Unanswered Geo questions about keeping weight on the front wheel

[Gyre]

There's a particular steep and scrabbly trail I like to ride on my eMTB. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try it out on my 2017 Evil Wreckoning. It wasn't as bad of an experience as I feared: I had to stop now and then to catch my breath, and it was a lot harder to maintain momentum over rough and loose patches, but on the other hand it was a lot easier to handle it delicately around cliff edges.

One problem that I've had with the Wrecker consistently over the past year is that it's particularly hard to keep the front wheel from getting too light and unstable up steep climbs. I had to switch from a 35mm to a 50mm stem, get my chest as low as possible, lower the saddle part way (the actual seat tube angle is extremely slack, so full extension makes the effective angle very slack as well) and shift my weight to the nose of the saddle. It's unpleasant riding like that and even then I can feel that the front has very little stability. This hasn't been an issue in earlier years that because I just didn't ride up anything quite so steep.

I'm not keen on taking the stem further out than 50mm, so I feel I'm pretty constrained there. The stem has a ~5mm spacer between it and the headset, so I'll take that out and try to slam the stem onto the headset. I can scoot the saddle forward about a cm, so I'll definitely try that and see how much it changes things.

This isn't an issue at all on my Size L Orbea Wild (which runs a bit small for an L). Even with all the torque of the motor, the bike is substantially longer and has a ton of front weight bias thanks to the battery (too much really, but that's a different matter).

At 174cm I'm right in the middle of Medium sizing guide, so as far as Evil is concerned, I'm sized spot on. I don't think the original Wreckoning really bought into the longer/lower/slacker trend compared to what's out there now, so there is that.

When I get my next acoustic enduro bike, what geometry figures are going to make the biggest difference to making it easier to keep the front wheel weighted?

I assume seat tube angle will make the largest difference, followed by reach/stack ratio, followed by ETT, but I'd like to hear thoughts from folks who have experience with different geometries and steep uphill riding to check my thinking for errors or omissions.

Thanks!

 

[Gary]

bend your arms and lower your chest towards the stem.
also that slacker seat tube angle means you do actually have to weight the nose of the saddle on steeper climbs.
just like your hands your barse does toughen up eventually.

 

[Gary]

Oh... and also... if you need to pull on the bars to increae your torque through the cranks. pull back and downwards not up (wrists down)

 

[Gyre]

Thanks Gary, I think my riding position was about as low and forward as I reasonably could get it, but I'll make a deliberate effort to try to press lower and more forward and be more conscientious about how I'm pulling on the bars.

A freak lightning storm cut yesterday's ride short so I'll give it another go soon.

 

[Mikerb]

I increased the fork travel and fitted an additional spacer under the stem ( new fork so I could cut the steerer longer) on one of my bikes. The net result was an improvement downhill but for steep climbs it made the front end harder to keep down. On that bike I climb steep inclines out off the saddle, ( saddle fully slammed anyway) and keep low ( bent legs) with my chest low and head over the bars, arms bent. The main concern then is no longer the front end getting light, or me pulling on the bars, but losing traction on the back wheel. That is mostly avoided by keeping a high and smooth cadence but if necessary I can straighten my arms a little to get a little more body weight over the back wheel. Whether any of that works for you I dont know but that how I do it and it works for me on that bike.