Out of the saddle

[Ian193]

I tend to try and spin up long inclines I followed a bloke up a long hill the other week who was standing on the pedals in a rediculously high gear all the way up the hill. I dropped him and waited at the top with the rest of the group when he got to the top he was moaning that he had 1 gear left WTF

 

[GuyBoden]

More Marco Pantani, showing how to ride "Out of the Saddle".

Fantastic ride..................

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hf3KOgFhwU

 

[gbb]

Round here it's more rolling countryside and I like to get out the saddle and honk up them, they're not too long or steep so it's a good way of maintaining speed.
I used to use it to up my average for the same reason, waste as little time going slow uphill, recover a bit at the top once back on the flat...it helped up my average speed noticeably.

Negatives....you're stressing your drive train a lot more I suspect, particually your chain so make sure it's in good order. I check mine link by link occasionally.

Ultimately it depends on what you want from a particular ride....distance and speed.

 

[Tin Pot]

ok so.....I've been cycling a while now, like four years or there about. I have all the gear including a rather nice BMC gran fondo, I do ok on Strava and I ride on average 150/200km a week. Something is bothering me however, it seems I like to ride out of the saddle a lot. Any sleight incline and I'm stood up, climbing is all out of the saddle, even on some flats I'm out.

Am I doing something wrong, maybe I love the feel and look (feel a bit pro) if been off the saddle, but it feels right to me. Anyone else the same????

Yes, it's heinous. Go and stand in the corner facing the wall until break time.

If there isnt a Rule against it there should be, out of the seat on anything less than a 10% grade is simply unacceptable.

I remain seated up to 25% and then only rise if I'm stalling, which is of course shameful in itself.

 

[GuyBoden]

Even the sprinters are out of the saddle to get more power.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVYPpqCvles

 

[S-Express]

Even the sprinters are out of the saddle to get more power.

Except on the track...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=472KioY35pM

 

[Bollo]

Does any of this matter? Can't people just do what feels most comfortable to them without someone else telling them they're wrong?

I always enjoy a bit of sports science bants on CC. I don't think there's a definitive better-way to climb as there are so many variables in play. I'd fall back to a "proof in the pudding" argument that high-level cyclists will have enough experience and the numbers back it up to know which technique works best for them for a particular set of circumstances. As you slide down the ability/experience/analysis scale there'll be many aspects of technique that will be sub-optimal anyway, so the choice of in or out-of saddle will almost exclusively boil down to preference, feel and comfort.

Some purely personal observations - I usually get out of the saddle to change muscle usage in response to fatigue rather than to improve my speed up a climb. I also do it more when my barse gets sore!

 

[MikeG]

Anecdotal evidence and a single data point.........so ignore this as anything but an illustration of what I have been saying in this thread.

I was out for a ride this morning when I was passed on the flat by a guy I'd guess to be 25 years younger than me, not carrying an ounce of flab, and looking like a seriously honed cyclist riding this years Specialised Tarmac. I was doing about 18 as he sailed by, and I thought nothing of it. I caught glimpses of him over the next mile or so as he opened up a lead of 300/ 400 metres, all on the flat, and I made no attempt to catch him as he was obviously way quicker than me, probably on a Strava-based mission.

I passed him on the next hill. It wasn't a massive hill, either, but he was fighting up it, standing up on his pedals rocking from side to side, and in a high gear. I sat down and spun a low one, and made up the entire gap in the course of the 800-ish metres. The thing is, I am sure he would justify his awful technique as "it's what suits me", but I'd be certain that he hasn't tried doing it any other way. With all his assets he should have been way quicker than me up that hill. He did say say "How the **** did you do that?" as I passed him, but I couldn't stop to explain as I turned off at the top of the hill, and he carried straight on.

 

[S-Express]

Maybe the guy had already done 80 miles before hitting the hill..?? There's a myriad of reasons why that might have happened.

 

[MikeG]

Maybe the guy had already done 80 miles before hitting the hill..?? There's a myriad of reasons why that might have happened.

Well, he wouldn't have flown past me at the pace he did if was already tiring. The relative difference in his performance on the flat compared with up a hill is the interesting part of the observation.

 

[DaveReading]

Climbing aside, I've got into the (bad?) habit lately of changing down a bit less than I would nornally do when stopping at a red light and then standing on the pedals for the first few seconds when I move off to get a bit more initial acceleration.

Am I wrong or mistaken?

 

[Tin Pot]

Climbing aside, I've got into the (bad?) habit lately of changing down a bit less than I would nornally do when stopping at a red light and then standing on the pedals for the first few seconds when I move off to get a bit more initial acceleration.

Am I wrong or mistaken?

Hanging is too good for you.

 

[DaveReading]

I thought that might be the case.

 

[S-Express]

Well, he wouldn't have flown past me at the pace he did if was already tiring.

No reason why not. Quite possible to maintain a decent pace on the flat on tired legs, but as soon as the power demand goes up....

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Does any of this matter? Can't people just do what feels most comfortable to them without someone else telling them they're wrong?

Yes, that would be nice, wouldn't it?