Steep Hills

[rawdinsroost2]

I ride a rear suspension Cruzbike conversion. I will be moving soon and the new neighborhood has much steeper hills. The gearing is not an issue. Traction is. I have had some problems with steep inclines causing front wheel spinouts. I think the new neighborhood may present some problems. I am running 100PSI road tires. I could swap them out for something with a lower PSI and aggressive traction like off road tires but will that fix my problem and is the performance trade off when not hill climbing worth it? How are other Cruzbike riders getting around traction issues?

 

[Mark B]

First of all, I would suggest reducing tire pressure on the front. Secondly, I would tell you that technique is everything. Are you clipped in? Are you spinning, or mashing? A smooth spin will work wonders for you.

Interesting, because I ride a Silvio and have had slippage issues, but have my biggest problems at 17-20% and I think that’s mostly because I start mashing over 15% as I don’t have a low enough gear to keep me spinning. On my conversion, I had a stupid low gear and had no trouble spinning with no tire slippage on my 1.25” width tires at 100 psi.

I hope this helps.

Mark