saddle height too high

nicensleazy

Friend of mine thanks he may have his road saddle set a little too high. Anyone know the symptoms of having a too high saddle. Having never experienced this myself, I can't really give advice.

Tino4444

nicensleazy wrote:

Friend of mine thanks he may have his road saddle set a little too high. Anyone know the symptoms of having a too high saddle. Having never experienced this myself, I can't really give advice.

Hi,

The test to see if its set correctly is when you foot is at the lowest point when pedalling you should have a slight bend in your knee and it should not be locked out.

Your hips should also not rock from side to side when pedalling.

Its important that they get this adjusted ASAP as it could result in knee/hip pain.

Tino.

redddraggon

I cycle with a saddle miles too high for well over a year, and never experienced any ill effects. It just meant that I thought I needed no setback.

Generally you can tell if your saddle is too high if you cycling with the toes pointing noticeably down - but cycling with a high saddle didn't seem to do Jacques Anquteil any harm.

Mark Alexander

sit on the saddle with one pedal at the lowest point. Your heel should rest on the pedal. when you attach the cleat, you knee will be slightly bent. Job done.

nicensleazy

Cheers guys, I'll pass on the info. Sometime ago, I went for one of those BG bike fits, I thought it was really good!

System_1

When my saddle was too high I found that on longer rides I got a sharp pain at the back of my knees from overstretching. It was okay on shorter rides but anything over 20-30 miles the pain made itself known. That's something to look out for.

Although the heel on the pedal techinque as described above is a good starting point it's by no means the best for everyone. I have my saddle set at least an inch or two above this so called ideal but I'm very much a toes down kind of guy. People who seem to think they know better frown upon this, but after 15 years regular cycling and playing about with my position I've found it to be the most comfortable, fastest, most efficient and least tiring position for me. Listen to your body instead of trying to conform to so called ideals. Everyone is built differently.

Monty Dog

Whilst there's little chance of injury from hyper-extension, it severely reduces power - nuff said