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You do want to be almost lying on the bars at times on technical climbs. When it gets steep slide forwards on the saddle, roll your wrists down below the bars and lean forwards. It’s not comfortable, but the steepest bits aren’t generally that long...
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Firstly as a caveat, I don't necessarily disagree that this trail, whatever it is, isn't physically doable by a half decent XC rider.
However. It's a mathematical truth that there are friction/steepness combos that you cannot ride up and no amount of skill will overcome that. To take it to an extreme you can't ride up a vertical wall, because it is physically impossible to redirect your weight (as a vector force) into the wall, which means there cannot be any friction. The looser/slippier the ground, the shitter your tyres, the less you weigh*, etc., the lower the maximum slope angle you can ride up, because of the dependence on the normal force. In addition, when friction is maximised on the back wheel the whole system weight (including bike) is balanced over the back wheel and that means your front wheel is going to come up when you put torque through.
You can do some stuff like pushing down on the bars, lower pressure, more aggressive tyres, smooth pedalling, carrying momentum in, etc. but only so much is possible.
* The fatter you are the more traction you have all else being equal. So maybe the mistake was not eating enough cake and buying a fancy light bike.
Actually it'd be pretty cool to see if riding up with a rucksack and cages full of water makes enough of a difference to get up a really steep slope.
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For a little clarity- I rode up 2 of the 3, I’m not saying it’s impossible but that it’s tricky.
It’s the exact same problem I had when I rode up Zoncolan- where, it being 8km, I did end up lying over the handlebars. But that was so steep I’d never make changes to the bike or my position to deal with it, whereas I had the same thing three times in one section of SDW.
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There's always been a tradeoff between climbing and descending capability.
If you're that upset by the bike design then you need a 100mm World Cup spec XC bike.
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I’m not upset about it, I was trying to establish if this was a known behaviour- which even Scrabble is confirming as one needs a specific technique to manage the problem. I still like the bike, and whilst I wish it didn’t wheelie in climbs I’ll work on my technique for managing it.
None of that means I wish it didn’t do it/need such management.
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I wish it didn’t do it/need such management.
Fair... Welcome to mountain biking (aka the eternal quest for something that does not exist.)
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Better outfits but otherwise...
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Fit a 26" front wheel
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Fit a 24" front wheel
Introducing the 2020 Specialized Hit Big.
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If you're that upset by the bike design then you need a 100mm World Cup spec XC bike.
Heh. That's pretty much what the bike is if you ignore the extra 20mm of travel provided by the Fox 34.
Like a stuck record - this is mostly about stack height. The bike is probably a better climber than anything slack and long. Dropping the bars will go most of the way to get as close to an optimal climbing position available, but like you say, this affects descending a bit. It's about a balance. For marathon rides I'd probably do it though, then raise it again when I knew I was going to more aggressive traily stuff.
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This is where I really used to like the ETA & ECC lock down ( as opposed to lock out ) functions on old Marzocchi forks. Lowering the front end at the flick of a switch certainly helped on really steep climbs
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It's been said before. Climbing's all about technique; where you need to overcome the geometry of the bike, mostly the height of the front end which is optimalized for descents (otherwise, suspension is negligible).
Ass as far back as possible, while lying down on bars, to keep traction on the back whilst not wheeling. For tehcnical uphill sections, you also need to be in a relatively high gear so that you're able to pedal over the the rocks even in case of slippage. More aggresive tyres help with traction, though there's the weight right?
Imo there ain't anything more energy-consuming than technical climbs -
medium, obvs. The 1s are out of stock in anything but small.
Hardly a thing of beauty though is it, unlike the Spark...
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Dammit’s adventures in mountain biking
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@Dammit
Yes, but not for the bike wheelies on very steep climbs thing, I suspect that's simply a case of the frame design putting the weight in the "wrong" place.
I'll try moving the bars down a little, but I think TvH nailed it in his post (with pictures), and that the climbing issue is just an "they all do that sir".