forget pulling. gotta mash all the way to the top of the damn hill.

You only think you're pedaling in circles. No one actually does.

Yep.

There's a proprioceptive cost to this. Pulling up is essentially useless, and it does not increase your power, either by reducing resistance or adding power per se. You simply can't move your foot up fast enough.

You're fooling yourself. Increasing the resistance makes you even less effective. Think about trying to start in the 53x12 vs. the 53x19. You may be pushing much harder in the bigger gear, but you're putting out less power.

Efficiency is the most grossly misused term in all of cycling. There is no difference in aerobic efficiency between pedaling seated or standing. If you are unused to recruiting muscles in that pattern, you will fatigue more quickly, and we typically make more intense efforts when standing (and we have to support our own weight more), but that's not a difference in efficiency.

my cross bike is 57 gear inches. I spend about half the time standing up on a hilly race. It's roughly the equivalent of a 39x18 on a road bike.

I've found that pulling up on the pedals is a waste of energy (that you need to save).

pull on the handlebars while pushing down on the pedals.

noted.

Sorry, but this just made me think of this. None of this seems possible to me:


Maybe we just need to htfu?

Sure you meant to say that? Alcohol in the afternoon doesn't go over well.

I may be wrong (probably) but I feel like I transfer power from my body to the bike more efficiently when sitting. I feel like I lose some power when standing but the extra weight i can use seems to make up for it. When I'm able to stand for long periods at a time I definitely climb faster, but tire faster as well.

Am I the only one who actually uses the upstroke on a climb? I use it to give the other muscles a rest. That is, I'll adjust my pedal stroke to include the upstroke for a period of time until the formerly pained muscles feel freshened. I also stand for the same reason, to give the body a break from the tiredness of sitting, as well as for powering up steep but short inclines. If I want to climb quickly and not lollygag, I concentrate on including the upstroke.

Come on, isnt this stuff what you learned when you were in 1st grade and tooling around your neighborhood on your bike. Standing and pedaling isnt something I think about much, you just do it when you do it.

Edit: Oh yeah its november, analyzing things to ad nauseam is what we do till spring.

I tried pulling, but then I realized you need clipless shoes and pedals for that.

screw pulling while climbing. why fight gravity. work with it on the downstroke.

+1 I alternate standing and sitting on longer climbs so as to rest the muscles. shorter climbs though (ex. 2-3 min) i almost exclusively stand

I pull out.

I need to learn how to pull up (upstroke) while standing. I always find myself hammering down when standing while more accustomed with the upstroke when sitting on a climb.

I don't pull, I drop.

That's funny. If I want to climb quickly and not lollygag, I concentrate on pedaling harder.

replace your cleats, check your pedals, do it before you ride again... not something to play around with.

Winner!

Winner!

I stand while climbing on the steeper hills. But instead of using my weight, I sort of get into a crouched position--moving my body forward, and then try to pedal as aggressively as possible to get to the top as quickly as I can. I find that standing up while pedaling (anytime) helps keep the blood flowing around the sitbones, so it results in a more comfortable ride. Climbing out of the saddle also exercises different leg muscles, which I also find to be a nice change to break up the ride.

If you do plan to stand on a hill and are riding in a line, PLEASE announce your intention to the riders behind you. If you don't do something to maintain speed as you stand, it will, to the rider behind you, likely appear as if you have shifted into reverse; you'll hit the trailing rider's front wheel in all probability. That generally puts him on the ground, hard. A bit of warning reduces the risk.

34x25 gets me up the steeper hills around here at a nice clip; I try to maintain ~100 rpm or a bit higher as long as possible.

An alternative is to learn how to stand without pushing the bike back. Takes a tad bit more energy. It's a good skill to have, at least for those that are behind you

Finally, if you're following, you can stand when you see folks in front of you stand. It's kind of like a (stadium) "wave" effect.

cdr

I've read about a move that involves upshifting a couple of cogs in back (to smaller cogs) as one stands and thrusts to help maintain speed when standing.

What dropped me once was a guy in front of me, near the very top of the incline, standing and slowing down as he did so. Literally looked like, in the short time before he was in my wheel, as if he was in reverse. Did some searching on climbing technique and ran across the above.

Quite honestly, in recent riding (~25,000 miles on the Veloce), I've never stood other than to see if I could - felt off balance and never tried it again. One of the advantages of being overweight and then loosing the excess (235->165 in 13mos) is that one is likely to be left with a fairly strong set of leg muscles from lugging all that lard around for too many years.

I dropped the weight riding a Trek 7500FX. I eventually replaced the stock cassette (11-32) with a 12-27 but before I did, I got in the habit of trying to spin when climbing by using the triple crank's 26 tooth inner chainring and a large cog in back. I didn't climb fast but as strength improved and weight dropped, was able to increase speed up most hills while still maintaining a fairly quick cadence.

what do you think?

Generally speaking when a rider stands they lose part of the pedal stroke, i.e. at the bottom of the pedal stroke that leg stops, the rider uses that leg to stand, then they keep pedaling. In addition when you stand you move forward, and since the bike/rider unit is a unit, if a lot of weight (165 in our cases) moves forward, the 20-ish pound bike moves back a proportionate amount.

In order to keep the bike from moving back, yes, shifting up helps.

You can also focus on not pausing the pedal stroke at the bottom, i.e. forcing your feet to keep moving as you stand.

What I do is kind of stand just above the seat (not forward of it) and over the course of 2-3 downstrokes (1-1.5 revolutions of the pedals) move my body up and forward.

My body moves back a bit, yes, but unless you're an inch off my wheel you won't need to do much to avoid me.

The move tired me when I first tried it but as I kept practicing it my legs adapted.

I feel comfortable standing in even a tightly packed field without causing problems for those around me. As far as I know no one has ever had a problem with me standing in this fashion. And some of the racers I've raced with would have had no problem expressing any issues they have with me - I've gotten criticized for other things sure but not that.

cdr

you just have to alternate the different muscles! to let them rest and don't burn them out.

check your cleats and pedals, that is definitely not normal!

yes.

yes.

Good reminder to keep an eye on what others are doing, or might do. However, there's really no good reason to ride that close when climbing.

Protect your front wheel, always.