[Closed] Roadies climbing out of the saddle

Grinders, spinners - everyone is different. I've been a bit of a roadie for a few years now and just returning to mtb after about a 20 year break!
I personally only get out the saddle when things get steep others will do most climbs out of the saddle. It's just whatever feels right for you. There is loads of contridiction about what cadence is best. The latest bit of info seems to say us mere mortals are more efficient at lower cadences. Where as the pros who spend almost all of every day riding a bike are the other way around.

I think MTBers tend to avoid climbing out of the saddle unless they have to - more potential to spin out at the back (less weight on back wheel), energy loss due to suspension bounce.

On a road bike, you don't have the traction issues unless it's damp/greasy/Colle delle Finestre, and you don't have suspension bounce losses. Hence you can stand and climb as a personal preference, which for some comes at a higher cadence.

Watch a Mike Cotty Col Collective video - he does huge amounts out of the saddle, it's just his preference.

I'm not a full on roadie, and much of my winter mtb'ing is on a SS where cadence is what it is as opposed to any target. So stood up graunching is in my DNA.

On the road bike, particularly as a 'non-whippet' shape where it takes effort to support my upper body through my arms, seated climbing is way more efficient, and I try to do that and target around 80-90 cadence where I can and change gears accordingly. But where it gets steep and maintaining that cadence is hard, I do intersperse with some standing mainly to use a different muscle group, but also I often do a pyramid of 25 revs standing and 25 seated, 20/20, 15/15.......5/5 and then back up again. Which both uses different groups and also gives me something to think about instead of how much further the climb is.

But I need to usually drop 2-3 gears to sit, and then put them back on to give me something to push against when stood. I can't seem to do that sudden stand and dance that true climbers do.

I'll only go out of the saddle to tackle short ~1min sections of steep stuff at a low cadence.

Or if I'm getting saddle sore!

There's a gradient steeper than which I find it's better to be out of the saddle, doesn't matter what gear I'm in either. The "usual" advice is to move up one gear just before you stand up and back down a gear when you sit back down.

On my full suss I'll lock out, or almost, the forks for climbs. It does take a bit of practice to get the fore-aft balance right so you don't spin out and equally don't lose control of the front. I'll have the shock in "climb mode". Seems to work for me.

There was a video with Chris Froome where he was asked about climbing and he said that generally they did them seated but with occasional short periods of out of the saddle to change the muscles used.

I was watching some track cycling and one of the riders suddenly stood up and continued (obviously since track bikes are fixed gear) pedalling at some ridiculous rate for a lap or so.

No idea what the op's locality is but short climbs are often taken out of the saddle if the groups a bit frisky. Longer climbs see most of it done seated by most mere mortals imo. By short I mean 1-2 mins. A longer climb would be anything over 4-5 or so mins.

I sit and spin, choose a gear to suit and try to keep my cadence around 85rpm, if it's gone down to about 70 I'm in too hard a gear, if it's dipping and I'm running out of gears then it's obviously steep and I'll drop a couple of sprockets and stand. Generally I'm trying to be efficient and keep my HR sensible...

I'll stand and sprint a little sometimes for a short rise if it helps maintain some momentum...

But that's just me, I know people who climb completely differently, harder gears, lower cadence out of the saddle much more, and there's not too much difference in our respective times to the top, whatever works for the individual...

After years of riding FS or really flexy frames I got used to sitting down most of the time. When I got a rigid MTB it took me a while but I remembered how I used to climb out of the saddle and I started doing it again. It's a great feeling to heave on the bars and move your body around climbing, in a way that you can't sensibly do on an FS.

On the road I also do it (made easier by finally having the right width bars) because it's satisfying and also because after miles of being sat in one position my arse is sore and I can no longer feel my balls, so I get out of the saddle any time there's enough of a gradient to give me something to work against. Not usually for long though, but I will get up and down often.

Full on roadie part time mountain biker. Everyone is different as is every hill. Some hills I’ll hit at pace, remain standing and drop the gears as I need to while still being stood, short hills of a minute where I want to remain at a high pace, but cadence does drop. I may does this on some longer hills depending on the ride.
Longer hills I’ll remain seated and just get out of the saddle when needs be, this may be for 2 or 3 minutes at a time. I try and keep the bike fairly still when stood, but do try to think about using other muscle groups, core, glutes and hamstrings...no idea if that technique works, just what works for me.
90 to 95 cadence on the flat, 65-75 cadence for stood cycling.

I also climb out of the saddle on my mtb, just borne out of habit. And yep the back tyre does slip too often! Trying to stop myself standing but it’s an automatic reaction now. Short sharp climbs I can’t help myself.

Seated climbing is more efficient. Out of the saddle for short bursts where you need a bit of speed, to maintain momentum or where things get too steep

I've heard it said that if:

Height in inches > wt in kg

Then you may benefit from climbing out of the saddle.

Horrible units and massive generalisations aside, if you're skinny then you won't waste so much energy dancing on the pedals.

I seem to spend quite a lot of time out of the saddle both on and off road climbing, there's definitely more weight / position adjustment required off-road.

I'm outside of that generalisation up there, but I'm not bad up hill. Funnily enough I tend to get out of the saddle (off road especially) for a break from seated or to put in a bit of a burst.

It's generally more efficient to climb sat in the saddle, but in a group ride you're not riding at your own pace so often necessity kicks in and you have to stand up and go into the red a bit to keep up with some whippet at the front for a few hundred meters (then you can make him suffer on the flat). Also a lot of the work isn't immediately obvious to an observer. If you drift out from behind someone at 20mph your power has to go up ~50% to maintain the same speed/cadence as you lose the benefit of their slipstream. So you've got to go from seated to standing to make that jump.

There's also an element of comfort, because you're ofen out for 4+ hours ona road bike and there's less of the natural shuffling around it's healthy to get out the saddle and stretch a bit, let the blood flow back to your nether regions, let other muscle groups do a bit of work etc.

As for cadence, that just comes with time I think. I used to mash big gears all the time, but with practice you learn to spin more. It requires less strength (thus muscle and weight) and puts less strain on your muscles so you can ride for longer before they're fatigued.

My SS road bike is geared 39/16 (with 38c semi knobly tyres) so slightly lower than you but more drag, I find it's about the right gear for spinning on the flat, I had a 42 (or maybe 44, cant remember) and I could achieve slightly higher average speeds over ~25miles but hit a wall at that point as my legs were just too beaten. 39/16 is barely slower unless descending but I can ride it 50miles and my legs feel fine afterwards. I keep meaning to try the same experiment fixed to eliminate the coasting as a variable (i.e. one ride with 10% higher gear, one ride with 10% more pedal revolutions).

Sounds to me like you came across a group of roadies just as they were getting a bit overexcited. They probably turned blue and freewheeled down the other side.

Normally climbing in the saddle is more efficient but it comes down to individual style too. Most people will only get out of the saddle on really steep stuff or short power efforts. It can be just to get comfortable too, sitting in the same position for hours on end gets wearing after a while.

Thanks for all the input.
I tended to sit and spin on the MTB, especially after going 1x11 when I could esily shift without coordinating front and rear mechs. Since going SS for road commute fun I find my self finding a similar gear on the MTB and then stand and grind for a change, but above a certain cadence I find it almost impossible to do.
Like I say, I knew nothing about the road crew's ride, I certainly seemed to be catching them on the climb with much fresher legs but I was wondering how much was down to their standing spinning.
Not important though, we were all having a nice ride oin the sun.