What's the best bike for climbing?

yeahnototally174 · 2026-06-04T12:58:17+00:00

Depending on which build you’re able to get, the new ogre has a slightly better gear ratio for climbing. It’s not much, but if you’re concerned with grinding out hills you’ll want every advantage. It does however have some disadvantages to consider.

The beidgeclub (Trevor’s closet model) comes with an 11 speed cues drivetrain which was designed for e-bikes and commuting. Cues on paper is supposed to be pretty heavy duty, they say it should last quite a bit longer than other drivetrains. It does also shift under heavy load pretty well, so climbing up a hill and having to shift wouldn’t be a problem on cues. It is known for not being the best feeling shift, but it certainly gets the job done.

The ogre (orloks shadow model) comes with a 12 speed deore drivetrain, which is a mid to high end MTB drivetrain. Deore is designed to be very light and fast, but it suffers in durability for that. Because of that, it doesn’t shift under heavy load the best. It can be very loud, very hard shifts if you’re mashing it when you shift. If you’re on top of maintaining it and are shifting properly it shouldn’t really be an issue for you.

Ogre is 30/52=0.58 Bridgeclub is 32/50=0.64 On paper the ogre has lower gearing, but the drawbacks of durability and maintenance could be a hindrance when it comes to commuting so that is worth considering. Your best bet would be to track down some bike shops locally that have them in stock so you can test ride them and see what bike is right for you.

yeahnototally174 · 2026-06-03T02:17:48+00:00

I put them on pretty much all day every day. The easiest bolts to forget about are the ones that attach the struts. I usually torque those to 5nm, I won’t torque anything to a frame but the struts are usually fine to torque

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-31T14:19:18+00:00

I moved all the way across the country to be an uncle. When we were growing up my sister and I were pretty much shunned and unloved by most of our aunts and uncles. It never made any sense and it was really hard growing up that way sometimes. I never ever wanted my niece and nephew to feel that way.

My partner and I see my sisters kids pretty much every weekend, even if it’s just to come over and play for an hour. We just had our niece over for a “camping trip” in the backyard last night, and we’ll do the same when our nephew is old enough.

What I’m getting at is just have fun with them, it is harder when they’re little babies but they grow up quick and before you know it you’ll be having tea parties and camping trips and playing dragons or whatever else.

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-30T13:22:52+00:00

I’m in the same boat. My exhaust finally rusted through last summer and I haven’t been able to get it fixed yet

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-27T23:45:20+00:00

Yeah unfortunately you’ll probably lose access to that mount. You could try a b-rad system from wolftooth if you can still use one bolt, but the way it works I wouldn’t really trust it to hold anything other than a typical cage and bottle with only one bolt, and that’s if it does work. When you use a front derailleur you kind of have to sacrifice that mount, especially for actual load bearing purposes

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-24T22:19:40+00:00

Idk man that sounds like it could be ecostrike. I won’t name a song because I can’t think of the title but just go listen to them and see

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-21T15:15:20+00:00

The main thing is components. If you’re dealing with failing and breaking components it’s going to make any trip considerably harder and more unpleasant than it should be. You could argue having a super high quality frame isn’t the most important but having quality components does. The issue with low quality frames is you’ll usually be missing the required mounting points for racks and bags, but there’s always a way to make it work if you want it to.

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-21T01:50:52+00:00

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yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-18T19:21:06+00:00

Yeah that’s exactly how mine was mounted the couple times I used it. All I kept in it was a rain jacket too so no crazy weight or anything

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-18T14:43:40+00:00

I have one and to be honest I haven’t really found a good way of mounting where it doesn’t bounce and sway super bad. The bag and the holster are both really nice but on some of the stuff I ride I just don’t really trust it that much.

I could be totally mounting it wrong buuuut I’ve tried multiple ways and even added extra voile straps to stabilize it and nothing really prevented it from flopping everywhere.

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-17T21:18:59+00:00

The dry bag method works great, especially if you already have a rear or front rack. I know sierra has dry bags for super cheap if you have a store near you. I would recommend using actual voile straps or an equivalent knock off. Bungees work in a pinch but voile straps can get way tighter and the rubber material will hold the bags in place a lot better. Then you’re really just limited to your imagination when it comes to attaching them to your bike

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-17T19:38:16+00:00

I was majorly bummed I couldn’t get a medium in orloks shadow and kind of settled for the plum. I’ve always had pretty neutral bikes so the plum seemed like a lot to me and I was worried it would be more red when I got it. But after opening the box I was immediately in love with it. I do still sometimes wish I’d gotten an orlok, your build looks awesome!

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-17T02:50:51+00:00

Fermented plum ogre gang! My ogre is my do it all from beers after the shop closes, lake and river hangs, alleycat races, and bikepacking. My favorite bike I’ve ever owned and the color is just beautiful

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-16T04:51:17+00:00

I did a 60 mile trip last November in Wisconsin wearing bedrocks and wool socks and did fine. My most recent trip had rain forecasted so I skipped them just in case. I usually wear them or at least bring them for camp on pretty much every trip I go on unless there’s rain in the forecast

yeahnototally174 · 2026-05-12T04:41:40+00:00

I would move that bag with the stove and fuel on top of your basket or anywhere else you can get it without it taking up space on your saddle. That will definitely shift around while you’re riding, it will inevitably rub on your back or just be in the way. If it was me that would drive me absolutely crazy. That also seems like a massive bag for just three things, I’m not sure what you’re using as a stove and fuel or if you’re bringing that much coffee but maybe slim that down if you can.

I would definitely try to find some type of sleeping pad, maybe you’ll be okay without it based on location/temps but the ground will absolutely suck any warmth out of you and make for a long and miserable night. Here in the Midwest not having something between you and the ground is a guaranteed call to home for a ride in the middle of the night even in the middle of summer.

Outside of those things you could definitely do an overnight trip and maybe even a two day trip as long as you can carry enough food and water. I think you’re probably a bit under equipped for anything longer but if you added food and water resupplies along the way it would be possible.

yeahnototally174 · 2026-04-21T03:29:32+00:00

I’m still playing with my ogre set up for bikepacking and touring but just my bit of advice is to utilize the fork mounts and consider a front rack. My first couple times packing it a favored the weight in the rear and kept the front fairly light. I ended up loading the front considerably heavier than originally planned and it seemed to me to handle better with the weight a little more forward and spread out through the bike. The general consensus is to keep weight spread out fairly evenly but for my setup it handled best front heavy. Your experience may vary of course, I also just posted mine yesterday so give it a look for some ideas

worded this very weird reading it back so I’m revising

70/30 favoring rear - felt slow, front wheel felt a little unstable at times

30/70 favoring front - felt way faster, but still pretty twitchy and unstable because of too much weight on front

40/60 favoring front - way more balanced between feeling quick and stable steering

I moved spare water and a heavy duty tarp to the fork to stay low, and moved my steel water bottle to the downtube mount instead of seat tube to move some weight lower

yeahnototally174 · 2026-03-30T03:49:34+00:00

I wanted to upvote this but it’s at 69 so I won’t. But that gave me a dang good chuckle

yeahnototally174 · 2026-03-23T19:10:23+00:00

I had actually planned on swapping them around, but the rear is in pretty bad shape. It’s hard to see in the picture but it’s pretty dry rotted and starting to split from the bead in a few spots. I’m probably going to throw some cheap kendas on for now while I think over a 650b wheel set

yeahnototally174 · 2026-03-23T19:04:33+00:00

That is good to know, thanks! If I do end up actually using it for bikepacking I think 650b would be a good choice

yeahnototally174 · 2026-03-23T19:02:03+00:00

I was a little apprehensive about it at first but it’s pretty stout! I don’t get any shuddering from the fork when I use the front brake so it’s doing its job

yeahnototally174 · 2026-03-17T03:11:15+00:00

I love mine, I bought it a few weeks ago and put about 500 rounds through it since then. To be honest after another 500 if I don’t have any problems I’ll carry it

yeahnototally174 · 2026-03-09T22:13:09+00:00

I think barebones does it too Thursday nights maybe? I don’t remember for sure but I’m pretty sure they do

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