Originally Posted by
Pine Cone
Standing is better for acceleration - watch bike racers on the track or in road race field sprints or break-aways on the mountain stages and you will see the riders stand as they want fast acceleration. It also uses slightly different muscles than sitting and spinning so that too is good in a race.
Originally Posted by
Pine Cone
For me there is no question that for long distance riding sitting and spinning is more efficient, but for quick acceleration nothing beats standing.
+1
It's not standing I have a quibble with. It is the idea the it is more efficient than sitting.
Most bikes are geared so high today that, when faced with a very steep big hill, riders have little choice but to stand. I am an experienced, but aging, rider. My bike has touring gears, the lowest being 19 inches. I made the following interesting observation when riding with some stronger riders on a tour this summer. On shallow hills I could keep up with the stronger riders when we were all sitting. On moderate hills, they ran out of gears, stood and would drop me. On really steep hills, they would struggle even with standing, and I could keep up staying in the saddle.
There's a lesson in there somewhere....
(edit) Oh, and to tie this back to folding bikes, the reason I have such low gears is that the bike is a folder with 20 inch wheels. (end edit)
Speedo