ofajen

Would not have thought Dean’s bike would be a target for thieves, but you never know.

One handy thing about a standing only bike is that it simplifies the challenges of optimizing the cockpit, since you only need to accommodate standing positions, and don’t need to compromise to also serve seated riding positions.

One downside, as was mentioned, is that you are always standing, which is not as nimble in climbing, descending and turning. Also about as un-aerodynamic as possible.

Also, I think crank length needs to be shorter on a standing only bike with circular cranks. Probably about 150mm crank arms would feel good for most riders, producing a stride or step height of 30 cm or about 12”.

Otto

Flip Flop Rider

I like to stand and pedal so I do it when I want. Mostly as a butt break, but sometimes to see how many "strokes" I can go

Terex

I rarely stand on my mtn or gravel bikes but need to stand as much a possible on my fixed trainer (Wahoo Kickr) when Zwifting or my butt gets too uncomfortable. Standing and pedaling is just a function of fitness and body type. When I'm in shape I can stand as much as conditions warrant. There's some guy on Zwift who did a 100 mile ride on his trainer without a saddle on his bike, so I guess he stood the entire time... Much of this stuff is just silly and doesn't relate to much other than individual quirks.

79pmooney

Fun story of standing because I had no choice. My first Cycle Oregon, 2010. Day 2. The climb after lunch was a long one - a steady grade up Rattlesnake into Washington, then a slightly downhill for 20 miles into a headwind. This was the first big grade of the week. For this climber, a primary target.

Left the lunch stop and started up. For the next 5? miles I steadily passed a line of riders, being overtaken periodically by pacelines. (57 years old and I hadn't raced for 30 years.) At the top it was a different reality being a long and tall climber with lots of wind resistance. Still, my motor was still running well and I kept passing the line, just more slowly. Well, three young women in full kits and good bikes jumped on my wheel. With my mirror looks, it was obvious they knew what they were doing so, cool! I powered on. 10 miles later, I was cooked. Pulled off racer style and dropped back. Got thanks from two of the women and tucked into their wake. They rode a good paceline. I knew I didn't have the legs to help, so I let them pull in front of me.

Then we passed a couple that jumped on. Woman was not strong and didn't last. Guy was strong but didn't have a clue. Totally disruptive. The women quickly realized they had to stay in front of him. But as they tired, they started dropping back behind me. Well mister disruptive was so irregular I could not keep the woman behind me attached. They would get dropped. I'd drop back and pull them back to the bunch. Finally mister D left us with about 2 miles to the fantastic descent into Clarkston, WA. I lost track of the women on the big descent of glorious sweeping canyon turns. Then it was to the outskirts of town. Down a steep old concrete street. I sat up to ride no-hands and celebrate. Nobody else around. Suddenly, I felt and heard a big click. WTF! Grabbed those bars! But everything seemed to be intact. Upon hitting Clarkston's main street, I took a quiet side street for a rolling bike check, then a quick look. Nothing. Returned to the main street and saw the women standing at the corner. Exchanged names, got a thanks,then we proceeded on the last 6 miles to camp. 5 miles of bike path, then a climb up a couple hundred feet to the bluff (that we didn't know about yet), the school and camp.

Two of the women went on ahead. I was leading the third when my seat fell off! That crack was my Avocet seatpost breaking through the clamp area. The woman stopped with me. Watched as I assessed the situation. I told her I'd have to ride to camp standing but I'd better pad the jagged seatpost or I would probably rip my shorts. I had the sock for my inner tubes but needed more at the toe. She reached into her pocket and handed me the beautiful Cycle Oregon route map to fold up! Way, way too nice to destroy but she won my heart! I realized I had the fabric Cycle Oregon musette bag in my pocket. Perfect.

We started out. She immediately took the lead, then rode as my eyes, looking over her shoulder for approaching traffic and telling me; leading me through parking lots where the bike path jogged. A huge gift for riding slowly no-hands! Bigger than my pull of the three into the wind.

My biggest challenge - shifting gears. Down tube shifters. I had to coast, brace my knee on the top tube, reach down and shift, then re-grab the bars to pedal and change cogs. Kept nursing the gear up, cog by cog until I was in the 42-13. My tired legs didn't like it but balancing was much easier. Then we pulled off the bike path, crossed railroad tracks and hit the climb to the bluff. No warning. I was going up a 10%er before I knew it. Shifting? Yeah right! So I muscled it on up. It hurt. But as I said in the opening paragraph, I'm a climber. Did it. Blown but at the top (and far in front of my new friend). Rode through the welcome of the Clarkston cheerleaders. The chocolate milk we got at every arrival got stuffed in my pocket as I rode as slow as I could and he ran. That welcome? I felt like a race winner; it was that hard.

It took me days to catch up to the women again. My first priority was finding a seatpost. Kelley of Bicycle Gallery had an old Laprade that stayed on the bike the next year as a custom was being made.

The moral of this story? Be a gentleman in the pace line. There might be karma.

VegasJen

Awww! I was hoping for a "married happily ever after" ending.

spelger

Can't believe I actually read this.

big john

I've broken the rails on saddles 4 times and cracked a few seatposts. Had an American Classic post adjuster break on Casitas Pass when I was alone. Found a big ball bearing on the side of the road and jammed it in there so the seat wouldn't fall off and rode into Santa Barbara standing a lot.

In a paceline of 13 riders when a dog charged into my friend and he flew like Superman and landed on his hip, severely bruising it. Like a week later he and I were climbing on Mulholland Highway and his seat fell off and he fell right on the bruised hip. He then had to finish the climb with the saddle in his pocket and ride to a friend's house to get a seatpost. He also broke the adjuster on an American Classic post.

VegasJen

Is this like a thing? Now you guys have me worried my seat is going to break. Honestly, it's something I have never once even considered.

Trsnrtr

I've broken a few seat rails over 40 seasons and a couple post/seat attachments. It happens. Rarely, but it does happen.

PeteHski

Haven't read all the responses, but I ride standing quite happily. But then I do a lot of mountain biking, so get plenty of practice. I do prefer climbing seated, but get off once in a while to mix it up.

DiabloScott

It's seldom catastrophic though. This saddle squeaked for a couple weeks before I investigated and found the cause.

Rolls Titanio on the right. Went back to the classic version on the left.

I stand when climbing to get a better workout - BECAUSE it's harder. Also equalizes my superior climbing speed with my slower companions... I do big gear slow revs out of the saddle while they twiddle along seated in granny gear. Sadly, my superiority has diminished somewhat the last year or so.

CAT7RDR

Never broke a seat post but had the assembly come off on a ratchety wooden bridge and fall into the river below.

big john

Most people don't break stuff like I do. I have a gift for breaking parts.

big john

That's terrible.

Carbonfiberboy 

Saddle rail failures on Brooks are fairly common. A friend loaned me a Brooks Pro to try out. It had a broken rail. The only rail I've seen fail catastrophically on a ride was on a Brooks, a B17 IIRC. What other brands have people broken?

Nachoman

Fifty mile ride and had to stand the last ten or twelve miles to get home.

pbass

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!

big john

San Marco, Avocet, and others including one I paid $200 for but can't remember the name. I still have it somewhere.

When I broke the San Marco I went to the LBS and saw it but I really didn't want to spend $200. He told me to take it home and put it on my bike and see how it felt. I decided to risk taking it on a ride and was worried he might not take it back but it turned out I really liked it. It's a good thing, too, because it rained on the ride and the grit thrown up by the wheel ground the logos off of the saddle.

79pmooney

Not my experience at all. My good climbing bikes have long stems, set well below the seat (though not pro racer or radically) and the longest brake hoods I can get with the levers set low. If I don't have a full reach to the bars I find I am not expanding my torso and chest and pay a price in oxygen deficit. In my racing days I hadn't evolved yet to very long stems but all my stems had notches under their "chins" from being slammed. I was not a slouch climbing. Fellow racers didn't like seeing me at the start of hilly races.

A real plus of my position - if I had to climb in a stiff headwind, my back was already near horizontal. (Notice Marco Pantani in your photo. He also seemed to have missed your message.) Oh, when I climb hard, the backs of my thighs are nowhere near the tip of my seat. I do concur with pulling up on the back stroke. I do a lot. Also push/pull over the top and bottom but that gets zero thought. It is just part of my years of practice spinning circles. (I have done a very different pure push/pull on my fix gearing in huge gears. A maybe 8% max hill lugging a 42-12 so I wouldn't have to do another pair of stops to flip the wheel. It as quite different and kinda fun.)

Carbonfiberboy 

That wasn't a photo, notice the "play" symbol. I think one of the reasons Marco loved climbing so much OOS is that he was more aero up than down. I also like climbing from the drops. Reach: I notice that seated he has that 90° upper arm to torso angle. Modern riders seem to think now that's too much reach. I had a fitter cut my reach back by 3 cm. Didn't seem to make any difference to performance.

fastcarbon

I still stand on sprinters' hills or risk getting kicked off the back on group rides; about the only other time is on long climbs of over a few miles to try to give my quads a break or a few minutes. I am 79 so have to stay very fit to survive group hammer sessions.

Calsun

With the fetish to save a few grams of weight people have long been going to lighter but weaker materials for bike components and so more failures with them is to be expected.

For me standing is a way to give my neck and shoulders some relief when on a road bike. One of the difficult aspects for me with starting to ride mountain bikes is having to stand nearly the entire time on the trails.

tobey

I used to always sit and then took some spin classes that force you to stand. Over time I started to like the challenge of standing.
I now try and stand for 3-5 minutes at least two or three times per ride. It's amazing how easy standing has become which I never in a million years would have expected.
On Zwift from time to time on a hard climb I'll alternate a minute sitting then a minute standing.

Fredo76

In my youth, standing and 'dancing' on the pedals was as natural as breathing. I could also pull up so hard on them that when I read somebody recently who said that analysis of racers show they don't really do that (pull up) I was (and am) simply incredulous. Back then the consensus was that standing was not necessarily less efficient, but that it did use more energy. Standing was a standard technique for jamming up short hills without shifting down, usually done gripping the brake hoods and applying opposing forces to them, pushing down on one while pulling up on the other, to move the bike side-to-side underneath - the 'dancing' part that reduces wasted energy spent holding things rigid.

Back then, frames or parts that broke were either defective, or cheap pieces of crap no matter how much they cost. The term 'weight weenies' didn't exist, perhaps because putting people down during ordinary discourse was not quite as in fashion then, but such people typically paid a price in dinged rims and broken spokes. Jagged daggers formed by broken parts would have been regarded with horror.

Now, back into cycling at 63, but with hip replacements and greatly diminished flexibility, I don't have the confidence to pedal standing - yet. Part of that may be not trusting clipless pedals yet, either.

deacon mark

I can tell you I can stand to pedal but not continuous for more than about 40 revs, Has nothing to do with fitness my legs just tighten and I think it is related to my running dystonia. I can sit back down for a a few cranks then get up and repeat it but I cannot just stand and pedal non stop for the distance many are claiming. It really does not make me slower than others it is just I lack with specific ability. I might also add on an unrelated note I don't ride no hands either. I probably could practice and do it a bit but why. I would not feel safe. When I was 12 years old that was a different story could do it with ease.