Couple of suggestions from a mountain biker's perspective. Try a higher gear--click up just one. It sounds counter-intuitive, but the momentum of the big, heavy wheels and tires will actually roll you along better. Also, try moving your hands inward on the bars for stability. (assuming you have wide flat mtb-ish bars on there...)
On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 5:41 PM, Anne Paulson <anne.paul...@gmail.com>wrote: > Just to clarify: this new bike is a ton of fun, and I'm liking it. I love > the Rohloff hub, I love the way the 3" tires stick to everything and roll > over anything, I love the way I can go downhill with confidence on trails I > wouldn't dream of descending on my Atlantis. It's just that I need to work > on the climbing. > > > On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 8:27 PM, Anne Paulson <anne.paul...@gmail.com>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. >> >> >> > > > > -- > -- 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. > -- 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.
