Originally Posted by
Scarbo
If I may, I'd like to add a question: how do you keep the front end of the bike from floating up on steep climbs? I'm very fit and climbs in and of themselves are not an issue for me; but the technique on a MTB certainly is! It seems that no matter how much I try to move forward to weight the front end I can't seem to keep it from rising up.
I find this too, it's frustrating because for the steepest climbs I want to stand up, which would give me more power and move weight forward, but it usually ends up de-weighting the rear wheel and I spin out.
I like gsa's suggestion of open palms on the handlebar to make sure you're not pulling up, and 'chewing your stem'. I'll be experimenting with those.
Also I would say make sure your seat is high. Lacking a dropper post to this point, we sometimes stop and adjust our seat height -- low for descending (see Bikernator's advice about getting low), full-height for climbing