AlmostTrick

In seconds and/or crank revolutions, how long do you typically stand while climbing before returning to the saddle?

topflightpro

As long as necessary.

There is no set answer as this is dependent upon several variables, including the length of the climb, the angle of the climb, gearing, how strong a climber you are...

headstrongpkm

They did say seated position is the more efficient position for long climbing efforts, while occasionally standing up to stretch and loosen up legs, recruit other muscle groups etc. For my fitness level I'd say less than 30 sec before they burn like hell Interestingly Contador would do it pretty much the whole time. Check out youtube videos of his Mortirolo climb. Amazing I'd say.

woodcraft

Up to 500 seconds or so.

At 60 RPM, that's about 500 crank revolutions.

drummergeek

I can go about 90 revolutions before I'm toast.

mvnsnd

Depends on conditioning and how steep the climb is. I typically try to stand only for the really steep stuff, but can only eek out a minute or two. Then sitting, then standing for a shorter time, then sitting...

caloso

There's no right or wrong answer.

Hypno Toad

This is my attitude, I like to stay in the saddle, standing only to change up the muscles for a minute or two. I just rode the Almanzo 100 on Saturday, this ride has some viscous hills (& on gravel roads). I climbed nearly all of them on the saddle. On the infamous Oriole Rd Climb (cat 4), I stood a couple times to mix it up and thankfully I had the fatbike this year - on a standard bike you can't really stand on the peddles without kicking out the rear wheel.

If I'm interested in a Strava achievement on a climb, I will dancing on the peddles for the whole climb. But I can only do that on a short ride.

ThermionicScott 

Depending on the bike, it may be until I reach the top of the hill. And that could be a few minutes.

kc0bbq

I've got bikes that mixing in some standing up seems natural, and some that sitting the entire time aside from stretching seems more comfortable. I think reach has something to do with it for me. I know I'm standing more this year after putting a longer stem on the Madone, and the Propel is even more stretched out. Before the stem change I'd stand on the Propel but never on the Madone.

SpeshulEd 

I can climb a lot faster when I'm seated and spinning like crazy. If the hill is super long, I'll usually stand up for a few moments here and there to stretch the legs. If the hill is super steep and short, i'll stand up and sprint until I reach the top or fall over.

kostyap

Not that I do it in real life but few month ago I was curious about it myself so decided to check. The experiment was done on high end trainer Lynx that can simulate very steep climbs and all effects of inertia properly. After short warm up I did a long climb with moderate grade all standing up. The goal was to waste my usual amount of Kilo Joules (1000). I went well below the FTP at 180 watts average. So the ride ended up being about 1.5 hours with the average cadence of 54. I was alternating between 45/60 most of the time. I did not find it particularly hard as it reminded me just hiking steep hill of which I do plenty in the summer. The only thing that troubled me was bike shoes and pedals combo. It was producing excessive pressure on my feet so they were hurting a bit at the end of adventure.

Nachoman

A pretty long time. Because every winter we do the Arnie Baker high intensity training program,
which at the peak of the program, has us doing 30 minute stands, with a fifteen second surge, during each of the last twenty minutes.

Mt. Tam

As others have said, I stand for durations sufficient to give the muscle groups a break. I also tend to stand just before a hairpin as the road pitches and then continue standing until getting back to the same gradient as before the hairpin.

On very steep stuff over 14% persisting over a half mile or more (like Molino Ave to Edgewood on the way to Four Corners at base of Tam) I will do that section entirely standing. I'll get back to seated climbing as soon as possible though.

therhodeo

The correct answer is 41 seconds.

rm -rf

Usually less than a minute? But if it's too steep to sit, I slow my cadence way down, even down to 30 rpm, one pedal stroke a second. I'm going very slow and concentrating on staying balanced at those slow speeds.

On moderately steep grades, I'll upshift a couple of gears harder so I can slow my standing cadence.
If I try to maintain the same cadence I had when sitting, I can't maintain that pace very long.

I always sit if possible, but like the above posts, I may stand just to use different muscles.

My all-day Ti bike has a 30F-29R low gear, and I'll use that to spin, even on 6% or 7% grades. And I can easily stay seated on 10% grades with that gearing, and not stressing my legs at all.

cthenn

I have never tried to set any kind of personal record or anything, but I've been able to climb indefinitely while out of the saddle. Now, I'm not out of the saddle and hammering, like a sprint, but if I want to change it up, I can stand for really as long as my triceps don't get tired. It's just like finding a rhythm while seated. What's the point of this question?

Robius

I can only turn pedals about 20-30 seconds while standing and my HR goes sky high. I have to work on that, i guess.

caloso

I have a 4 minute hill I use for repeats. Typically, I'll alternate sitting and standing repeats.

79pmooney

20 yards to 15 minutes or as long as I have to. I've been climbing in gears where sitting doesn't work forever. Climbing on fix gears the past 40 years. Joaquim Miller out of Oakland many times years ago. Mt Diablo once. Lots of shorter, steeper climbs. Many trips up to both Oakland/Berkeley and Portland Skyline Blvds. Not much sitting on those climbs.

Doesn't hurt that I love climbing standing. I call it the dance.

Ben

OldTryGuy

I went from my Propel SL standard 100mm stem to a 80mm stem. Much, MUCH better when standing.

Unlike you-all out there in hilly country, we here in FLATLAND SW FL have our hill climbing restricted to canal bridges and interstate overpasses. Because it's so flat, I train for climbing by standing in my 53/12. I have been shooting for 10% of a ride's total miles done while standing. Tomorrow's ride will be 70 miles in length so at least 7 miles off the saddle. Ultimate workout is into a wind maintaining 15mph to 17mph for the occasional 3 mile straight road. This riding is a back breaker but will help me for September during Six Gap's Hog Pen 7 mile climb and the other climbs adding to 11,000+ feet climbing for the 103 mile ride.

Bandera

As long as I feel like it or have to.
If the root of your question lies in a dissatisfaction with climbing ability related to pedaling style there is an Old School method to improve both sitting/standing.

You have a fixed gear bike, yes?
Find a route that is a bit challenging for your conditioning/gearing on the FG and ride it: Stand as necessary.
Repeat, repeat and repeat.

Developing a smooth efficient and powerful out of the saddle style when sitting isn't an option is one key training effect of road miles on the FG.

-Bandera

Homebrew01

Same here. No long climbs near me, but I like standing on the mini-climbs. 10 minutes is about the longest

Drew Eckhardt 

However long my cadence stays below ~55 in my smallest gear unless the hill is short and I don't feel like changing rings. I weigh 1.9-2.0 pounds/inch. At a 150W endurance pace and 30x26 low gear (like 34x29) that's when the grade exceeds 9-10%. Without too many hours of riding ahead it's steeper.

Joe Friel shares his opinions Joe Friel - Hills: Sit or Stand? with a few hints based on pounds per inch

Raiden

I feel that I'm less efficient overall while standing than I am sitting and spinning, so I try to limit it to the times where I really need to switch muscles, I'm at the steepest part of the climb, or I'm at just a small rise.