The Baldwin Unit

[halfmedley]

As comparing hill climbing performance between bikes is tricky without a standardised test, may I suggest we create the 'Baldwin' unit? Basically ship out the bikes to NZ and see how many times (if any!) they can climb this hill:

Baldwin Street in Dunedin - the steepest street in the world. We took our little rental car up it.

Apparently it's a 1 in 2.6 or a 38%. Results could then be described in number of Baldwins achieved (or fractions of a Baldwin).

 

[flecc]

Nice pic halfmedley, not a hill to arrive at when running from the police!

I couldn't do it with the Q bike (maximum very short 1 in 3), even with the over-volt radical battery, so I know that no production bike would score one baldwin.

It would probably be a job to get even 20 yards up it with a flying approach, given a bike's low kinetic energy.

Thinks, if I tethered a big helium balloon to the bike, that might do the trick!
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