Will these bikes go up hill as well as down?
... any bike will go uphill...
yes but some go uphill better than others!
yes yes and yes.
its no xc machine but pedals well enough. it feels slightly slower than my 456 was.
Yes, they climb much better than you would initially expect after seeing how slack the head looks. The seat angle is steep enough to compensate and you end up in a fairly neutral riding position with the seat fully extended, which makes climbing dead easy. My Blue Pig X is running 36's (with a zero stack HS), 50mm stem and low rise bars and I've yet to experience any front end lift, even on really steep climbs.
Never had a problem climbing with mine, I fitted pikes with u-turn but only ever used it once just to see what it was like, found it too much faff
It climbs really well, but without any sense of urgency - it's a bit like someone on holiday heading for the pub. Because the seat tube angle is steep, there's loads of weight on the front end and it won't lift even on quite brutal ground, but typically, given that they build to around 30lb or so with appropriate bits on, there's a fair bit of yawning and muttering.
Uphill trundler, keeps steam-rollering on as a long as you can turn the pedals, very accurate and great on tech stuff, but no urgency.
So, no, you won't be pushing it if you can still turn the pedals, but you won't be half-wheeling skinny race whippets either.
Aside from that, I don't think it has any chainsuck issues which is nice.
I rode Yetiman's (above *wave*) and loved it. Despite his Piggy X coming in at 30# with 36 Van forks I though it rode really well and I was able to do techy climbs and fun descents on it with very little time required to get used to it... I liked it so much I bought myself a Ragley 🙂
I wanted a 31.6mm seatpost for my Reverb so I went for an Mmmbop which I have built up a fair bit lighter with 150mm Revs... it pops in at 26#. So a piggy could be built to about 27#, and the geomety can certainly climb so it will all be down to the rider.