People always mention being able to go up 20% & 25% inclines, but what does that mean. Is there a corresponding angle?
Vote easy, works metric and imperial
100 meters of road will incline 25 meter when there is an incline of 25%
100 yards of road will incline 25 yards when there is an inline of 25%
I hope that is clear?
Yes, 25% is quite steep, and you will not easily go up there!
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Apparently I live 5 minutes away from the Second steepest grade public road in the world. “Canton Avenue is 630 ft (192 meters) long (the hill is about 65 meters long) and is claimed to include a 37% grade 6.5 meters long”
I’ll have to go give it a try when my build is complete 
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So 100% incline would be a 45 degree angle? That seems like a crazy incline, but less severe inclines like a 30% incline that I’m seeing from @sk8ace’s protractor diagram don’t seem that steep. @onloop, what is the incline of that hill you were testing the 2 motors? I don’t remember if the video stated the incline or not.
haha believe me, it’s steeper than it looks; pictures of inclines never do them any justice.
You can kinda get a good idea by looking at the houses compared to the street, but still, pics can’t give you the full idea that actually standing on the hill can.
The math is in the post i did earlier. Pictures are always deceiving
Haha. Kia and cmatson are correct pics can’t do it justice. Even a city renowned for steep hills like San Fran has only a handful over 30% grade. The 37% shown earlier in this thread is pretty nuts…to put it in perspective, at most ski resorts a run with 40% grade is considered a black diamond.
Canton Ave also has cobble stone to deal with! I used to live in Pittsburgh, and riding up this hill on my bike has always been on my bucket list. If you can get a board to go up that, I think we’ll all want to see a video of that!
If you want see how insane 37% is take a look at this video of cyclists trying to race up this thing. The action starts at about 0:57.
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Haha Thats awesome. I wasn’t very serious about trying to go up it. Even with the big 90mm wheels, it wouldn’t work at all. Maybe if I make an electric mountain board in the future. Need some seriously low gearing lol.
There is Incline, Grade, Slope, Degrees… They are slightly different and mean different things, some kinda mean the same thing.
From San Francisco’s standpoint…
Most hills like Canton which are 35%+ inclines all have stairs near them. You don’t necessarily just walk up these type of hills. They are really that steep.
There are many 20-28% inclines which are normal and you just walk up them. There are no stairs. But you’ll be winded after half of the hill.
At about 180-190 lbs, I ride a dual motor 6355 230KV, 16T/36T on 12S. I power up all the hills the most I’ve tried would be about 25-28% inclines… There’s a 30% incline I want to try but never bothered…I have no doubt I’d be able to go up it though.
As I’ve mentioned before the higher KV 230, 240, 265. I personally feel are better… I have more experience with 230kv and are definitely essential for climbing 25% inclines and above… even for flat road riding I find them more enjoyable. I’ve tried the same setup with 200KV and 190KV and they do go up but not as fun.
Benefits of a higher KV (230kv) specifically would be less drag, easier to get up to speed, able to get over a hill faster. I do not notice any lack of torque whatsoever… I don’t even bother full throttling and ease into it as it’s easy to over throttle and toss myself off.
You truly notice this when you climb up a 15-20% incline and you slow down or stop in the middle. Lower kv will stall out (depending) possibly walking up the hill if your gearing ratio is too high and your KV is too low. Higher kv will be up and running again and get you over the hill. The RPM’s are needed.
This is from my own testing and from some of my other customers. Granted, we aren’t 120-140 lbs either. Most of us are 180lbs +.
@claudiofiore88 From my opinion… 30% incline is about as steep as you would want to go up. Anything above 30% incline is just too steep. Even more so it’s usually about 25% - 28%.
@cmatson Ditto on the inclines never do justice… Lol… This is why I never bother taking any photos because I end up looking at it and I’m like this photo is crap.
@surprisebirthday The 37% incline IMO, I wouldn’t bother climbing up. You probably can make it but majority of time these hills aren’t that straight and it’s more difficult staying on the board and easy to eat the pavement. I wouldn’t want to go down these either…
Just saw this posted, Audi commercial on Canton Ave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH7hqFMxsTw I wonder what it looks like now after they shot this.