Fore/aft saddle position on TT bike

birdy247

Hi

I have ridden my TT bike for the 2nd time. It feels really stiff/fast and something I will grow to love.

However, I noticed a few things

- I was sitting pretty forward on the saddle, and I felt like I was over the bottom bracket, is this how it should be?
- Occasionally my knee would brush my elbows (I am going to move the pads/bars a little further forward)
- I have read that when the crank is parallel to the ground (and the foot is forward), that the knee should be directly over the pedal spindle, does this apply for TT bikes?
- I felt alot more "burning" in my quads than on my road bike, My saddle was even a few mm higher than my road bike. Is this normal for someone not used to a TT bike?

Thanks

andy_wrx

I think this thread should answer things ?
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12705925

birdy247

Cool, thanks

But does that explain the burning in the quads feeling? Does this mean that I would need to raise my saddle a little more?

I ride with my road bike saddle about 85mm behind the centre of the bottom bracket. The saddle height is about 795mm

I have set my TT bike up so that the saddle is about 10mm behind the bottom bracket with a seat height of around 805mm.

andy_wrx

You're using muscles slightly differently, pushing down onto the pedals more rather than slightly forward-and-down so you're using more quads, they're not used to it yet.
Similarly hip flexors.

A bit of practice and training on the bike in the position and you'll get used to it.
The bike is much more of a no-compromises position than your roadbike where you can move around and be in a fast agressive position or a relaxed position by moving between tops/hoods/drops and back/forward on the saddle - difficult to go out on the TT bike for a gentle recovery ride.

Put the saddle too high and you'll cause problems, perhaps your knees.
If you are rocking on the saddle as you pedal, or if you have to point your toes down to reach at the bottom of the stroke, then it's too high.

Really what you should be aiming at is getting the same body position as on your roadbike - same hip angle between your torso and legs - whilst having right-angles at your shoulder and elbows.

Initially you might find it all feels a bit strange and unstable, so if you can then maybe initially set the aerobars a bit wide and high, get used to it and comfortable and stable, then you can adjust more and concentrate on getting a bit more aero


Initially you might find it all feels a bit strange and unstable, so if you can then maybe initially set the aerobars a bit wide and high, get used to it and comfortable and stable, then you can adjust more and concentrate on getting a bit more aero

birdy247

Is there a general rule of thumb about how much the setback of the saddle should be from a road bike to a TT bike. i.e. if I ride with an 85mm setback on my road bike, would there be a corresponding setback for a TT bike?

SBezza

You need to set up the bike so you are comfortable, but able to put as much power out as possible in an aero position. I don't think there is any rule of thumb over setting up of a TT bike.

My saddle heights are the same between my CX, road and TT bike. Set back I have no idea about, I have set them up so I am comfortable on each of them, as the frames are all slightly different sizes.

oldwelshman

birdy247 wrote:

Cool, thanks

But does that explain the burning in the quads feeling? Does this mean that I would need to raise my saddle a little more?

I ride with my road bike saddle about 85mm behind the centre of the bottom bracket. The saddle height is about 795mm

I have set my TT bike up so that the saddle is about 10mm behind the bottom bracket with a seat height of around 805mm.

Trouble is your tt bike contradicts the uci regs for a bike so dont ride it in an event where it may be checked !! On my track bike I was recently made to shorten my bars also bu 4cm for pursuit as every bike was checked in a jig !!

1.3.013 The peak of the saddle shall be a minimum of 5 cm to the rear of a vertical plane passing through
the bottom bracket spindle (1). This restriction shall not be applied to the bicycle ridden by a rider in
a track sprint event, keirin, 500 metres or 1 kilometre time trials; however, in no circumstances
shall the peak of the saddle extend in front of a vertical line passing through the bottom bracket
spindle.

Pokerface

oldwelshman wrote:

birdy247 wrote:

Cool, thanks

But does that explain the burning in the quads feeling? Does this mean that I would need to raise my saddle a little more?

I ride with my road bike saddle about 85mm behind the centre of the bottom bracket. The saddle height is about 795mm

I have set my TT bike up so that the saddle is about 10mm behind the bottom bracket with a seat height of around 805mm.

Trouble is your tt bike contradicts the uci regs for a bike so dont ride it in an event where it may be checked !! On my track bike I was recently made to shorten my bars also bu 4cm for pursuit as every bike was checked in a jig !!

1.3.013 The peak of the saddle shall be a minimum of 5 cm to the rear of a vertical plane passing through
the bottom bracket spindle (1). This restriction shall not be applied to the bicycle ridden by a rider in
a track sprint event, keirin, 500 metres or 1 kilometre time trials; however, in no circumstances
shall the peak of the saddle extend in front of a vertical line passing through the bottom bracket
spindle.

How is his bike against regs? His saddle is 10cm behind the BB. The regs say it must be at least 5cm back (but does not list a maximum distance back).

Anonymous

Oi! How are you getting on in Canada? Shouldn't you be winning world championships or summink?

Pokerface

NapoleonD wrote:

Oi! How are you getting on in Canada? Shouldn't you be winning world championships or summink?

TT this Friday.....

Alex_Simmons/RST

Pokerface wrote:

How is his bike against regs? His saddle is 10cm behind the BB. The regs say it must be at least 5cm back (but does not list a maximum distance back).

OP says 10mm, not 10cm.

10mm behind BB can be UCI legal but would require a morphological exemption, which for a rider with a saddle height of nearly 800mm would I suspect be very unlikely.

Rider needs to consider the rules for events being ridden (local TTs are quite possibly not bound by UCI rules) as well as the type of saddle being used - many saddles enable one to ride further forward without breaching the 5cm rule.

hopper1

I wouldn't worry too much about these rulings, as they are UCI, and if doing club, or regular open TT's you are unlikely to be banned!!!
As has been said, get yourself comfortable, putting as much power as you can through your cranks, whilst being aero...
Don't compromise power for aero, though, and it is a compromise...

Alex_Simmons/RST

hopper1 wrote:

I wouldn't worry too much about these rulings, as they are UCI, and if doing club, or regular open TT's you are unlikely to be banned!!!

It's worth worrying about if you are aiming to do an event with such requirements as you'll want to be able to comply and be acclimated to that position.

hopper1 wrote:

Don't compromise power for aero, though, and it is a compromise...

Why not if it's faster?

One seeks to maximise speed, which is best achieved by increasing your sustainable power to CdA ratio. It's not an either/or equation.

hopper1

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

hopper1 wrote:

Don't compromise power for aero, though, and it is a compromise...

Why not if it's faster?

One seeks to maximise speed, which is best achieved by increasing your sustainable power to CdA ratio. It's not an either/or equation.

Is that not what I said!?...

Tom Butcher

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

It's worth worrying about if you are aiming to do an event with such requirements as you'll want to be able to comply and be acclimated to that position.

True but unless the OP is very useful they aren't ever likely to fall foul of the UCI regs on this - even in road races that have a time trial stage I don't recall them enforcing that rule. Others will have more experience than me but apart from national TT champs which I think are run under UCI regs and maybe on the track are there any other examples in the UK where an amateur would have to think about this one ?

Dave-M

Interesting thread.

I find riding my TT bike in an upright position is just fine, but when I get on the Tri bars, it feels like the saddle is to low all of a sudden.

I'm still quite new to this, but the diagram on the other thread would indicate that I should lift the saddle a little, and move forward as I go on the tri bars??

Alex_Simmons/RST

Dave-M wrote:

I'm still quite new to this, but the diagram on the other thread would indicate that I should lift the saddle a little, and move forward as I go on the tri bars??

As a ROT, yes, but every individual's ideal fit is different.

andy_wrx

Dave-M wrote:

I find riding my TT bike in an upright position is just fine, but when I get on the Tri bars, it feels like the saddle is to low all of a sudden.

I'm still quite new to this, but the diagram on the other thread would indicate that I should lift the saddle a little, and move forward as I go on the tri bars??

Well, my saddle feels too high when I'm riding on the basebars, so I'd agree with you.

Like Alex says though, it is just rule-of-thumb : read all that article from slowtwitch I linked to on the other thread if you want to be really blinded-by-science.

When I started-out with my TT bike I did an awful lot of stopping-and-fiddling, adjusting the saddle up/down and fore/aft, adjusting the aerobars up/down, in/out, etc as I got used to it.

Nowadays I start the season with the bike a bit more conservative and then adjust as I get more miles in the position and get used to it as the season goes on.

Dave-M

I lifted the saddle 2cm, and lowered the front 2cm.

End result 2.19 quicker on my 11 mile test route!!!

I'm still new to this, and the last time I did this route was 2 months ago and I've lost 6lbs and got a bit fitter.....but still not a bad return 8)

Need to move the saddle forward as I was perched right on the end and I'm now a bit sore. I've also revolved the bars upwards (so my hands are level with my biceps) as I now feel like I am toppling forward and need to support myself a bit better!

Would be helpful If I could get a pic of me on the bike perhaps.

oldwelshman

Pokerface wrote:

oldwelshman wrote:

birdy247 wrote:

I have set my TT bike up so that the saddle is about 10mm behind the bottom bracket with a seat height of around 805mm.

Trouble is your tt bike contradicts the uci regs for a bike so dont ride it in an event where it may be checked !! On my track bike I was recently made to shorten my bars also bu 4cm for pursuit as every bike was checked in a jig !!

1.3.013 The peak of the saddle shall be a minimum of 5 cm to the rear of a vertical plane passing through
the bottom bracket spindle (1). This restriction shall not be applied to the bicycle ridden by a rider in
a track sprint event, keirin, 500 metres or 1 kilometre time trials; however, in no circumstances
shall the peak of the saddle extend in front of a vertical line passing through the bottom bracket
spindle.

How is his bike against regs? His saddle is 10cm behind the BB. The regs say it must be at least 5cm back (but does not list a maximum distance back).

If you look above you will see the op states his sadle is 10mm behind not 10cm. I would be very surprised if you could actually get the saddle 10cm back over the BB.
As you do TT's I guess you know most riders tend to position themselves more forward over the BB so I guess the rule was brought in to standardise things as the UCI tried to stop the so called superman position so the brought this rule in with the one about the distance to thr front of the tri bars.
As for the max distance back, I dont think they stated a max distance as I dont think anyone would put their saddle so far back they cant reach the handlebars and it would probably not be very effective position if it was too far back.