Ultra-Climber on 2008 Fargo Hill Climb

I built my cross country touring bike with a 20 front 34 rear granny gear, something like 16". I'v climbed some steep hils with over 50lbs of cargo.

I just did this hill climb today, 9/26/09....

ON A UNICYCLE!!! Fixed gear 1:1! Try that, and live to tell about it!

ha nice terry i saw your vid nice work keep it up!

I think you would have done better to have shot it with an unattended camera from the top, and if you would have asked me, I'd have been happy to shoot the video so I could zoom in on you at the bottom. Nice brute force effort and unicycle technique. What you did is nearly the opposite of what I was aiming to achieve with my special bicycle. I wanted to use engineering to make a straight ascent easier, and you used a unicycle to make the effort harder. Again: nice work!

That hill would be amazing to climb. After recently getting into road cycling, I remembered a climb near me that must go on for nearly 2 kilometres. It's absolutely brutal, especially at the start. I'd be interested to know its gradient, or if people have even attempted it.

Getting back on topic, I'm sure "old" people would love such means to tackle those daunting climbs.

It should be easy to figure out. You can use a mapping site such as Ride With GPS, to get elevation data and the length of the hill. Then calculate 100*rise/run to get the gradient.

very good engineering and give you much respect for that. BUT i do have to say, since i am a cyclist and ride some serious hills too, i would much rather bonk and not finish than spin like that. if i bonked and couldn't do it, well then, i wasn't worthy of the climb. but you rely on your brain to get you up the hill so i respect that, i just rely on my legs and the power i can get them to generate. thanks for the post and looking forward to trying this hill in the near future.

So do you then agree that switch-backing up the hill is also not acceptable? After all, this turns a 32% grade into something more like a 15-16% grade. If someone wanted to climb a 16% grade, then why climb Fargo? Now to your prejudice against spinning: isn't the point of multi-geared bicycles to have a range of gears so one can always spin? So where is this magic power threshold that one must attain to climb the hill? We all age and lose power, so why not enjoy the hill while spinning?

I do agree that switch backs arent acceptable. spinning is ok. dont get me wrong. if thats what you want to do, tackle impossible hills. spinning isnt really an option on my bike, as i have a double. instead of triple, so honestly fargo is pretty much impossible for me. But im still gonna try. i have no idea what the magic power threshold is. your invention is respected so enjoy it all you can, i would just rather cruise at 20mph average around town on a 44 mile ride. idk. just me.