>>172814790sMTBslicks. Low gearing options will let you take it on mild mountain trails so you can have fun while learning bike control before you get to the wild stuff that full suspension helps with. But I highly recommend taking it on longer road rides as well, to build your cardio and muscles. Even if you do eventually move up to a more serious MTB, always nice to have an old rigid in the stable.
>>1728162Rider fitness, watts over time, is everything for hill climb if you're talking distance. In the sense of just a short hundred meter punch, for average healthy rider, 15-18% is pretty doable 1:1 on 700c.
Knees exploding is from sitting down and grinding out high stress pedal strokes at low cadence. Which is why spinning up hills is the way, stresses the lungs and heart instead of the joints.
>>1728186Buy better calipers that don't flex like hell so you can just do like
>>1728195 says. But I'm the same way with trueing wheels, I'll chase a 0.2mm wobble for an hour on a shitter rim just because I find it comfy.
