Thanks! It's so much more fun to ride than my commuter, I've ended leaving my commuter on the hook and riding it instead.

My commute takes me over the Tilikum crossing in Portland. On my regular commuter I have to downshift and stand up to pedal, whereas with this bike I can stay in my gear, stay seated and just muscle up the incline and feels great. That's why I started this thread -- I want to try to get to the bottom of it. It handles really nicely too, despite seeming to have very similar front end geometry to my commuter. The bars are wider so that could make some of the difference.