Climbing

AndyChud

I am relatively new to road cycling, about 9 months, and I was just wondering when it is best to stand up to climb out-of-saddle. What sort of length/gradient climbs require the out-of-saddle approach?

Your advice is appreciated,
Thanks, Andy

redddraggon

What ever you are comfortable with

dennisn

All depends on your fittness and ability level. On short hills you may be able to stand
and pedal from bottom to top. Once the hills start getting bigger than just bumps in the
road you will discover that you can't really ride out of the saddle for any great length of time. Your back will tell you when it's time to sit down and it won't take that long. I'm
sure someone will log on and tell us how he/she can ride from sea level to the top of
Everest without a saddle but lets be reasonable. Big mountain climbing(Alps) is mostly
done in the saddle with the exception of people trying to gap off the front, catch someone, or trying to get up a steeper section of road. Standing all the way, well, you'll
find out about that really quickly.

Dennis Noward

guinea

You just have to go with what's comfortable. I need both styles.

Recently on Alpe d'Huez and Ventoux I started off out of the saddle to get warmed up and sat down when I tightened up. After a while it hurts sitting down so I stand up on the pedals again. I then swapped between both until the summit. The only exception was the very steep parts where I simply had to stand.

To be honest, when you switch styles it feels like a rest for a few minutes.

Not Another Hill

Having come from MTB, I prefer to sit when climbing and spin lower gears unless its a short hill which can be powered up and over out of the saddle relatvely quickly. My legs prefer the former to latter method especially over long rides. On very steep hills I will stand when all else fails

Doobz

I find I climb in 3 different ways.

First is the sitting right back on my saddle and holding the top of my bars spinning a easy gear till I find I need some extra momentum and usually do a bit of method number 3 and then back to number 1 again..

Second is the usual standing up and powering up the hill in a middle gear.

My fav is the bobbing and climbing though, It really doesn't take as much effort as the first two as your kinda using your body's weight rather then muscle exertion.

Eat My Dust

I find that if I come out of the saddle it's best to shift into a higher gear and then change back down to the lower gear when I sit back down. I find that if I don't do this when I sit back down and try to spin it always feel harder even though it's the same gear (if that makes sense)

Mark Appleton

A bit technical but still some useful tips here:
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/fitness/article/technique-if-climbing-is-your-weakest-link-16182

AndyChud

Okay guys, thanks very much, was helpful. Some of you spoke about Apls and Alp d'Huez, but i really just mean little mole-hills in comparison! I live in the Netherlands and so there is only really on hill-like feature within a reasonable distance. This hill has two routes, one wide enough to be used by cars and is relatively steep but I can take it in a middle gear (I can chose between standing or sitting here depending on how I'm feeling). The other route is only just wide enough for bikes when you inclide all the plants and stinging nettles that overflow, I have to take this in a very low gear and my legs are really burning at the end (I always stand up for this one).

Thanks again for all the advice

Mettan

On short-shallow "climbs" I tend to power up, with a sort of 4/5-seated/1/5 standing position - for long climbs, I'm in the saddle and for steep I tend to start off seated then stand when the mood takes. All depends on length and gradient though.

nolf

For the biggest hill near me in Cardiff (Caerphilly mountain from Tongywnlais side) it has a constantly changing gradient but is usually between 5% and 12%.

I tend to stay seated for the majority of it, but when it gets a bit steeper for parts I'll go out of the saddle and try to keep my power output/effort level the same all the way up.

So I may slow down or speed up but I try to stay constant in terms of effort, or if anything taking the last 300m harder as it flattens out.

With climbing you should aim to finish at the same effort level as you start to avoid "blowing" half way up the climb.