I can't ride a rode bike due to back surgery, so I started looking into recumbents. I haven't purchased one yet, but Lightning makes a nice once that is supposed to be as fast as a regular road bike. The price is in the neighborhood of $1500 which compared to even traditional road bikes isn't too bad. I saw one going up a hill a couple of days ago and it is pretty amazing... it can climb as well as any road bike I've seen. If you are riding that well on a mountain bike and don't want to give up your comfort, you might test ride one. You might find that it has the combo you are looking for. There's another member who posted about her lightning in my thread about recumbents. I'm hoping to get one for my birthday in August .

Chris