Every Brisbane cyclist is smiling at this video. Although we don't often ride up the very, very steepest streets, all of our rides feature these suburban hills up slightly less steep streets. I live on top of a hill very similar to these. We cannot avoid them and - secretly - we love them.
So neat that you came to sleepy ol' Brisbane town and gave us a great review on our biking infrastructure. I hope you got a chance to head to either Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast.
Bamford clough, Peak District, England, UK. That’s a climb you should try, it averages 21.7%, max 37% for 0.3miles. While in England, give hardknot pass a try as well
It feels like every suburb within an hour of the coast from far north Queensland all the way down to Victoria is full of these exact hilly streets. You cyclists are a special breed of mad lad for actually enjoying the suffering of this sort of geography, lol. When you decided to take another crack at getting a better time on that hill, it made me smile. Worthy of respect, that sort of tenacity.
Well done Mitch, I was rooting for you to get on the leader board. I never knew that about concrete vs tarmac! You should try some of the climbs on the North York Moors here in the UK: 33%.
Oi Mitch! So glad you visited Aus and Brissie! RCA rocks! As an American in Aus (and a fellow RCA member) I have been following your UA-cams. Great content. Great to see your progress with cycling.
Very proud to see my city here and a good review on the cycling infrastructure. With the Olympics in 2032, it’s only going to get better! Great collaboration with Cam too
Me and my mate did Stoneleigh and Reading St because it's near our house. Both used 30t chainrings and 34t rear casettes and this video doesn't describe how challenging these are for someone who is just an "enthusiast" cyclist. Trying to keep the front tyre down and a straight line is mich trickier. As always an expert makes it appear simpler than it actually is. Kudos to you Mitch!
Watching this video made me curious. As a Brisbane resident. I looked up the steepest streets and most of them are in my area. Redhill/Paddington. What a pain. Also this video is very very well made and deserves way more than 42k views. Stay at it mate !
I did try climbing Gower St with my Merida Scultura 4000, 50/34-11/30 gear combination. I did it twice, but unfortunately, both attempts failed. Just near the top of the hill, I clipped off and dismounted the bike. 😂 I may need to copy your way to conquer it. What an inspiring video. 👍
I've never gone up the Obi Obi road, but I have gone down it. On the way down it's a different road and is gravel on the top section. I had my light touring bike with 4 panniers and I was zipping past cars as they crawled down. Way too much fun.
C’mon mate, you missed the fun much closer to town - Ivory Lane, CBD and Ellis Street, Kangaroo Point. Short steep shocks that leave little room to build up speed!
Why is there an edit at 14:27 ? Raises questions . Also a running start and standing starts are required to be logged by Strava on separate leaderboards . The GPS has an accuracy of 2.5 metres , leaving room for error as well as phone network outages or signal issues . The trees at the top of this street can affect GPS performance if they are deciduous .
Haha just trying to keep the video from being too long and boring. It would be sad if I was faking a result that’s not even a top 10 😂 There’s a link to the Strava activity in the description so you can see the entire ride.
I used to live in Dempster street just off Gower in Toowong. I used to walk up it every afternoon for executive. It was tough initially but heat cv workout. Your bike made Gower look less scary than what it is. For a real challenge you should have done a standing start at the bottom - that would have been harder without the leading momentum.
You really should come to the uk and do hardknott pass in the lake district. Have a go at the Fred whitton challenge over 100 miles over the lake district hills a proper achievement lol!!..
In my 20s I was pretty fit, used to do a lot of walking. Would walk up Stoneleigh Street you show in the video quite often. Can vouch for it being pretty steep. Would hate to have done it on a bike, though!!
Black top... A lot of older Brisbane streets aren't actually asphalt. They are spray sealed, so don't have the same issues with slope. But you are correct, you can't roll asphalt after 18%, so has to be concrete or spray seal.
Those gear change noises at 13:45 - ouch ! Some call it the The Symphony of Defeat ... clack - clack - clack - followed by a sickening silence as you push the lever .... you just need 1 more click to keep spinning ... but there is nothing left, only lactic burn to come, and its going to hit in bucket loads He should have gone for rim brakes !
If you want a big challenge, come to belgium and try the “flandrien challenge” its a challenge to do a route in 3 days max, it got all the hardest climbs and segments to ride from the legendary belgian road racing. Imo the kemmelberg and the koppenberg are the hardest ones of them. It would make a great video if you managed to do the ride
Ha... I got into cycling about 15 years ago. I live in Northern NSW right on the coast, there are some short but very steep mountains just off the beach. Over the course of several years I slowly built up enough strength and stamina to overcome all of them, except for one stretch of about 100 metres on one road. I measured it at roughly a 33% incline. I just couldn't make the bike go forward. I should point out that even after cycling for a few years I was never really very fit and still kind of overweight, so it's not surprising I couldn't handle it. But I think it would make even a super fit cyclist slow down a bit :P
as someone who lives in brisbane and rides mtb, i can most definately not ride up steep streets like this, yet i have most definately gone down a street 19 degrees steep and even measured streets over 20 degrees, one street reaching 21 degrees.
Mostly because I want the 52 for sprints! The difference between the ratios 34-34 (1.00) and 36-34 (1.06) is so minimal I don’t mind losing a tiiiiiny bit of efficiency on the low end.
@@MitchBoyer you do know with shimano 2x12 mtb they offer 11-45 cassette option. So in theory could have the 52/36 with a 11-48t. Just need a jtek adapter to make it work with brifters. Jus saying.
@@mellissanash7517 Def a good option! I have a BMC URS gravel bike with a 40t chainring and 10-52 SRAM Eagle cassette on the back. I took it up some local hills to test the 40-52 ratio... on a 33% grade, still had a cadence of 50 at a power output of 360w. I think I might have to go full MTB with a 30t chainring if I really wanted to spin up it 😅
Come to Japan and do Hakone! Don't think it is THAT steep, but according to classical literature it is the steepest in the land. Not sure how true that is, but I did it over the weekend and now my whole (untrained) body is in pain :( p.s. How do you do the wahoo stats overlay, by the way?
Dude, going back down that hill for the 2nd try -- at 46 MPH? Dang, if someone were to back out of their driveway right then, neither of you would have seen it coming.
No street is too steep if you've got the right gears... and a road bike doesn't usually have the right gears. It's not about strength. Not only do the right gears make it 'easier' but it's also smoother with power delivery, reducing spikes that can easily break the static tyre friction and cause slipping... at which point you'll fall off.
I grew up around the corner from Stoneleigh st. Tried bombing it on a skateboard back when I was young and dumb. Didn’t end well. Also, there are steps beside it!
Every Brisbane cyclist is smiling at this video. Although we don't often ride up the very, very steepest streets, all of our rides feature these suburban hills up slightly less steep streets. I live on top of a hill very similar to these. We cannot avoid them and - secretly - we love them.
I was really surprised by Brisbane. Came for the hills, stayed for the bike loop. And Mount Coot-Tha!
@@MitchBoyerI know someone who lives at mt coot tha
So neat that you came to sleepy ol' Brisbane town and gave us a great review on our biking infrastructure. I hope you got a chance to head to either Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast.
I got to spend a couple of days in Noosa and do some riding up there. Amazing place!
How did XXXX beer not get in the edit. hahaha. Great video mate!
Haha a major mistake for sure 🤦♂️
Impressive power up Gower st. Holding over 700watts for that amount of time is really good. Much better than most.
Thanks, appreciate it 🙌
The grade explanation was the best part of the video, explained it really clearly and now I know!
Appreciate it dude! I love nerding out on that stuff
Great collab with Cam and I love your lighthearted style of editing. Another great vid Mitch! (Not to mention you’re strong as hell now)
Thanks bro 🙏
Bamford clough, Peak District, England, UK. That’s a climb you should try, it averages 21.7%, max 37% for 0.3miles. While in England, give hardknot pass a try as well
Oof that sounds tough! Sign me up! Haha
Excellent video with layering the storyline
Alright! I've been waiting for this one!! Great stuff, keep em coming
Edit: you're also being very modest about your power curve!
It feels like every suburb within an hour of the coast from far north Queensland all the way down to Victoria is full of these exact hilly streets. You cyclists are a special breed of mad lad for actually enjoying the suffering of this sort of geography, lol. When you decided to take another crack at getting a better time on that hill, it made me smile. Worthy of respect, that sort of tenacity.
As a "Brisbanite" who has to cycle up a 12% every day just to get get to their house, you learn to clip in really fast.
Haha I bet!
Clip out I think you mean. You don't need clipless pedals to climb steep roads but all the MAMILs out there will insist you do. Yawn.
My heart nearly exploded just watching your effort Gower street. Incredible performance!!
Brisbane is an awesome city with hundreds of KM of cycling paths and growing by the month. With the Olympics coming up it’s booming.
That was awesome! So nice to see you can travel to all of those places and have so much fun.
That is cool. I have never been "down under". Thanks for taking us along.
Well done Mitch, I was rooting for you to get on the leader board. I never knew that about concrete vs tarmac! You should try some of the climbs on the North York Moors here in the UK: 33%.
Thanks Leonard! I definitely wanna head that way sometime soon!
Oi Mitch!
So glad you visited Aus and Brissie!
RCA rocks! As an American in Aus (and a fellow RCA member) I have been following your UA-cams. Great content.
Great to see your progress with cycling.
Thanks, Mark, always fun to hear from a fellow RCA member!
And you were in my neighborhood!
Very proud to see my city here and a good review on the cycling infrastructure. With the Olympics in 2032, it’s only going to get better! Great collaboration with Cam too
Me and my mate did Stoneleigh and Reading St because it's near our house. Both used 30t chainrings and 34t rear casettes and this video doesn't describe how challenging these are for someone who is just an "enthusiast" cyclist. Trying to keep the front tyre down and a straight line is mich trickier.
As always an expert makes it appear simpler than it actually is.
Kudos to you Mitch!
It's crazy how much steeper it is in person compared to how it looks on camera. Thanks for watching dude!
Great piece of content. Keep doing great work.
The most underrated cycling channel out there. The quality of videos and your stoytelling is superb :)
Thanks dude, appreciate it!
Should've come to Toowoomba mate. We've got plenty of climbs in the 20s, good couple that hit 30.
Well, Cam did try and warn you… 😆… I got winded just looking at those grades… 😂😂😂😂🙌🏽
Watching this video made me curious. As a Brisbane resident. I looked up the steepest streets and most of them are in my area. Redhill/Paddington. What a pain.
Also this video is very very well made and deserves way more than 42k views.
Stay at it mate !
Happy for you Mitch - have fun on your adventures!
Thanks Rod!
I enjoy this series. Keep ‘em comin’! 😀
More to come!
Some impressive wattage you're putting down there. Congrats on finishing the three rides.
Still making great content with a great collaboration
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
I did try climbing Gower St with my Merida Scultura 4000, 50/34-11/30 gear combination. I did it twice, but unfortunately, both attempts failed. Just near the top of the hill, I clipped off and dismounted the bike. 😂
I may need to copy your way to conquer it. What an inspiring video. 👍
That last little kick at the end is tough! Good luck 🙌
I've never gone up the Obi Obi road, but I have gone down it. On the way down it's a different road and is gravel on the top section. I had my light touring bike with 4 panniers and I was zipping past cars as they crawled down. Way too much fun.
Shoulve tried coming up sankey street in Brisbane!
I think a 1300W max is a little bit better than just "OK"
Appreciate it! I guess I’m just used to riding with much stronger riders 😅
C’mon mate, you missed the fun much closer to town - Ivory Lane, CBD and Ellis Street, Kangaroo Point. Short steep shocks that leave little room to build up speed!
Why is there an edit at 14:27 ? Raises questions . Also a running start and standing starts are required to be logged by Strava on separate leaderboards . The GPS has an accuracy of 2.5 metres , leaving room for error as well as phone network outages or signal issues . The trees at the top of this street can affect GPS performance if they are deciduous .
Haha just trying to keep the video from being too long and boring. It would be sad if I was faking a result that’s not even a top 10 😂 There’s a link to the Strava activity in the description so you can see the entire ride.
Come to the lake District in the UK, bad road surfaces and steep climbs
Hopefully one day soon!
La Tierra del Trigo from Los Silos in Tenerife. About 3 km with a 15% avg gradient, maxing out at 28%. Did it in January, was fun :).
I used to live in Dempster street just off Gower in Toowong. I used to walk up it every afternoon for executive. It was tough initially but heat cv workout. Your bike made Gower look less scary than what it is. For a real challenge you should have done a standing start at the bottom - that would have been harder without the leading momentum.
Hope you are able to try Black Wall, Tagaytay, Philippines if you can manage the schedule and travel. 🙂
Got the KOM going down Bywong st but not up. 😂
The Gold Coast has both Henri Robert’s Drive at 30% and The Panorama as sharp punishing accents. Awesome views. Love your videos, comrades in pain.
Magnificent video. I live near Obi Obi and was wondering what the grade was. Now I know - and of all the possible ways to find out. :)
how do you do this i get tired going over my average bridge that aint even steep
That bird is looking at you like "Are you staying until spring, you think this is steep?"😂😂
O’Hea Street in Pascoe Vale in Victoria has a maximum gradient of 30%. Its so steep that when its a little wet your back tyre starts slipping.
Great video, i wanna go to Brisbaneeeeeee!!
Guess we gotta go back!
Visiting Brisbane from London at the moment wish i had a bike to ride around on.
If you find your self back here at some point there’s a climb called Postman’s Track, not far from Obi Obi, which I reckon is tougher.
Postmans track is not that steep. I rode it with full camping gear. Try Mount Nardi at Nimbin.
You really should come to the uk and do hardknott pass in the lake district. Have a go at the Fred whitton challenge over 100 miles over the lake district hills a proper achievement lol!!..
Oh I’m gonna have to look it up, thanks!
In my 20s I was pretty fit, used to do a lot of walking. Would walk up Stoneleigh Street you show in the video quite often. Can vouch for it being pretty steep. Would hate to have done it on a bike, though!!
I was surprised by how hilly Brisbane is. Lots of short punchy climbs throughout the city. Just walking is a workout there!
Yo brudda, you need to check out Grenada in the Caribbean. They’ve just put a hill there where I was maybe possibly scared and I was in a car.
Nice, hope you enjoyed Brissy
this is great, now come back and do it in summer! haha!
oye streuth, good on yah, mate, I'll see you on the paddock
I so miss Brissy. ❤️
Black top... A lot of older Brisbane streets aren't actually asphalt. They are spray sealed, so don't have the same issues with slope.
But you are correct, you can't roll asphalt after 18%, so has to be concrete or spray seal.
Welcome to Brisbane have you tried the famous river loop
Those gear change noises at 13:45 - ouch !
Some call it the The Symphony of Defeat ... clack - clack - clack - followed by a sickening silence as you push the lever .... you just need 1 more click to keep spinning ... but there is nothing left, only lactic burn to come, and its going to hit in bucket loads
He should have gone for rim brakes !
have you ever been told about David st Mosman, Sydney Australia? it's more of a cliff than a public road!
You missed out on Stoneleigh St, Red Hill a few kms away - which is 16.4 degree; 29 per cent - and therefore steeper than Reading.
I did ride Stoneleigh… it’s the first one in this video 😉
@@MitchBoyer Oh right! Apologies, I must have missed it :)
If you want a big challenge, come to belgium and try the “flandrien challenge” its a challenge to do a route in 3 days max, it got all the hardest climbs and segments to ride from the legendary belgian road racing. Imo the kemmelberg and the koppenberg are the hardest ones of them. It would make a great video if you managed to do the ride
Good on ya.
I know there's around few spots in Arana Hills that are blocked off and aren't streets anymore for how steep they are.
I work a few blocks from gower st and never heard of it
Ha... I got into cycling about 15 years ago. I live in Northern NSW right on the coast, there are some short but very steep mountains just off the beach. Over the course of several years I slowly built up enough strength and stamina to overcome all of them, except for one stretch of about 100 metres on one road. I measured it at roughly a 33% incline. I just couldn't make the bike go forward.
I should point out that even after cycling for a few years I was never really very fit and still kind of overweight, so it's not surprising I couldn't handle it. But I think it would make even a super fit cyclist slow down a bit :P
as someone who lives in brisbane and rides mtb, i can most definately not ride up steep streets like this, yet i have most definately gone down a street 19 degrees steep and even measured streets over 20 degrees, one street reaching 21 degrees.
Any reason for running a 52/36t setup instead of a more common 50/34? Would certainly make it a little easier.
Mostly because I want the 52 for sprints! The difference between the ratios 34-34 (1.00) and 36-34 (1.06) is so minimal I don’t mind losing a tiiiiiny bit of efficiency on the low end.
If I were to build a steep street specific bike I would probably do a 1x setup with a massive mountain bike cassette in the back (11-52 or something )
@@MitchBoyer you do know with shimano 2x12 mtb they offer 11-45 cassette option. So in theory could have the 52/36 with a 11-48t. Just need a jtek adapter to make it work with brifters. Jus saying.
@@mellissanash7517 Def a good option! I have a BMC URS gravel bike with a 40t chainring and 10-52 SRAM Eagle cassette on the back. I took it up some local hills to test the 40-52 ratio... on a 33% grade, still had a cadence of 50 at a power output of 360w. I think I might have to go full MTB with a 30t chainring if I really wanted to spin up it 😅
@@MitchBoyer you could put the 30t on the URS, I have friends with 30-34t single ring on their gravel bikes.
nice video, I want to ask how to show wahoo live segment in video, using what application? is there a totorial?
I learned from DC Rainmaker. He has a nice tutorial on his channel that explains it step by step better than I can. Good luck!
Are you just using the insta360 microphones whilst recording? I’m struggling to get an ok solution for sound whilst cycling
I use a DJI mic and then sync the audio in DaVinci Resolve while I'm editing
The KOM “The Bogan” is a bloke nearing the age of 70. Take his 2021 record with a massive pinch of salt.
Watch out, The Bogan will now steal ya KOMs and then block ya on strava.
Mitch, what handlebars are those. Also what is the size. Good riding
Thanks Kim! They’re the ENVE aero bars I think they’re 38s if I remember correctly
My car struggles to drive up Gower street, for real.
You should do Penang hill in Malaysia.
Come to Japan and do Hakone!
Don't think it is THAT steep, but according to classical literature it is the steepest in the land.
Not sure how true that is, but I did it over the weekend and now my whole (untrained) body is in pain :(
p.s. How do you do the wahoo stats overlay, by the way?
Have you been to NZ yet? Baldwin Street?
Yep, that’s the next Steep Streets episode!
@@MitchBoyer awesome dude!!!
miskin street in toowong has got to be up there
sick video, how the scribe wheels holding? I am looking to buy a set soon
Love them! I have the Core set on my wife’s bike and the Elan in my bike both size 42
Dude, going back down that hill for the 2nd try -- at 46 MPH? Dang, if someone were to back out of their driveway right then, neither of you would have seen it coming.
Could you try to cycle here at the Philippines
What is a ranking again
Arthur Street, Kings beach, Caloundra, monster of a hill
Cam putting on the accent thick
No street is too steep if you've got the right gears... and a road bike doesn't usually have the right gears. It's not about strength. Not only do the right gears make it 'easier' but it's also smoother with power delivery, reducing spikes that can easily break the static tyre friction and cause slipping... at which point you'll fall off.
i feel like there are steeper, but probably shorter around bowen hills but i suppose i gotta believe the surveyors
Alguien que me diga ! Todo Brisbane es Asi ? 😮
I found that many power meters lose accuracy at higher levels , especially above 500 watts .
What about brown street Newcastle Nsw australia
I didn’t make it to NSW might need to do another trip out there!
in the first climb already can see you are strong cyclist with ratio 36-34 looks very easy to tackle 26+ gradient.
Great content. Oh man, have you got so much grey hair in Australia - I think you were fine before
The grey hair is coming on strong and fast 😂😅 getting closer to 40 will do that I guess.
Not a fan of driving up Gower, let alone ride up it. Well done 👏
I grew up around the corner from Stoneleigh st. Tried bombing it on a skateboard back when I was young and dumb. Didn’t end well.
Also, there are steps beside it!
I can only imagine the speed wobble on a skateboard going down 😬
@@MitchBoyer Yep. Still got the scars to back that up!
MELIFONT STREET HOBART
There are hills in that prison?
13::11 with lightest weight , fastest tyre setup . Aggressive handlebar position .
You really should get a 50/34 with a 11-34 or even 36 for climbs.
I had a friend who used to live on Gower St and cycle to uni. His thighs got so big he stopped fitting into normal pants.
Try Glamorgan street Paddington
Stoneleigh St I've walked up without realising how damn steep it was with 2 boxes of pizza.
I hope the pizza survived!
I dunno about it being more efficient to walk up. I ride up fairly steep climbs faster than I can run on the flat.
Haha. You’re super strong then!
kuragari pass, hwy 308, Osaka,Japan. 2.5 km, avg. 19%- max 38%. Cheers,