Seat height, apparently it's not supposed to be like a road

knownoversight

I've owned a mountain bike for years, but never really ridden it all that hard. Then over the last couple of years I've been getting in to road riding, however, I'm giving that a rest for now and I'm back on my mountain bike.
So I'm talking to a mate at the weekend and i was telling him how when I was trying the Boardman FS in Halfords and that it felt too small (I'm 6ft) as my leg didn't reach it's full 'optimum' extension like it does on my road bike (which I had fitted).

So my rather long winded question is this, is this true, that the saddle on a full suss mountain bike should be lower, that I shouldn't expect my legs to reach their full extension?

It kind of makes sense, I guess when you're trying to get your bum over the back wheel you'd have trouble if the saddle is too high and in the way..

Doesn't having the saddle lower make it harder work cycling up hill? Or for that matter on the flat?

weeksy59

as far as i'm aware, correct on all counts.

You try riding slow techincal downhills with a seat hieght 6' in the air and you'll be coming a cropper.

MTB's are not roadbikes.

Ideally you'd get better drive with high seat, but at the lack of control as a consequence.

VWsurfbum

weeksy59 wrote:

as far as i'm aware, correct on all counts.

You try riding slow techincal downhills with a seat hieght 6' in the air and you'll be coming a cropper.

MTB's are not roadbikes.

Ideally you'd get better drive with high seat, but at the lack of control as a consequence.

which is why you buy a joplin seat post! (thats what i did anyway)

nicklouse

Welllll

if you are sitting down and spinning then yes rules are the same, when descending it is better to have the saddle out of the way.

which is why the adjustable seat post is gaining popularity, before that the QR seat clamp.

MTB saddles dont stay in the same place for a full ride. (they can but they should not really).

Finally most riders do not have the saddle high enough.

meesterbond

In an ideal world (ie. when I finally get a Gravity Dropper) I'd use three heights... For serious, long climbs it would be as per my road bike, then about an inch lower for general hooning about, then dropped 3 or 4 inches for descents.

As I understand it, the Gravity Droppers do that, albeit for a fairly serious price!

Daz555

I have 3 positions marked on my post in permanent marker to make switching heights easier.

jairaj

the seat height in MTB is always a trade off.

if you want efficient peddling then keep it high up. if you want easier descending then put it right down. cant have both

_Ferret_

I am sure I have my saddle lower than it should be. But then I read in some mags that if the saddle is too high you can get numb willy syndrome :shock:

Buckled_Rims

I have a QR on the seat post. On level and uphill sections, the seat post is fully up (ie like road bike), but on downhill or single track, I lower it between 3 and 6 inches depending on how steep I'm going down.

OK, I need to stop the bike and use the QR, but that's only 10 seconds or so.

podgeorge

I found a really useful tip about adjusting your seapost height. Supposedly you are meant to get the saddle in your arm pit, so that when you reach down to your crank, your end of your middle finger is in line with the centre of your crank. This is meant to be a really quick and easy way of getting the seat post in the right place!

elziko

podgeorge wrote:

I found a really useful tip about adjusting your seapost height. Supposedly you are meant to get the saddle in your arm pit, so that when you reach down to your crank, your end of your middle finger is in line with the centre of your crank. This is meant to be a really quick and easy way of getting the seat post in the right place!

So, you're saying that the seat height should relate to the length of your arms, not the length of your legs? That seems totally illogical. :shock:

jairaj

I thought seat height was measured 21.67 x length of your nose?

knownoversight

Wow!
So I guess the over-riding answer is a big fat yes!

Huh, never really thought of raising or lowering the seat height before..

nwmlarge

i don't get why people mark the seat post
surely it's not rocket science to work out what is a comfortable height ? and it's quick release so a minor adjustment is easy

scale20

I think as a rule have the saddle at about hip height, get on and put the peddal in the lowest position. with The ball of your foot on the pedal you should have a slight bend in the knee, with your heel on the pedal your leg should be straight. I measure this height for any pre trail road riding and fire road climbs.

On a trail ride I tend to have 3 saddle positions, The highest position for killer fire road climbs a mid position where i can peddal uphill effectively and get off the the back of the saddle on technical bits, then right down out of the way for the mental stuff.

I have now sacked the conventional seatpost and bullied the other half into an early xmas pressie in the form of a joplin I was very very sceptical about them before i had one but they are the bo!!ox 8)

podgeorge

elziko wrote:

podgeorge wrote:

I found a really useful tip about adjusting your seapost height. Supposedly you are meant to get the saddle in your arm pit, so that when you reach down to your crank, your end of your middle finger is in line with the centre of your crank. This is meant to be a really quick and easy way of getting the seat post in the right place!

So, you're saying that the seat height should relate to the length of your arms, not the length of your legs? That seems totally illogical. :shock:

It works ( i use often) because your arm is roughly the same length of your leg (usually slightly shorter) so it gives you a quick rough riding height for try someone else's bike etc

RealMan

Saddle should be higher on a mtb then a road bike for efficient pedalling. Not just because of a higher bb but also because on a road bike your forward more so it affects the angle of your hips.

CycloRos

nwmlarge wrote:

i don't get why people mark the seat post
surely it's not rocket science to work out what is a comfortable height ? and it's quick release so a minor adjustment is easy

well the quite obvious answer being you've marked what height is comfortable so you don't ever need to make any minor adjustments :roll:

I've always used Easton seat posts which quite handly have numbers marked on it. For commute it's at 6.5 for XC it drops to 5.5 and for serious downhill well it don't really matter as long as its out the way.

As for all these brilliant techniques to get the optimum saddle height? its sooo subjective, basically you need to figure what works for you on the trails you ride the most through experience, there is no magic formula although it is amusing to hear them!

Jenks66

When climbing up the trails at Afan It is amazing how much easier raising the seat makes the climbing but once at the top I drop it down again to a more comfortable decent

Anonymous

When my knee works properly, I prefer to keep my seat out of the way, and just stand up on the pedals for everything. It means if i come across an unexcpected drop or something, I'm not going to go arse-over-tit.

See, the problem with having your seat in an efficient position when covering rough ground is that if your back wheel takes a knock, that seat will come up, and possibly smack you over the bars.

ride_whenever

scale20 wrote:

I think as a rule have the saddle at about hip height,

Eeeeerm, no. Depends on the BB height not the height off the ground.

Optimum for efficiency is as high as you can without your hips rocking as you pedal. About an inch lower is great for general hooning about then by dropping your heels you still get pretty nice pedalling efficiency but can easily hop off the back of the saddle, and completely slammed for hardcore descending, or if you've got a really low seattube then so the saddle is between your knees.

scale20

Its generaly worked for me in the past and for other novices I've taken out, obviously things will change with a highter BB height.

Its a good starting point and you can fine tune from there.

softlad

RealMan wrote:

Saddle should be higher on a mtb then a road bike for efficient pedalling. Not just because of a higher bb but also because on a road bike your forward more so it affects the angle of your hips.

be honest - you just made that up, didn't you..?

Surf-Matt

I have mine about the same height - so my leg is almost straight with my heel the pedal when it's fully "down" - seems to work fine.

I do drop the MTB saddle a bit when doing a long and/or technical descent - just seems to be easier to control.

knownoversight

Quite by accident I've just come across this video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqIJYErEPdo&NR=1

The way he has his saddle setup I figure this would be best for climbing, but it looks a bit high for some of the fun stuff..if you hit a big rock or root with it that high, the seat'd come up and smack in you in the family jewels..wouldn't it?

Daz555

nwmlarge wrote:

i don't get why people mark the seat post
surely it's not rocket science to work out what is a comfortable height ? and it's quick release so a minor adjustment is easy

Marking it means you do not need to make any minor adjustments. Seems like an elegant solution to me.

cee

the other thing to do is raise it t the height you would use for killer climbs.....then drop it by an inch.....

now pedal with your heals down. this will still give you full leg extension, plus that extra inch of space to get over the back.

andrewjoseph

When you are riding over flat or downhill rough stuff you are probably standing up with the pedals level, you then have a ~ 170mm extra height above the saddle, as if by magic!

I rarely put my seat down, but then I rarely ride insanely steep downhill rough stuff either.

My mtb saddle is a cm or so higher than my road saddle (measured from bottom of pedal stroke to top of saddle).

Pedalilng efficiency is more critical over rough ground than it is on fireroads. You can stand up for a while on fireroads, stand up on a rough climb and you will probably loose traction, so an efficient pedal action helps more here than any other time.

Anonymous

Efficient pedaling action has nothing to do with seated or standing.

knownoversight

I guess I was worried at having tested a 20" frame and it seemed too small for me, at least on the length of the extension of my leg..
I know there's always the option of a longer seat tube, but then I find there's too much weight on my wrists...which after a while kills...

softlad

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Efficient pedaling action has nothing to do with seated or standing.

so what it is to do with..??