Saddle angle woes

Kiblams

Hey guys,

Just a quick question about what angles people tend to prefer for their saddles when riding.

There have been alot of threads about saddle height recently but as far as I could see no one has discussed angles, and I am having a little dilema with mine at the moment. I have been riding with the front of the saddle tipped quite far forward for a few weeks now and this morning I changed the angle so that it was only slightly tipped forwards.

This had a couple of interesting affects; the first being that I found myself leaning on my arms far less which reduced my arm fatigue (good thing) but I also found that the tops of my legs and where the groin rests on the saddle were chaffing/pinching/bruising when pedalling (bad thing).

So half way through the ride I changed the angle back to what it was, and while this realy helped with the pain between my legs to no end, the arm fatigue that I usually get returned very quickly. One interesting thing to note is that getting to a good speed and keeping it there was much easier with the steeper forward angle.

Incase this helps with any advice I am currently 16st 2lb (down from 16st 11lb thanks to the biking)

So... has anyone else had a similar issue to me?

P.S. you can see the steeper angle I usually use in my Signature link.

myopic

I can't ride comfortably with my seat other than level. Nose up at all and I feel am sldiing off the back, nose down and I feel I'm sliding off the front. Did experiment a few years back on the road bike with a very slightly down nose as I felt it helped when I moved back in the saddle to push up big climbs, but decided overall I was better off on the level and have stuck with it every since. No way could I ride with the saddle at your angle - but each to his own!

nicklouse

angles are all relative.

keep adjusting till you find what feels right for you.

passout

I like it flat or very slightly sloping forwards depending on the size of the bike.

Steve_b77

The idea of having the saddle flat or slightly nose down is to allow the widest bit of the saddle to support your sit bones as opposed to your weight being on the softer tissue further forwards.

dennisn

I'm in the saddle nose slightly up group. This sort of forces you to "sit"(have most of your weight) on the saddle and not using your arms to keep you from sliding forward(as you would if the nose were down). Ideally, you want to "sit" on the saddle instead of trying
to hold yourself on it with your arms. But that's just my opinion.

Dennis Noward

noodleman

Has to be saddle slightly down at the front for me. If its level or tilted back i get pins and neddles in the todger which feels kind of nice but cant be right :oops:
By the way, whats going on with the kids you see riding round town with the seat tilted so far back you cant even sit on it? Kind of defeats the object doesn't it.

myopic

My son has his BMX seat like that. Its so low and almost at an angle of 45 degrees I keep warning him he's going to slide off, land on the back wheel and if he's goign at speed crush his nuts between the wheel and the seat. :shock: I hope I'm never proven right or it could be the end of the dynasty.

dunker

i thought that came from dh bikes with loads of suspension, once riding the saddles level off? otherwise i can't see the point of it?

dilemna

Have you got the seat at the correct height first? Is the frame the correct size for you? Reach to handle bars? Seat angle whilst important should be secondary to these other factors. It will vary around the level position. If you have a bike frame that fits you properly it makes such a difference ie so much more comfortable you can actually concentrate on cycling. So to me your current saddle position is symptomatic of the saddle or handle bars not being correct height for you or the frame is not the correct size.

Kiblams

dilemna wrote:

Have you got the seat at the correct height first? Is the frame the correct size for you? Reach to handle bars? Seat angle whilst important should be secondary to these other factors. It will vary around the level position. If you have a bike frame that fits you properly it makes such a difference ie so much more comfortable you can actually concentrate on cycling. So to me your current saddle position is symptomatic of the saddle or handle bars not being correct height for you or the frame is not the correct size.

Pinnacle bikes have a size sticker and some clever 'P-Fit' system that means for my height it should be perfect for my height, and I have used some of the saddle height techniques from this forum to determine that it is at the correct height for me.

I think that the fatigue in my arms is down to the rigid fork and my obesity maybe? I'm just not sure.

grumsta

See quite a lot of bikes with the saddle angled up at the front, can't understand it meself. Think some people are masochists.

Dirtydog11

So half way through the ride I changed the angle back to what it was, and while this realy helped with the pain between my legs to no end, the arm fatigue that I usually get returned very quickly.

Then maybe your using the correct saddle position and the issue is due to your stem being too low.

Try a couple of spacers under stem. It should help with the arm fatigue.

Soggz

I think it depends on the type of saddle too...race saddles are fuckin' uncomfy after a while,sod the weight factoer and buy a nice comfy one.I did, and i find the whole riding experience more enjoyable.
Im out of the saddle most of the time anyway with all the hills around here, but its nice to have a decent 'sit down' every once and a while.

Kiblams

After the posts on here I decided to move my saddle forward on its rails and make the angle level for my ride before work, It felt odd to start with but after a while being closer to the handlebars seemed to help my arm fatigue and My groin was hurting less also.

So I guess I have discovered that at this point in my riding life I need a more crampt set-up, and this leads to the question; Should I leave the saddle forward or shorten the stem length for a better ride?

The Northern Monkey

there is a link in the "tech links and more" thread in the workshop and tech section regarding saddle height and position

However the site that it links to seems to be a bit screwy for me

Kiblams

bigbenj_08 wrote:

However the site that it links to seems to be a bit screwy for me

yeah It seems to just take you to a generic page with links to food types :shock:

But from the wording of the link it seems to be tackling saddle height only and not position on the rails...

dennisn

Kiblams wrote:

After the posts on here I decided to move my saddle forward on its rails and make the angle level for my ride before work, It felt odd to start with but after a while being closer to the handlebars seemed to help my arm fatigue and My groin was hurting less also.

So I guess I have discovered that at this point in my riding life I need a more crampt set-up, and this leads to the question; Should I leave the saddle forward or shorten the stem length for a better ride?

Your post sort of brings up a good point(sort of). Sometimes it amazes me that there are no set in stone rules, no real numbers that can be added or subtracted, no definative
yes or no or right or wrong, for the process of fitting a rider to a bicycle. After all the studies, books, magazine and web articles, it would seem that no one has proven much of anything after all these years. At least it seems that way sometimes. Everybody wants to know what X dimension is if Y is such and such, and so on. But .......???

Dennis Noward

nicklouse

dennisn
just like air fork/shocks.

Tank-slapper

Level for me. Any angle up and the numbness starts, any angle down and I'm sliding forward.