This is an interesting thread. When going up Really Steep Uphills (the kind that call for a 20" or lower gear) the terrain must play into all this discussion of weight transfer, bike geometry, etc, no? Conversely, if one went down the same hill, now the point of front tire contact has moved forward a long way. Altogether complicated. But interesting.
dougP On Saturday, April 26, 2014 7:04:56 PM UTC-7, Nils Eng wrote: > Anne, > Don't despair! This is EXACTLY the experience I had on my Krampus, but > now it's sorted and he'd climb a telephone pole if I had the legs. I think > it's the front end-- it's really slack-- and the way there is mucho weight > on the back wheel. While the "All-Mountain" geometry IS great for going > down hills, it has the drawback of a "wander-y" front-end going uphill. > Long story short-- I got a longer stem, flipped it (downward), and dropped > it down until I got the balance of downhill and uphill handling > characteristics I wanted. I also moved my saddle forward a bit. The basic > idea was to move weight forward and down w/o losing too much downhill > awesomeness. My stem was stock 70 mm and I'm now riding a 100. I kept the > same degree of rise as the original (7 degrees?) and then moved the stem > down a spacer at a time until I liked it. I also read somewhere that Grant > thought that longer chain stays helped w/ climbing, so I moved the wheel > back in the dropout, but I moved it back because I like the way it turns > better with shorter stays. Anyway, I think with a little tweaking you can > get it to feel the way you like. All the best, > Nils > > On Friday, April 25, 2014 9:27:22 PM UTC-6, Anne Paulson wrote: >> >> >> I'm a big fan of low, low gears. I have them on both my Atlantises; my >> Roadeo has pretty low gears too considering I never carry much on it. >> People always say to me, "I don't want lower gears because then I couldn't >> balance." I never understood that. I don't have a bit of problem riding at >> 2.5 mph for long periods of time when I'm climbing something ridiculously >> steep on one of my Rivendell bikes. >> >> But now I understand. I thought when I bought my new Surly Krampus >> mountain bike I'd be able to climb even steeper dirt roads than I now can >> climb on my Atlanti. I thought, I have an absurdly low gear on the Krampus >> (15.6 inches, something like that), I have all the traction in the world, I >> can climb anything. >> >> But no. I'm finding that I climb *worse* on the Krampus. It's >> frustrating. There are dirt sections that I have no trouble on with the >> Atlantis, with smooth tires, that I can't climb on the Krampus with the >> knobbies. >> >> What's going on here? Front-end geometry? Wheel weight? Bottom bracket >> height? I'm beginning to think I should have bought the Surly ECR (like >> several people recommended) instead of the Krampus. Or maybe I just need to >> learn how to climb on this new bike. >> >> On the other hand, when I bought the bike I also thought I'd be able to >> go down steep trails that I'm afraid to descend on the Atlantis, and that >> has proved to be true. My husband took one look at my new bike and said, >> Wow, you have better traction on that than you have on foot. When I apply >> the brakes on a steep downhill, the bike *slows down* instead of skidding. >> >> -- >> -- Anne Paulson >> >> It isn't a contest. Enjoy the ride. >> >> >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
