The Steepest Roads

[DavidFL]

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.

View attachment 154567View attachment 154568

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):

View attachment 154569

My updated steep roads list (with R6040 in bold)

View attachment 154570

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:

View attachment 154571

Awesome work. Well done.
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.

 

[Morningrider]

Here is the GPS track of the whole route from the junction near Route 1 (19.35699,99.76977) to the village (19.39669,99.69586), total 16 km: Route 6040 16 km.gpx

Over the 16 km the mean grade is about 8.6%, compared to about 10.2% for the 9 km climb to the summit. The concrete road along the ridgeline from the summit past the viewpoint to the village (in red) is not as steep as the climb to the summit (in blue) but the road narrows, with great views and unfenced sharp dropoffs along one side and few places to turn around. The viewpoint, at 1055m, is at 19.38204,99.70141, shown by the arrow:

 

[DavidFL]

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.

View attachment 154567View attachment 154568

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):

View attachment 154569

My updated steep roads list (with R6040 in bold)

View attachment 154570

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:

View attachment 154571

Awesome, I will try & take a look after Songkran.
Meanwhile working on a GTR Nan map I found my 2016 GPS track for R1097, Song Khwae - Chiang Klang.

"Apologies" for the more prominent copyright, but I recently found a stack of my images in a FB group, with the discreet bottom right copyright removed.

A couple of pics from a 2016 ride along R1097

@Morningrider I've sent you the GPS track in your messages.

 

[Morningrider]

I had a few tracks of the same road, so I plotted your track and a more recent one of mine for checking. According to your 2016 track, the average grade is 7.91%. According to my 2023 track, it's 7.89%, a very close match overall, about the same steepness and length as the Ban Rak Thai road. It slots in on the steep roads list in the bottom third, in bold:

 

[DavidFL]

Here's another interesting one. R1081 north from Bo Klua to Huay Kon / Chalermprakiet.

I don't recall it being as steep as that in 2008, so may need to return for another ride.
How does that compare to you track, Morningrider?

 

[Morningrider]

David, according to your 2008 track, 6.6% average grade. According to my 2023 track, 6.9%. Later tracks are usually more accurate because the GPS system improves over time, so I’ll add the later one to the table. You can see it in bold near the bottom of the list, a long, scenic ride that isn't flat anywhere but also isn't super steep anywhere.

 

[Oddvar]

About hal

Awesome, I will try & take a look after Songkran.
Meanwhile working on a GTR Nan map I found my 2016 GPS track for R1097, Song Khwae - Chiang Klang.
View attachment 154922
"Apologies" for the more prominent copyright, but I recently found a stack of my images in a FB group, with the discreet bottom right copyright removed.

A couple of pics from a 2016 ride along R1097
View attachment 154923

View attachment 154924

@Morningrider I've sent you the GPS track in your messages.

About halfway there is a road leading to a cool area with a small water fall and pool. Lots of people this time of the year.

 

[DavidFL]

About hal

About halfway there is a road leading to a cool area with a small water fall and pool. Lots of people this time of the year.

 

[Morningrider]

Here is one more for the list: the almost-empty 8 km back road from Route 3037 to the busy tourist route 5047, to Doi Chang. It is only moderately steep (slightly less steep, on average, than the Singapore Road) and none of it is extremely steep (unlike the Singapore Road), but it is difficult to move quickly and even more difficult to pass a truck because of the variable surface, constant curves, and limited visibility (for me, it was slower than the Singapore Road, but that may be because I was stuck behind a Hilux for quite a while). I inserted it on the list, in bold. It doesn't seem to have a number.

 

[Franz]

What a lovely road Morningrider, have been on it some weeks ago and couldn't find any roadnumber either. It connects 3037 and 5047, a typo in your post, not 3027

 

[DavidFL]

I need to GPS Doi Sang Ngo / Star Doi Coffee from the GT again.

 

[Morningrider]

One more added, in bold--the 2551 that joins the 1093 near Phu Chi Fah. Over all, it is not very steep but it has several very steep hills. Here, a forum member recently crashed into another touring bike that had crashed minutes before and was blocking the road:

 

[Dodraugen]

Clips from a very steep road in Thailand pops up on my Facebook-feed ever so often. The thai guys seem to crash there quite often (nothing too bad though)

Do you have any idea of where this is?

11K views · 29K reactions | มาดูรถจ่ายตลาดขึ้นเขาระเบิดกันบ้างครับ#เขาระเบิด | สมพงษ์ ศรีพัฒโนทัย

มาดูรถจ่ายตลาดขึ้นเขาระเบิดกันบ้างครับ#เขาระเบิด

www.facebook.com

23K views · 64K reactions | เช็คอินเรียบร้อย #เขาระเบิด | Eakkachai Krusri

เช็คอินเรียบร้อย #เขาระเบิด

www.facebook.com

 

[Morningrider]

It's on Koh Samui according to the photographer on his Facebook page. He doesn't say which road. Merging sequential frames in Photoshop show approximately a 50% grade (blue triangle), about as steep as it gets in Thailand:

Look at the twin tire tracks behind him. I wonder if that car (or truck) made it down safely. With this sort of traffic, I wouldn't attempt it on my bike.

 

[Moor66]

There is another mega steep one they call the parachute mountain road,in Chonburi somewhere??

 

[Morningrider]

Thailand's roads are world class. According to the Wikipedia entry, the steepest roads in the world are all under 45%, nearly all below 40%:

List of steepest roads and streets - Wikipedia

And some of those are very short. The devil with these comparisons is (1) deciding the minimum length of a road and (2) how you compare roads with varying gradients.

 

[Morningrider]

"It's on Koh Samui according to the photographer on his Facebook page." I think some context was lost in the Facebook translation, and my Koh Samui guess was wrong. The photographer did talk about taking photos on Koh Samui in his thread, but I now think Dodraugen's query road is the same as Moor66's "parachute mountain road in Chonburi." The clothing is also a better match—not many riders on Samui wear full face helmets.

The "parachute mountain road in Chonburi" is the access road to the Khao Ang Kaew Viewpoint at 13.16246,101.41687, at about 270 m elevation. It is partly visible in the satellite view but the road is not included in Google Maps nor in Open Street Maps.

Watch these two short clips and see if you agree this is the same road:

Khao Ang Kaew viewpoint · 5C68+WPX, Bo Thong, Bo Thong District, Chon Buri 20270, Thailand



Photos of the viewpoint and road from Google Maps:

Khao Ang Kaew Viewpoint

In the Google Map photos you see pickup trucks at the viewpoint, some of them carrying paragliders and their equipment. That road in many places isn't wide enough to pass a truck, and in many of the same places the road too steep for a motorcycle to stop, especially going up. A significant risk on this road is encountering traffic blocking the road, and losing momentum.

And the best photo of all:

 

[Dodraugen]

I have investigated a bit more myself. All those videoclips were tagged with «เขาระเบิด“ aka «Kao Raboed»
And if one google Kao Raboed one ends up in Chonburi.

Khao Raboet · 3.5★(57) · Mountain peak

Hang Sung, Nong Yai District, Chon Buri 20190, Thailand

maps.app.goo.gl

And the photos and videoclips tells me thats the same road as in the videoclips I posted above….