Originally Posted by
cubewheels
According to GCN. It's better to stand up at high power on short steep climbs and I agree with them. Note, you can also output high amount of power while sitted on the pedal while on higher gears.
But for long hills over 1 km, you really need to pace yourself.
Good points. I’m back to riding single speed, so for hills that feels like a higher gear.
I’d agree that seated climbing in a relatively high gear works with a very high power output, up to the point of lifting myself out of the saddle and at that output, I’m climbing faster than I would be if I were standing up.
Standing up, OTOH, helps deal with steeper grades and also allows more flexibility on cadence and can be slower when churning up a grade in a relatively high gear.
It also has the advantage of affording some time out of the saddle which helps with overall ride comfort.
Otto