saddle help

foo-fighter

im still relatively new to this cycling game and am after a quick bit of advice with regard to saddle position. When i am riding i keep finding i want to move back on the saddle so my bones are more on the wider part of the seat, Once i do this i feel very stretched out over the frame.Should i move my saddle forward so i can get a comfy position? sorry for the stupid question but i thought i would ask some people who know before i do something wrong. Not even sure how to adjust my saddle, its a specialized body geometry if that helps

thanks
Si

neilo23

Ha! I'm listening to the Foos now so I had to answer :-)

Are you sure it's because of your saddle position? The stretched feeling could simply be because you are not used to the geometry of a road bike full stop. Is the clamp roughly in the middle of the saddle rails?
Moving your saddle forward means that you are using your thigh muscles more, back and you are pulling more and using the muscles in the back of your legs a bit more.

cyberknight

http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html

Wirral_paul

As ^^^ getting the saddle in the right place is the first step. I was getting pain in the front of my knee from sitting too far forward. A full professional bike fit yesterday from Pedal Precision in Manchester seems to have sorted that out - the saddle moved rearwards only 10mm (and 3 or 4mm down) resulting in an immediate improvement.

Once you sort the saddle out, then you sort the reach out via stem length. I've gone 15mm shorter after the fitting session.

foo-fighter

could it just be that i am still not used to the saddle full stop?? i've done 400 miles on it at the moment even with padded shorts on its still very uncomfortable,so much so that i have put a gel cover on the seat but its still quite uncomfortable after around 20 miles. It tends to be more uncomfortable when i am on the hoods and a lot better when i am using the tops. I guess a bike fit would be best but the budget wont quite stretch that far.

cyberknight

Gel saddles only make things worse as you tend to sink into them and get chaffing and they only mask the problem.
In what way is it uncomfortable and what sort of saddle do you have?

I hvae a similar problem till i got the saddle setback right and the tilt set correctly as i tend to set the saddle nose down slightly by eye and if i use a spirit level i set it level and it is a lot more comfortable.
Be aware that some saddles are have a higher back end and you need to take this into account when setting you saddle angle as it might affect how you sit on the saddle.

If you try all this and you are still struggling then maybe you need to look at another saddle, specialized do ones that have different widths based on how wide your sit bones are apart and another well liked saddle is the charge spoon which can be picked up for around £25

This is how my saddle looks if it is any help.

foo-fighter

thanks for all the advice guys, last night i decided that maybe i was over complicating things so i undid the 2 bolts holding the saddle, at this point i wasn't even sure they were the right ones but the saddle moved, so i figured they were the right ones. I then gave the saddle a shove forward with my hand had a look and it seemed to have moved a reasonable distance forward, tightened everything up went for a ride and its a lot more comfortable.So once again my "life is over complicated, lets try a simple approach" has worked. As im sure this post highlights i am not very mechanically minded, but hey, jobs a good'un.

Si :?

ollyridesfirst

Just be careful you're not too far forward. An easy test is that when you are riding on the hood, lift your hands off and you should easily be able to hold yourself in that position. If you start to fall forwards or really struggle to keep the position then the saddle is too far forward.

Get the saddle set up correctly and then if you still get "overstretching" problems, change the stem for a shorter one, or even flip the stem if it is angled downward