Quote Originally Posted by lacyliz View Post
My questions is this- I am not a very strong climber - I dread steep hills (I live on a steep hill-live in the Catskills) - I get up a moderately steep hill very slowly (maybe 6-7mph) and I can feel it in my back.
When I climb very STEEP hills I sometimes only go 3-4 mph, so 6-7mph seems like nothing to be ashamed of to me! If you have not ridden very many miles a week you may well feel the climbing in your back and legs until you build up stronger muscles. It took me 6 months of riding 40-100 miles per week to not get too sore anymore after hilly 2 hour rides.
We have some REALLY steep hills here. We put a front triple 24/36/46 and a cassette of 13-34 on my 29 lb.steel road bike. Works pretty well.

By the way, I lived in NewPaltz many years ago (owned an ice cream parlor there briefly in a former life), and then my younger daughter went to SUNY NP, so I visited there a lot too up until a couple years ago. (Now she's getting her masters in UMASS Dartmouth.) Are you in school there?