longest bicycle descent?

wrote:
What are the longest (not steepest) descents?

That is, where would a lazy fellow get to coast the
farthest? A little pedalling is acceptable, here and there,
but the descent in general has to be steady and steep enough
to allow 15-20 mph coasting, which translates to around a 2
to 3% grade.

Carl Fogel

This one is probably not the longest one, but is nice (notice: start:
700m, end: 3400m!!!).
http://www.salite.ch/veleta.htm
I did it this summer and is a must when visiting the South of the Spain!

Francesco

"Jay Beattie" wrote in message ...
... From my own experience, though, there is a really long
descent down the Lochsa River near the Idaho/Montana border. It
is 65 miles or so, but a very mild grade -- probably in 3- 4 %
range on average.

That would be an elevation change in the range of about 10,300 to
13,700 feet over that distance. I expect your estimate of the grade is
a bit high. I would also expect that if it is a road following a
river, it may be any easy cruise but is probably not truly
"coastable."

DR

"Jay Beattie" wrote in message ...
... From my own experience, though, there is a really long
descent down the Lochsa River near the Idaho/Montana border. It
is 65 miles or so, but a very mild grade -- probably in 3- 4 %
range on average.

That would be an elevation change in the range of about 10,300 to
13,700 feet over that distance. I expect your estimate of the grade is
a bit high. I would also expect that if it is a road following a
river, it may be any easy cruise but is probably not truly
"coastable."

DR

"DirtRoadie" wrote in message
om...
"Jay Beattie" wrote in message
...
... From my own experience, though, there is a really long
descent down the Lochsa River near the Idaho/Montana border.
It
is 65 miles or so, but a very mild grade -- probably in 3- 4
%
range on average.

That would be an elevation change in the range of about 10,300
to
13,700 feet over that distance. I expect your estimate of the
grade is
a bit high. I would also expect that if it is a road following
a
river, it may be any easy cruise but is probably not truly
"coastable."

True. At a 3-4% grade it would gain way too much elevation. So
much for personal recollection. This used to be part of the
Bikecentennial route, so it should be documented somewhere. --
Jay Beattie.

"DirtRoadie" wrote in message
om...
"Jay Beattie" wrote in message
...
... From my own experience, though, there is a really long
descent down the Lochsa River near the Idaho/Montana border.
It
is 65 miles or so, but a very mild grade -- probably in 3- 4
%
range on average.

That would be an elevation change in the range of about 10,300
to
13,700 feet over that distance. I expect your estimate of the
grade is
a bit high. I would also expect that if it is a road following
a
river, it may be any easy cruise but is probably not truly
"coastable."

True. At a 3-4% grade it would gain way too much elevation. So
much for personal recollection. This used to be part of the
Bikecentennial route, so it should be documented somewhere. --
Jay Beattie.

wrote in message . ..
What are the longest (not steepest) descents?

That is, where would a lazy fellow get to coast the
farthest? A little pedalling is acceptable, here and there,
but the descent in general has to be steady and steep enough
to allow 15-20 mph coasting, which translates to around a 2
to 3% grade.

Carl Fogel

It ain't Maui, but Highway 138 on the north side of Crater Lake,
Oregon, descends 6300 feet in 65 miles. It was featured on this year's
edition of Oregon Bicycle Ride: http://www.oregonbicycleride.org . My
wife and I got to the first rest stop on the last day in one hour- a
distance of 30 miles.

Jeff

wrote in message . ..
What are the longest (not steepest) descents?

That is, where would a lazy fellow get to coast the
farthest? A little pedalling is acceptable, here and there,
but the descent in general has to be steady and steep enough
to allow 15-20 mph coasting, which translates to around a 2
to 3% grade.

Carl Fogel

It ain't Maui, but Highway 138 on the north side of Crater Lake,
Oregon, descends 6300 feet in 65 miles. It was featured on this year's
edition of Oregon Bicycle Ride: http://www.oregonbicycleride.org . My
wife and I got to the first rest stop on the last day in one hour- a
distance of 30 miles.

Jeff

Jay Beattie wrote:
"DirtRoadie" wrote in message
om...
"Jay Beattie" wrote in message
...
... From my own experience, though, there is a really long
descent down the Lochsa River near the Idaho/Montana border.
It
is 65 miles or so, but a very mild grade -- probably in 3- 4
%
range on average.

That would be an elevation change in the range of about 10,300
to
13,700 feet over that distance. I expect your estimate of the
grade is
a bit high. I would also expect that if it is a road following
a
river, it may be any easy cruise but is probably not truly
"coastable."

True. At a 3-4% grade it would gain way too much elevation. So
much for personal recollection. This used to be part of the
Bikecentennial route, so it should be documented somewhere. --
Jay Beattie.

it's still on adventure cycling's transamerica route. from lolo pass
outside of missoula to the downhill section from powell junction to lowell.
i just did this westbound (downhill) summer of 2002 and it's more like 1-2%.
it's definitely not coastable but it's pretty consistently downhill from
powell junction to lowell for about 65 miles.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/rout...?pg=detail&s=3

not that i wasn't happy to be going downhill since it's the longest stretch
on the transam w/o services. and one of the prettiest.

mackenzie pass in the cascades was pretty long westbound and so was the whole
chief joseph pass section also on the transam. the fastest was white bird,
idaho (also west bound).
--
david reuteler

Jay Beattie wrote:
"DirtRoadie" wrote in message
om...
"Jay Beattie" wrote in message
...
... From my own experience, though, there is a really long
descent down the Lochsa River near the Idaho/Montana border.
It
is 65 miles or so, but a very mild grade -- probably in 3- 4
%
range on average.

That would be an elevation change in the range of about 10,300
to
13,700 feet over that distance. I expect your estimate of the
grade is
a bit high. I would also expect that if it is a road following
a
river, it may be any easy cruise but is probably not truly
"coastable."

True. At a 3-4% grade it would gain way too much elevation. So
much for personal recollection. This used to be part of the
Bikecentennial route, so it should be documented somewhere. --
Jay Beattie.

it's still on adventure cycling's transamerica route. from lolo pass
outside of missoula to the downhill section from powell junction to lowell.
i just did this westbound (downhill) summer of 2002 and it's more like 1-2%.
it's definitely not coastable but it's pretty consistently downhill from
powell junction to lowell for about 65 miles.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/rout...?pg=detail&s=3

not that i wasn't happy to be going downhill since it's the longest stretch
on the transam w/o services. and one of the prettiest.

mackenzie pass in the cascades was pretty long westbound and so was the whole
chief joseph pass section also on the transam. the fastest was white bird,
idaho (also west bound).
--
david reuteler

writes:

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 23:46:00 -0500, Tim McNamara
wrote:

writes:

What are the longest (not steepest) descents?

That is, where would a lazy fellow get to coast the farthest? A
little pedalling is acceptable, here and there, but the descent in
general has to be steady and steep enough to allow 15-20 mph
coasting, which translates to around a 2 to 3% grade.

From the top of the Galibier to Embrun looks to be just about all
downhill, maybe 45 miles? It's a drop from 2646 meters to about 475
meters. I haven't ridden that road past Briancon, so I don't know
if there's any climbing between there and Embrun. Going the other
way from Galibier into Grenoble brings one from 2646 meters to about
250 meters, if my Michelin atlas is correct. I don't feel like
adding up all the little numbers to get the distance, but it looks
to be about 50 miles. It wouldn't be all downhill, there'd be
streches you'd have to pedal and a couple of slight rises. I
remember it being a long way down from the top of the Izoard to
Guillestre, maybe 20 miles. These are good quality descents as well
as long ones.

Dear Tim,

Maybe the middle entry, the one called Chatelard?

http://tinyurl.com/5lkuo

Clicking on it shows a relief graph with gradients running around 35
km (and maybe more, since the graph goes down to only 700 meters
above sea level), but there's an ugly 5km 3.4% climb in the middle.

I've gone up that in the other direction, from St. Michel de Maurienne
up to Galibier. From the Galibier side, that "ugly climb" ((which is
the Col du Telegraphe) would be barely noticeable- you'd coast up a
fair amount of it and a 3.4% climb is not so much to climb. It's
much tougher going up the other side of Telegraphe. ;-)