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I am of the opinion that this bike's suitability for climbing is not affect by where the rear wheel is in the dropout. I think that because many "snappy" race bikes that have short chainstays climb well because thay are very light and have light wheels and tires. I think some of us have extrapolated that into "shorter chainstays climb better". Also, when all else is equal, a bike with short chainstays is more likely to weave with every hard pedal stroke which can make me feel like I'm going faster. FWIW, I climb steep hills offroad a bit better on my longer wheelbase bike than on my short one because it's easier to keep the front wheel on the ground but this is never a factor on my road riding. I have bikes with chainstays from 40 to 45.5 cms. and 3 of them have long horizontal dropouts. I have done quite a bit of experimenting on them in regard to wheel positioning and I can't detect any difference in climbing on pavement.
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