Awesome work. Well done.I gave Mike a shout, he shouted back, and we met in Phayao for a ride up the 6040. He led his friend Roger and me to the start of the route and pointed the way at critical turns. The steepest section of the road starts as two lanes of asphalt at 500m and ends up as one lane of concrete soon after it passes the summit, at 1100m. It continues to a village where coffee beans are laid out to dry in the sun and enjoy a wonderful view—and big bikes are advised to turn around where they still can.
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According to the GPS track, the steepest 9 km of the 6040 is tied with the 12 km long Singapore Road and with the steepest 12 km of the 3054, all with a mean grade of 10%. Yet the 6040 is hardly known outside the local area. A summary (the area of the pink blobs on the map shows the grade of that section divided by the speed, indicating the riding intensity):
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My updated steep roads list (with R6040 in bold)
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Also according to my GPS track, the curve at 19.36547,99.70733 has an 8m elevation gain over 18m (three segments between four trackpoints), which amounts to a whopping 45% grade. I scanned my 77,000 km of GPS trackpoints and could not find a steeper four-trackpoint hill. An 8m gain measured by GPS really means 8m +/- 1m, since the GPS rounds off to the nearest meter, so that curve is probably between a 40% and 50% grade. GPS measurements are not accurate over short distances. But there is no doubt that the whole route to the village at the top is good fun. Here are screenshots of the steepest curve from my traffic-cam:
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I'm in Luang Prabang at the moment and really must check it out.
Many thanks Mike for the tip off and Morningrider for the work and contribution. Excellent work.