud once said (Paul Hronjak please correct me if this isn't exact), "Everyone has a hill they can't ride up. Some just haven't found it yet."

Also interesting/sad to see that a storied 20 km race is succumbing to "(Half) Marathon Mania" and changing distance. Not surprising; the race director of the New Haven 20 km told me he thought a similar change would result in a 10-20% increase in entries. People love the word "marathon" even if it's preceded by "half."
Long ago we used to put on a One-Third Marathon. Maybe it's time to revive that event.

Jim, don't forget the Hartford Track Club's quarter Marathon, certified and all (CT07002JHP).