Saddle position
al_kidder
Posts: 73
Truth is, I'm not a beginner, but I'd be interested in what other reasonably competent cyclists think.
I bought a new bike 6 months ago, just to see if a carbon frame would get me up hills a little faster than on the old Al frame that I had bought 2nd hand after the previous bike decided to sacrifice its gear hanger. The guy I bought it from was a lot taller than me, but the frame was claimed to be 56, which is about right for me, at 178cm. When I got the new bike, ie the carbon one, same frame size, it felt too short, so that sitting on the bar tops was not quite right for me. When I measured, I found that the stem on the old bike was 140mm, vs 120 mm on the new one. The shop didn't want to swap the stem for a longer one, so I decided to just move the saddle backwards and now I'm accustomed to riding on the hoods.
Anyway, after thinking about how to ride a bit faster, I decided that since TT bikes have a more upright seat post, I might get an improvement by bringing the seat forward a bit. Well, blow me away, but I seem to have achieved about 3 or 4% improvement just through that New Year change. I already had 5% going uphill, which I had put down to weight reduction plus lower friction on the new bike, and about 3% on the flat, which I attributed to the lower drag riding position from having my hands on the hoods instead of on the bars.
So now I've meassured my saddle height and compared it with my inside leg to see how close I am to the 109% which is suggested as a good fit. I'm not even close. I come in at a little under 80 on the inside leg, but 91 on the saddle, which I had already lowered a bit from what it used to be, and is about 113% by my reckoning. That has been quite comfortable for the last 6 months and 13000km.
What about the rest of you
I bought a new bike 6 months ago, just to see if a carbon frame would get me up hills a little faster than on the old Al frame that I had bought 2nd hand after the previous bike decided to sacrifice its gear hanger. The guy I bought it from was a lot taller than me, but the frame was claimed to be 56, which is about right for me, at 178cm. When I got the new bike, ie the carbon one, same frame size, it felt too short, so that sitting on the bar tops was not quite right for me. When I measured, I found that the stem on the old bike was 140mm, vs 120 mm on the new one. The shop didn't want to swap the stem for a longer one, so I decided to just move the saddle backwards and now I'm accustomed to riding on the hoods.
Anyway, after thinking about how to ride a bit faster, I decided that since TT bikes have a more upright seat post, I might get an improvement by bringing the seat forward a bit. Well, blow me away, but I seem to have achieved about 3 or 4% improvement just through that New Year change. I already had 5% going uphill, which I had put down to weight reduction plus lower friction on the new bike, and about 3% on the flat, which I attributed to the lower drag riding position from having my hands on the hoods instead of on the bars.
So now I've meassured my saddle height and compared it with my inside leg to see how close I am to the 109% which is suggested as a good fit. I'm not even close. I come in at a little under 80 on the inside leg, but 91 on the saddle, which I had already lowered a bit from what it used to be, and is about 113% by my reckoning. That has been quite comfortable for the last 6 months and 13000km.
What about the rest of you
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Comments
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I come up short on saddle height from what is normally reccomended but I reckon that's cause I don't ankle.0
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there're multiple models of what is 'correct', the 109% of inside length you mention is just one, and they all have different %, imho systems based on such simple measurements aren't likely to result in best fit, and for some might give a position that places excess strain on the legs
we're all different, and even for the individual the best tt set-up is going to differ from, say, best all day riding set-up
tt vs. road position there's usually a trade off, i.e. a lower position can reduce drag, but if your power falls off as you go lower (which it can) there comes a point where you'll actually end up slower overall
getting a professional dynamic assessment on the bike for the target riding condition is probably the best method for finding out what is correct for you, otherwise i'd forget leg measuring and go with what works bestmy bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
How did you measure your 3-4% improvement?
109% of inseam may be a good guideline for saddle height but there are lots of other measurements to take into account: relative upper and lower leg length, foot size, pedal stack height, cleat position etc. Try going a bit higher, you might find it feels even better.
The fact you were on a 140mm stem on your old bike suggests you are quite 'long' on the bike - it's better to look for the right top tube length rather than the frame 'size'.0 -
Tom Dean wrote:How did you measure your 3-4% improvement?
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Easy. Several standard rides that I've been doing for the last couple of years, 40 to 60+km. New PBs established, except for the one that I did on New Years Day, which would have been a PB, but my speedo bounced out of its mounting somewhere near Kurnell, and I couldn't find it when I went back to look. I got a PB the next day on that ride, with a new speedo, but it was a couple of minutes slower, over 62.5 km, because the seabreeze came up stronger0
