- When it comes to stood up or sat down,
our road colleagues over on GCN are very clear
that they're undecided on the best technique
and on an E bike we've already examined such things
as spinning versus grinding,
or indeed seat down or seat up,
but what about stood up or sat down on an E mountain bike?
What is the fastest and most efficient technique?
(computer whirring)
So here is a steep bank.
In fact, this particular bank is the spiritual home
for those riders pushing their bikes to the top
of a downhill track.
Now, on E mountain biking, we've already done
some pretty steep climbs over the last year.
Such things as the slab and the rock.
Obviously there was lots of grip there
and the angle was quite acute, which meant that you
had to get out of the saddle simply to keep the front wheel
on the ground, however, a bank such as this,
what is actually the quickest technique?
Are we going to be quicker stood up or sat down
and what is actually the best technique
for tackling such banks as this?
So, the track we've got here today is about a minute long.
Starts off with quite a gradual gradient
and then it finishes off with something
a little bit more technical
and a punchy exit to the climb.
Conditions are prime for making consistent climbs.
I'm going to be riding my specialized Levo in turbo mode
and probably in a mix of gears,
so we'll kind of get a bit on insight there
into how things change between sat down or stood up
on the E bike.
So I think we'll start off with stood up.
Do we really have to though, Brandon?
- [Brandon] Yep.
(chilled electronic music)
- Run one stood up on the E bike in boost mode.
As you can see, there's not many takers
for this hill climb here today.
(sighing) You're going to love these interval sessions on ENBN.
All right, you ready Brandon? - Yeah.
- Three, two, one.
(chilled electronic music)
(panting) This is absolutely hideous.
Hideous.
Oh my God.
1:38.
So 1:38.
That's the worst feeling and the worst technique
I've ever done.
Climbing on an E mountain bike, it is so unnatural.
You might well do that on a non-assist mountain bike
but I can assure you, that is totally hideous
and totally wrong because
your weight's in the wrong place,
you start spinning, you lose grip,
you got to shift your weight back.
It's actually almost impossible to do a steep bank
and especially one with any loose surface
stood up on an E bike, however, the time is in, 1:38.
Right, I'm going to down to the bottom of the hill now
and I'm doing, again, ride in boost mode,
using a range of gears because I think it would be
impossible to do a fixed gear climb,
it's not road riding after all, and see what the time is.
(chilled electronic music)
Okay so, my lungs, my body's just about returned
to normal breathing.
Just to emphasize, you guys, that E mountain biking
can actually be equally as much of a workout as a road bike,
or as a mountain bike.
Okay Brandon, three, two, one,
we're now going to be sat down remember, go!
(chilled electronic music)
(panting)
Still not easy.
1:20.
What it emphasizes is that when you're sat down
you can manage your cadence, you can manage your gearing,
which you can't really do when you're stood up.
When you're stood up it seems the back of it
is too far behind you to control the grip and the gears
and also you can pick your way and get a decent pace,
whereas when you're stood up,
you're actually snatching at it.
I think stood up is totally impossible to do
on an E mountain bike over hills,
a minute to a minute and a half and beyond.
My God.
Did you really just make me do that?
I think what's really important is this is not road biking
on consistent surfaces.
It's not mountain biking,
which is another climbing skill again.
This is E biking, or should I say E mountain biking,
where your technique for climbing
and you will probably be doing hills
five minutes, ten minutes,
20 minutes, 30 minutes and you know, over an hour
and what you do is, you sit down, you spin for a section.
If you come to a difficult bank, maybe something like this,
you actually keep your cadence and then...
Then use it.
You actually stand up for the tricky sections,
you conquer that, spin onto the next section,
do the next section stood up, clean it
and you just work your way up the hill.
You certainly don't try and force it
by standing up like you would on a road bike.
18 seconds actually felt it was more like 18 minutes
when I finished that first stood up climb,
but in the end I think we're probably just as inconclusive
as our colleagues on GCN, that you cannot actually
do one or the other.
It all depends on the shape
of the hill that you're climbing, but one thing is for sure.
You cannot sustain an E mountain bike climb
stood up for more than a minute.
You might be able to do it on a road bike,
but remember, the surfaces are far more consistent
on a road bike.
On an E bike you've got loose rocks,
you've got changing banks, changing gradients
all the way up the hill,
so sat down is a far more natural way
to sustain that climb.
You can change your gears, you can change your body position
and also you can change the shape or height
of your seat dropper.
So yeah, really interesting.
Won't recommend you to go and do that.
In the meantime, if you want to go and check out
what it's like to be seat down or seat up,
me and Chris did that in North Wales.
Another interesting video, or spinning versus grinding.
Have a look at that video at your leisure.
Let us know your thoughts or if you need any questions
about climbing techniques on your E mountain bike,
let us know in the comments below
and give us a thumbs up if you like the video
and of course, hit the subscribe to EMBN.