me, on a moderate climb, not very long, kills my thighs, just interested if anyone else can go for more than say a couple hundred yards (guessing) without feeling the need to sit down and give the legs a rest? I could pedal for days sitting down, think its just a case of MTFU and stand up more to build the strength!

I prefer standing up, especially on my SS where it's a necessity. I've never had a problem with sore thighs when standing as I've always done it. What about yourself, have you always not stood up when riding since way back when?

Forgot my saddle on night ride a couple of years ago. Did whole ride standing up. Probably about 8 miles, all off road in Charnwood forest. Thighs burned for days!

on the singlespeed i'll go for about 20k…

on the bmx, one lap of a track is about enough (a minute or so)

You can pedal standing up?. Why wasn't I told? This opens up all sorts of possibilities. You'll be telling me you have gears next – crazy talk…

1 lap of Cwm Carn when I broke my saddle bolt on the stupid 'ploughed field' bit about 300m from the start – I had planned on three laps but one standing was enough!

Think I just need to ride a whole lot standing up, cause going by you guys I appear to be pretty lame at pedaling standing up!

yeah. All the time. Do you not have a singlespeed? That'll sort out your standing up abilities. Assuming you also have hills.

I've been trying the whole out-of-the-saddle riding thing this last 6-8 months to good effect.
This is on the HT & it really works.
It really doesn't work on a full sus'.

So tonight I won an eBay SS Surly Karate Monkey, so the answer would be "soon to be heaps!".

No singlespeed, lots of hills/mountains, but most climbs I do are generally sit and spin, maybe there's the odd little burst of standing up to get up a short sharp climb. Its just something i've never really done but have become aware of. Even though I bike a fair bit, I don't seem to have the ability to do it for long standing up.

my heart tends to explode before my legs do when pedalling standing up
.
I sometimes ride my commute home standing up all the way
sometimes
commuting the same route for 3 years can get a bit boring once you've learned the traffic light sequence and timing to the second 🙂

Never used to do it at all but I'm 5 months into singlespeeding now and do it all the time. Strangely though, when back on gears I'll revert to sit and spin on shorter techy climbs but on longer gradual climbs I like to select the biggest gear possible and cane it up whilst standing.

Early Feb when I broke my seat post I had an 8-10 mile pedal home. It was a shock to the system not being able to sit down at all. Legs were screaming as was my lower back.

Also a bit of a shock, for someone who never lowers his saddle for downhills, how much I miss having a saddle to help balance the bike when standing.

for me its sit and spin on climbs, stand and coast with a bit of peddaling on descents. Why waste energy standing up on climbs?

who was that lady who raced in one of the early mtb races and her saddle came off and the raced the rest of the crazy distance stood up?

The record has to be Cindy Whitehead in a fifty mile race where her saddle fell off early, and she won.

Snapped my post right where it comes out of the frame about 8 miles from home – was a horrible painful ride back! ( and a shit job to get it out!)

[cough] bar ends [/cough]

the jump bike sometimes get used for night rides and doesn't have a seat you can really use for sitting on…so around 2+hrs depending on the ride.

Broke my seat post near where the 2 loops split at Penmachno and had to ride the rest of the loop without sitting down. It was so relentless! but it was definitely my lower back that felt it most. Some of it is psychological though as until I was forced to I would never had said I could do it.

I spin up everything at 1 mph which is fine until I loose grip and come to a complete stop . If I cant disconnect, I inevitably fall off and if I do disconnect I cant bloody get going again.

Quite recently, I have been sticking it on the middle ring and trying to power up stuff which works a treat but leaves me really knackered! Fair play to you singlespeed nutters doing that all day 🙂

I've had my saddle fall off in the past (stupid USE Alien clamps) and had to ride home without it, and apart from the burning thighs it was also very noticeable how much I normally used my thighs against the saddle to steer the bike.
Edit: About 8 miles BTW.

As others stand all/most of the time uphill on the s/s. I haven't ridden my FS now for ages as standing is a habit I can't get out of, and it's like riding on jelly stood up on the FS, an awful feeling.

Stood up on a hardtail I find I can keep momentum much better.

I once did 20 miles on my BMX

That brought a whole new definition of pain.

There were always a few guys in sheffield who would join us for the freshers XC rides on BMX's. from the arts tower, over to hunters bar, up Potters clough, allong the roman road, and down blaca moor.

f****** nuts, especialy doing blaca brakeless.

Apart from slow trudging ups or long flat boring sections, don't most people ride stood on the pedals anyway? I broke my saddle off my commuter 10 miles from home once, my thighs didn't stop burning for days but that was in an attempt to stick at approximately the normal commute speed (17mphish).

Cindy Whitehead did a 50 mile race and won it – without a seatpost (it broke early on).

Years ago I did a Bath to London charity ride but I lived in Bristol so rode to the start. By the time I'd ridden from Bristol to Reading (on a Lavadome with slicks) I could no longer sit on the saddle so I rode from Reading to London (well, Kempton race course, actually) stood up.

I very rarely stand out of the saddle – mainly sitting and spinning. Helps with traction. The odd short sharp climb usually warrants time out of the saddle.

If you use your quads to do most of the work, you're going to run out of energy fairly quickly – sitting encourages you (or should do) to use all the muscle groups, including your glutes and hammies. Just watch the boys on the Tour, or even the track guys.

I've had my saddle fall off in the past (stupid USE Alien clamps) and had to ride home without it, and apart from the burning thighs it was also very noticeable how much I normally used my thighs against the saddle to steer the bike.

Exact same thing happened to me! Stupid knackered USE Alien, 8 mile ride home.

Iirc you use about 15 % more energy but get about 10% more power – this is just like a confessional from people who have never owned a road bike or ridden a singlespeed I have both no idea of record time stood up but certain it will be on the singlespeed.

a fair old while on the SS.

scottishbadger – rarely require THAT much traction though do you, MTBing is more about movement over the bike than spinning away to get perfect power delivery. On the ups, sure sit and spin, but the rest of the time surely you want to be able to bobble about over the bike and shift your weight to the best position.

10 miles

pretty much every uphill and downhill on the dyfi last year (first time doing it on my ss) – sat down on some of the flat sections cos i was knackered! will do same this year 🙂

when I had a road bike my personal challenge (fulfilled) was to go from Hathersage to surprise view out of the saddle. It was doable but long enough to hurrrrrt grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

up an alp.

only time i've genuinely been first up climbs when i've been in the alps is when i decided to just stand up and grind up the hill. it was perfect, i got up fast, i wasn't knackered, felt fine the next day etc.

have always got on well with SS – happy to grind out a high gear for extended periods. suits my physique well i think.

Used to all my climbing out of the saddle, when I had a hard tail. But since I've switched to a long travel full sus i'm sat down most of the time. I think it's definatly had a neg affected on my leg strength.

I want to do it more, but it's less efficient than sitting. It is faster, but I end up so whacked I'm sure I go slower for the next 5 minutes when the hill goes flat, just recovering.
My "shadow" self who was calmly spinning up in the saddle, probably then overtakes me on the flat part at the top of the hill.

Wasn't there some woman called whitehead who won a 50 mile race after her saddle fell off early on?

all day

infact I left my seatpost slammed from last summer until about 2 weeks ago.