Quote Originally Posted by lph View Post
when you say you felt the bike was about to tip over, was that sideways, because you were moving slowly, or backwards, because the hill is so steep?

15 % is steep. I ride stuff like this by gearing all the way down, standing and moving my weight way forward until I'm standing on one leg at a time, with hips directly above and weighting straight down on the pedal. I just use my hands to guide the front wheel and to pull a little when starting a new pedal stroke. I may end up practically bumping the bars, but the falling over backwards feeling goes away. If I ride over loose gravel I can sometimes feel my rear wheel slipping a little, I have so much weight on the front. I can still fall over sideways if I can't keep up enough speed :-) but I don't unclip until I'm actually standing still. For me it's a balance thing.
I felt like it was about to tip over sideways because I was moving so slowly. I do feel like I tend to sort of keep my hips back when I do standing climbs, if that makes any sense -- like I'm still sort of keeping my weight back. Maybe moving my hips forward would help me bring more power with each step down.

For those who mentioned zig zagging, I probably could try that. The road isn't dead quiet but its reasonably quiet.

I really am starting to think I want some more generous gearing, though!