Is there a tarred road up Keeper Hill?

I rode up Keeper last summer, but on a motorbike. Rocky, stony path all the way.

Well I usually use a combination of these three routes up Cratloe/Woodcock/Gallows hill (the top is the golf ball thingy, don't know which is the correct name for it).

Option 1 (4.8% average, best option in my opinion, I use it to time myself - PB is 14min02sec so far...down from in the region of 20mins when I first got into cycling! Haha)
Option 2 (4.3% average, steep lower section with 2kms of 7%, hits 10% in one section)
Option 3 (4.2% average, steady gradual climb)

I have never been to Keeper Hill in the Silvermine mountains, however I was doing a bit of research of the area using MapMyRide and I came up with the following route from Limerick City including a very steep looking climb. See route here, and just look at the gradients on this section of the climb, like nothing I've seen before in Ireland so I have a similar question to you? Is that road even ridable by bicycle...like is there tarmac on it or is it just a rough old track? Any help would be greatly appreciated, so thanks in advance! Cheers

michaelm wrote: »

There is no road that goes to the top that is suitable for a road bike, however the climb of nearby "Step" is sometimes confused with Keeper. As has been mentioned here before this is one of the toughest climbs in the region, it starts in the village of Silvermines which is not far from the N7 Dublin to Limerick road.

Maybe the road I was referring to was the climb of the "Step" rather than Keeper itself. Below I have attached 2 images of the terrain view of the climb and the street map view. As you can clearly see, it is definitely not anywhere near Keeper hill itself (640m summit) and actually only reaches a maximum altitude of just under 400m.

[url=https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/183126/87953.jpg[/url]
[url=https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/183126/87954.jpg[/url]

When you think about is an altitude gain for 283m (385-102m) over a distance of just 2700m is quite a steep climb, and I would give anything to find out off someone what average gradient this translates into. I'm not 100% certain on how exactly you calculate it.

Last question I had was is that particular 2.7km of road ridable by bike, I am pretty sure there are no roads up Keeper that are but maybe this happens to be the same climb you are talking about as the "Step", one of the toughest climbs in the region!

Sure let me know whenever you get a chance, I am just looking for more serious climbs in preparation for the Tumble mountain in Wales, 5miles (8km) of a 10% gradient and want something similar to compare it to nearby to train on.

EDIT: I first of all worked out the gradient myself to average 13.3% but I actually think this is wrong because I divided the rise (elevation change) by the run (distance travelled, either horizontal distance or distance travelled on the climb because the tiny difference doesn't change much and is negligible) to give me the Tan of the angle of the slope. The Tan-1 worked out the angle of the slope to be very close to 6 degrees which I then divided by 45 degrees (which I thought was a 100% gradient, is 45% a 100% gradient? I don't know, but it doesn't work out correctly for me when I use this method and thats all that matters. I don't know why!), but now after a quick Google lesson I know that it is actually an average gradient of 10.5% (now I know that all you do is just divide the rise by the run and multiply by 100 to give you the percentage gradient). My calculations were confirmed when I inputted the data into this online calculator which returned the same results! Yipee

Now I am happy to have found a 10% climb to simulate the Tumble mountain, although first I will have to find out can you ride a bike up it and if so I will have to do it three times to reach the distance and elevation gain of the Tumble. Much better than the 4.8% average gradient I usually train on although it is twice as long!

Deleted User wrote: »

Aw you missed out on the 4th way up Ballyhoura,have you given it a go yet?

Whats the 4th way up? I've certainly not done it yet because I didn't even know it existed until know!!! Where is it?

Deleted User wrote: »

The most northern road going up to the Gallows hill crossroads,the one I was going on about being super steep!

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=52.721712,-8.747048&spn=0.007122,0.016544&z=16

It's probably nothing compared to "The Step" as it's only 1km long but it's the best climb you'll get close to Limerick.

Jeez, can't believe I missed it until now. I was just up there earlier today (well yesterday at this time! hehe ) and I actually set my new PB up this route. I was actually checking my polarpersonaltrainer diary there and my quickest time until now was 14min42sec (and not 14min02sec which I thought it was in the last post ). I don't mind because it means my 14min19sec is the best I've done yet! Yipee

I think it would be cool to find out other cyclists times up this climb (or just one specific climb in the area). It would show how you compare to others without actually holding a hillclimb championships and it would probably make you push yourself that bit further to get a better time. I think it would be a good idea anyway, even for the Silvermines climbs too. Let me know what ye think! Cheers (I must say this in the toughest climb in Ireland thread too to see what the response is like!)

MCOS wrote: »

Whats your time for the Step?!

I pushed the lap button on the Polar computer at the bottom alright and I actually pressed it at the top again but when I got home to check out the stats it appears that I didn't push it properly so I have nothing to show for it! All I know is I hit 190BPM on it, I'll have to do it again sometime soon and I'll let you know then! Cheers

Deleted User wrote: »

Yup,sounds like a good idea.At the moment I can think of 7 climbs we could do,the 3 different ways up Woodcock Hill you mentioned,the steep climb up Gallows Hill,The Step,Tountinna and Keeper Hill.What do you think? I've timed myself up a couple of these already,they're fairly slow but sure it'll give me a bit of motivation to improve.

Right job, so far I've only ever timed myself up that one way up woodcock hill but as a result of this I'll be timing myself up the rest of them too! Whats the difference between Woodcock and Gallows hill? I thought they were basically the same? I'm not sure where Tountinna is and whether or not it is possible to cycle all the way up Keeper hill on a road bike. But sure, the Step is another great one! Here it goes:

Please everyone feel free to post up any times ye have as it will give me and others likewise a bit of motivation to go out and see how we compare! Cheers