Originally Posted by
Trakhak
As TerryMorse and Genejockey and a few others pointed out, it's best to fight the natural tendency to push much harder when you ride out of the saddle. I've been riding fixed-gear bikes as well as geared bikes a very long time, but it's only comparatively recently that I've had the sense to moderate my effort out of the saddle to where I'm pushing maybe 10% or so harder than in the saddle.
I’m kind of surprised by this line of comments because I find starting a hill in a higher gear (seated or standing) encourages a lower cadence that helps keep a rider from blowing up on the start of the climb.
It’s more complex to really understand the dynamics of riding out of the saddle because you have all the joints in play and many adaptations are possible.
If you ride SS or FG for a while, you will learn the little adaptations that help reduce the instantaneous difficulty and stress of climbing and riding into headwinds when the single gearing seems high. You will also develop additional strength that allows comfortable and stable pedaling at low cadence with significant pedal force.
Single gearing will push you close to your limits in ways that multi-gearing would allow you to avoid except perhaps on the steepest climbs. This has some positives for strength and fitness. OTOH, it has negative consequences for maximizing speed and overall power output and reduces sustainability on long multi-day rides and races.
Otto