79pmooney

I think of it as a point between my eyes. When I dance, everything moves except that point just rotates. I think of exactly two things going straight up the hill. That point and my tires. (The experienced riders in my racing club long ago stressed riding straight up that hill, no weaving. Leaving perfect lines on wet roads. Shorter distance ridden so less rolling and everything else resistance and no scrubbing of the front tire.)

terrymorse 

Dylan Johnson's summary of the climbing out of the saddle studies:


TLDR: Climbing out of the saddle is superior at or above VO2max, or when the grade exceeds 8 or 10 percent.

urbanknight

Shift up two gears, grasp the hoods, and pull up on them to give more pressure to the pedals (unless I'm just standing to give my butt a break). No weight on the bar as that is robbing the pedals of power. I never really thought about where to position my body as it seems like all the other actions naturally dictate that anyway.

LarrySellerz

I’ve been told to “try and tear the bike apart” and “pull forwards, not up.” I prefer less rocking over more, it’s aesthetically pleasing when you have it dialed in and don’t sway much.

when thinking too hard about which arm to pull with in tandem with my legs I can get confused and hung up on the details. Wow that sounds really dumb when reading it back. But really, I just go with what feels natural, which could easily change if I’m hurt or fatigued.

tempocyclist

You probably shouldn't have taken that literally... 😉😜😂

Spandex_fairy

I think it makes cyclists look like pansies when climbing out of the saddle with tiny bars, locked elbows, and swaying trunk. It demonstrates a lack of upper body strength.

Carbonfiberboy 

I like to ride OOS in the drops, toes pointed slightly, pulling slightly up and back on the bar on the same side as the descending pedal. Almost no weight on the bars, normally rocking the bike maybe 4", more if pushing hard. On a hill sprint, I pull up hard enough to almost lift the front wheel off the ground with the downstroke. Well, that was back when I was strong. Not so much now.

terrymorse 

Interesting. It's a rare cyclist that climbs OOS in the drops. Pantani comes to mind, but that's the only pro I can think of who did that. I've tried it, but it feels like I'm closing my hip angle. I save the drops for descents and sprints.

Do you prefer the drops because your bar drop is minimal?

Carbonfiberboy 

Well, I wanted to climb like Pantani, so I started aping his method, which didn't get me climbing like Pantani, but it was remarkably better than anything else I'd tried. I'm the same height and so have similar bar drop, plus I use compact bars, so that opens it up a bit more. I don't know why he pointed his toes, but it does seem to help pedal turnover. Climbing in the drops rather than on the hoods also moves the hands back, which seems to produce better balance and less arm strain. The back of my thighs just brush the saddle nose and saddle's all the way back on a 30mm setback post. Hands on hoods moved my upper body too far forward, seemed biased toward weighting the bars.

PeteHski

Only modern rider I can think of doing that is Roglic.

eduskator

Or when your arse becomes numb!

Trakhak

Eddy Merckx, when asked whether he did upper-body weight workouts, replied "You don't need big muscles to steer a bicycle."

Trakhak

I've found bullhorns to be greatly superior to any drop bar for climbing with my track bikes.

LarrySellerz

To be honest climbing out of the saddle in the drops "because Pantani did it and I think its cool" is a legitimate reason.

tomato coupe

Climbing on a track bike?

Trakhak

Why not?

eduskator

I do it as well. It happens most of the time when I'm sprinting downhill or on the flat and there is a small hill that I want to pedal through without losing my speed.

jonathanf2

I utilize a few combination out-of-saddle techniques. Some include riding either the hoods or drops; a low/high gear and/or varying cadence OOS climb; different leg muscle activations switching position once one muscle group fatigues; an energy conservation OOS climb or a sprint OOS climb and a dancing climb from when I use to ride BMX bikes as a kid. Also I find smiling at the final section of a climb helps me get to the top!

urbanknight

Because it has no brakes for the return trip, but I’m hoping you meant fixed gear bike?

Trakhak

I see. I crave your indulgence for the following, likely of little interest to anyone but me.

The fork on my Felt TK-2 (sprint geometry, true track bike) has a fork drilled for a brake, which is why I chose it over the other aluminum track bikes available then.

MIA (stolen): 1983 Bianchi Eco Pista. I installed a short-rake chromed cro-mo road fork and a front brake. (I've held on to the celeste fork from the Eco Pista as a keepsake.) It was my favorite bike ever, until I bought my first aluminum bike.

That was and is my first-year-of-production Specialized Langster, which came with front and rear brakes and a flip-flop hub and has road racing geometry, so you've got me there.

Finally, when I bought a late-'60s Campy Record-equipped Peugeot track bike from a little old lady about 25 years ago (her late husband had bought it new when the two lived in France), it came set up with a rear Mafac brake that had been installed using Pletscher rack mounting hardware, exactly as I had done when I started racing a Helyett track bike in 1964, when I was 13.

[Edit: I misremembered. Had I bothered to walk into the next room to check before posting, I'd have seen that the Peugeot's Mafac brake was installed using a hole in the seat stay bridge, probably drilled for the husband at the shop where he bought the bike.]

Thinking about it, I raced the Helyett only once on the track. All my other races with the bike were on the road. At that time, the ABLA still allowed the use of a track bike in road racing, as long as the bike had at least one working brake.

genejockey 

Because I weigh a little over 200# and don't really like to drop below 50 rpm?

But, you know, if you like it, that's great!

urbanknight

Got it. In my mind, the moment you put a brake on it, it stops being a “track bike” and becomes a “fixie”. My reasoning is they wouldn’t let you on the track (at least not for any mass start race) with the brake. But yeah, I get that the TK-2 is specifically designed to be a track bike and it is drilled for a brake, as was every track bike I ever owned.

79pmooney

Back to the thread topic. Be fun someday to take an old, tired seat, cut a small hole in the leather, replace the padding with some slightly composted food, get worms to breed in it, then get that classic shot of the worm climbing out of the saddle.

spelger

uhhh, what?

Maelochs

I put a stool next to my bike to help me climb into and out of the saddle .... getting old is no fun.