Can't climb out of the saddle

Unknown

Hi,

I've been commuting for 2 weeks now and it's going pretty well, apart from to55er in a golf last night pipe in one hand using 'hands free' in the middle of the acr with his other!!!

Anyway I digress.. I have a large hill to climb on the way home. I can climb it ok seated, but when I try to get out of the saddle to go a bit quicker I find I can't do this for more than a few peddle strokes. What do I need to stregthen to allow me to do this, example exercises would be helpful too.



cheers,

Rich (A commuter at last)

rustychisel

It may be counterintuitive at first, but try shifting UP a couple of gears (harder) then get out of the saddle. Reason: more power produced by standing means you'll 'spin out' if you just try jumping out of the saddle. And keep cycling; it's largely an endurance sport and therefore takes time to build the strength and stamina.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I'm only escaping to here because the office is having a conniption

Jacomus-rides-Gen

Yeah, there really isn't much to add. If you've got a fairly normal cassette going up 2 gears from what you would climb it in seated should do the trick, but fine tune it obviously.

There is a different balance point when you are standing, bending forwards a bit tends to help your legs, standing up straight won't be good at all.

Finally, when standing, try to imagine you are on a cross-trainer type thing in the gym, keep your body and bike nice and stable so that you don't waste energy swaying around. I allways think of it like running in water on the bike.

Good luck.



_________________________
<i>Quote: "25mph is pretty fast when you aren't wearing a car..."</i>

PhilofCas

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Rykard</i>

Hi,

I've been commuting for 2 weeks now and it's going pretty well, apart from to55er in a golf last night pipe in one hand using 'hands free' in the middle of the acr with his other!!!

Anyway I digress.. I have a large hill to climb on the way home. I can climb it ok seated, but when I try to get out of the saddle to go a bit quicker I find I can't do this for more than a few peddle strokes. <u><font color="red">What do I need to stregthen to allow me to do this, example exercises would be helpful too.</font id="red"></u>



cheers,

Rich (A commuter at last)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Unfortunately, as painful as it may be, just try every ride to do a bit of standing up on hills, it brings different muscles into play and you use arms/upper body more, just keep practicising and you'll get better, agree on the 'drop it down' gear quote too.

Happy climbing ![:D]

monty_dogcp

Although you can use higher gears whe climbing out the saddle, suggest you start in lower gears to get your muscles used to the action. Keep you hands on the brake hoods too - climbing from the drops needs very strong core body muscles. Find a rhythm and learn to keep to it - adjust the gears to maintain a constant 'load'