What makes riding out of the saddle comfortable?
I imagine it’s partly the bike, but exactly is it how the crankset is positioned?

For me, it's mainly the discomfort of sitting for another second.

It's about actually riding out of the saddle enough to become adapted to the effort, the hardware has little to nothing to do with becoming "comfortable" while putting out the effort does.

-Bandera

get it in a higher gear (if on flats), and see how long, or how many strokes you can do it. rinse and repeat. allows for good blood flow

A longer front center and reach so that I don't feel hung over way out in front of the bars.

If you're gonna ride "hung over" you want to hang your head off to the side with enough clearance that when you puke you don't get any on the brake disks or drive line and gears.

LOL! True! Don't want to contaminate those rotors

Being in the right gear helps. It should feel somewhat like walking up a set of stairs when you've got everything dialed in.

I find handlebar and brake lever hood setup matters a lot. I want my hoods to be both in the right location and at the right angle for my wrists. Now, I am one who loves to climb out of the saddle and I have been known to not sit down for miles at a time (where the hills are that long). I call riding out of the saddle, "the dance". Like a good dance partner, the bike should just feel completely natural and "there". The handlebars and brake hoods are the arms and hands of you partner.

Now, I think the concept of crank location is backwards. I see the bottom bracket as being the center of the bike; the point from which the geometry and dimensions are measured. The handlebars are measured to the BB, not the other way around.

Ben

How long are you guys standing so that comfort becomes an issue?

I stood a real portion of the climb up Dead Indian Memorial Rd (50%?) when I did it 6 years ago with Cycle Oregon. ~3000' in 16 miles. Fix gear, 42-23. Day 4 of 5000' plus. I probably had the highest gear there. I have to choose my brake levers very carefully or I will chafe my fingers through the skin. (I am a big fan of the full fingered Dankine MTB gloves.)

Ben

Fixed gear on the road, of course.

MTB requires standing more as well.

Road really requires very little standing. I think many have gears too high and stand too often and/or too long when riding road bikes. Comfort out of the saddle is something that would never occur to me apart from a thread like this. The only thing I'm thinking about when I stand is how quickly I can sit back down.

Fit is fit and comfort is comfort. If your bike doesn't fit out of the saddle then your bike doesn't fit in the saddle either.


-Tim-

Huh, that's all interesting, as much as I've seen it done in professional races, and pro/ams alike, I rarely ever do it, heck I did it more when I was a kid than I do now. But I do agree that it has a rhythm/feel to it, I think because my bike is a bit of a "boat" and awkward it's just not as fluid as maybe a higher end carbon fiber type triathalon is, those seem much more adapted to the ergonomics of a good climbing bike.

Are you discussing standing on a TT/Tri bkie vs a standard road machine?
Bikes designed for Time Trials and Tri Bike-legs are optimized for aerodynamic efficiency on flat-ish parcours not climbing.
The TT position and machine configuration would indeed make for an awkward beast to stand for any length of time since that is as non-aerodynamic as would be possible.
Not exactly what the designers had in mind for operational control and rider positioning except for a few pedal strokes launching out of the start house.

-Bandera

I meant a triathalon bike only, no TT bikes. I only say this because the Triathalon bikes look like they would make for a good climb

Did you know that dedicated Tri-bikes and TT machines are closely related in form and function w/ only the UCI regulations making most of the Tri machines a slightly different flavor of bike? Looks apparently can be deceiving.

Check out real "climbing" bikes in this vid of a brutal mountain finish in the Giro:

Last Km of Stage 14 - spoiler (2018/giro-d-italia)

I believe Lance Armstrong also practiced spinning a high cadence, and it proved successful for him too. I find when I'm on my trainer and I hit a cadence of 80-84 rpm, its comfortable and my output is almost 15% better.

For me it's the angle of the dangle.

I'm most comfortable standing to pedal on my hybrid with riser bars at saddle height. I can stand upright, straight over the pedals. It transfers my weight efficiently to the pedals. The downside is it's less aero so beyond a certain speed, or climbing into headwinds, it's not faster. It's just comfortable for longer distances.

Until recently my road bike had a long stem. I was too stretched out and when I stood to pedal I was leaning too far forward. It was more aero, but I had to physically push back to pedal. My weight wasn't transferred as efficiently. I'd become exhausted more quickly.

Recently I swapped the road bike to a shorter stem. Much more comfortable sitting and standing to pedal. My weight is better balanced when standing to pedal. I can pedal more efficiently, longer and without much compromise in aero positioning. For me it's more efficient for short, steep climbs. And it feels like I can transition between sitting, standing, sitting again, along with using the downtube shifters, without losing momentum. That's primarily a balance thing.

FWIW, my road bike is an old school '80s thing, 7-speed freewheel. Currently 13-24 original, and I have a 13-25. I swapped the 52/42 chain ring for a 39T small chain ring. It's still an old school combo, not really suited to serious climbing. But we don't have any serious climbs around here, nothing longer than a mile of continuous climbing at worst. Most of my climbs are maybe 100-400 yards of continuous climbing with plateaus or dips before the climb resumes. Lots of roller coasters with those 4%-9% or so short steep bits. For a strong rider that 52/39 chain ring with 13-24 freewheel is good enough. But I'm not a particularly strong climber. I'm tempted to try a 13-28 freewheel, but I know the spacing would be weird, too jumpy and herky jerky. So either I get stronger with the gearing I have now, or switch to a newer bike with more gears and better spacing.

Its probably only herky jerky if you're not in tune with how you're riding. Otherwise it should offer more combinations.

15 min +

Agree that bar & hood position has a lot to do with comfort, but I have that optimized for a low sitting position-

can't have everything...

Also cleat position- cleats forward will make your calves uncomfortable sooner.

I can't imagine how much effort is required to stand and pedal for 15 minutes vs sitting.

The only time I stand is to sprint, stretch a little or for the sake of blood flow on long ride. Even then it is for 30 seconds, maybe.

To each his own, I guess.