Transitioning From Sitting to Standing When Climbing Hills

[Sky King]

You mean gear up. More often than not, I'll shift up *two* gears to stand.

need more coffee!!!!

[MollyJ]

This thread has given me a lot to think about. I can stand and pedal on my hybrid but have big trouble making it any thing but a brief grab on my road bike (with its drop bars). Sometimes its just nice to change your position but it does seem that you can get some power out of standing up--not that I've been able to realize it.

I agree that there is a lot to think about here. I'm swimming and the coach asks us often to think about incorporating a new way of doing things in swimming. At first it always feels awkward and counterproductive but (because I have faith in the coach) I push through and it makes things better.

But I think breaking the effort down into a first things first approach helps too. Here's what I'm thinking. First things first might include: Hands on the hood or top bars not the drop bars. Question here is do you put them so that they wrap around towards your gear levers or just front and center on the bars?

Finding the appropriate gear that gives you a bit more resistance but not too much also seems important.

Committing to stand and using the counter pressure on the handle bars seems like it is pretty important, too.

Would those of you who do it recommend a different order of focus.