The 2010 Novara Randonee is the bike that has come the most close to fitting me in a long time for a road style bike. I am obviously overweight and not very flexible. The stock bike is almost perfect while riding seated since it has the relaxed head tube angle.

However, I cannot seem to find any leverage when I stand to pedal. When I stand to pedal on bikes in the past I usually could use the bars for some leverage.

Is there anything that I can do to the stock setup on the Randonee that will help when I stand to pedal? I'm guessing that I would have to give up some comfort while pedalling seated to get what I want to pedal while standing.

Oh well, I thought I would ask anyway.

Are you riding on the brake hoods when you stand up to pedal? What happens at this point?

What type of shoes and pedals are you using?

Just looking at the bike I can't see why you can't get any leverage. I know on my bike I shift to a lower gear and that allows me to alter my position over the bike. If I'm in to high of a gear the pedaling is too easy and I can't get leverage as the pedaling is too soft.

Hands on hoods, junk towards stem.
Seriously, when you're doing a steep standing climb, lean your weight forward over the front end of the bike more than you usually would. I find that putting my weight forward of the cranks a bit adds that extra leverage to the pedals I'm looking for.

I have tried all hand positions on the bars while standing. I am wearing a croc type of shoe currently. I have used clipless before and I would get the same results. I think the whole issue is that the head tube is so relaxed that the bars are almost to close to the seat. As I said, it feels about perfect riding while sitting. But when I stand to pedal, the bars are so close to you that you almost cannot get any leverage. Maybe I need to move the bars a tad farther away. Due to a stiff back, I do not want to move the bars much further away, but I think that I would have to in order to get some good leverage to pedal while standing. I think that I am looking for something that does not exist. Meaning, the reach will be too far to be comfy to get good leverage while standing and vice versa. Oh well, I will have to pick between the two I guess or search for a compromise.

Is the handlebar width the same?

I don't think you need to move your weight forward much when standing to climb - i know I keep my weight back, with the nose of the saddle hitting my butt on each pedal stroke. This brings the muscles on the back of your legs into it. As long as I don't get crazy (the temptation when standing is to accelerate and go fast) I can climb like that 5 - 10 minutes and use that to let my normal cycling muscles recover on a long climb. Although you won't get as much of a benefit if your feet aren't clipped in.

How much higher are the handle bars on this bike than on your old bike? Are they higher than the saddle? That might be part of the problem.

I still think the shoes might be part of the problem. I can't imagine trying to stand on a climb wearing crocs! All you could do is push down, for everything else I'd be expecting my feet to slip. At the very least, try toe clips.

Finally, please don't change a bike fit that works otherwise because of how it feels when standing! You will be seated far more than standing, so you really want to optimize for that (particularly with a bad back). Did you have a bike fit done? I've seen REI do a good job with this, but they completely screwed up the fit on my ex-wife's bike so I've seen them get this pretty wrong, too.

JB

You beat me to it while I was scraping my jaw off the floor. Some shoes with a firm sole might seriously improve matters.

+1. When climbing, my cadence is ~45-55 when I'm standing but I'll drop to an easier gear when I'm sitting (and use a higher cadence in the 60-80 range). If I was hammering along at a cadence of 80 while standing I would blow up very quickly.