Originally Posted by
ofajen
I’ve been riding only SS for well over a year. I stand a lot: climbing, accelerating from slow speed and managing difficult terrain. You are correct, there is an efficiency cost to standing because your muscles must support your full body weight somewhere.
I’ve optimized my handlebar configuration to balance sitting and standing positions. That’s why I’m using touring bars with a 150mm stem and a carefully tested bar height that balances the needs of standing and seated riding.
Riding SS, one actually stands to take it easy and protect your knees, since pedaling seated up a hill in a relatively high gear requires high pedal force and stresses your knees,. On some routes I have nearly half mile climbs that I will do standing. This summer I did a couple of rides essentially without sitting. It is strenuous on your feet.
To some degree, it is what you are used to and what you set up your bike for.
Otto
I really enjoy the different workouts I get with my SS vs my geared gravel bikes. On my geared rig I mostly sit and spin, while the SS I view as a more "all body" workout---I have flat bars on it for leverage when muscling up climbs (drop bars on the geared bike). It's funny how while one certainly
can stand on a geared bike, ya just don't tend to so much. I like how the SS forces you into it!
