As far as hillclimbing, I was on my old 02 TBlazer 250 and my Cousin was on his Uncles TBosss 325 and I walked right on by him on a steep, sandy hill.......both of us just laughing our a$$es off at slow we were going at full throttle. And we both weigh around 250, and the machines were all stock with hardly worn 489's (stock) tires.....So the 2-stroke has a slight edge on steep terrain....