It climbs great! It is sold as a touring bike, so it already had low gears. I made them even lower by replacing the 30t small chainring with a 24t (16" low gear).

With the higher bars I don't descend as fast as I would on the road bike. I've only gone 44 mph downhill on this bike so far. I did the same descent on the road bike at 50 mph once, but I was pushing it because I had a camera on the handlebars recording video.