Pro Bike fitting - saddle up hamstring pain

wyadvd

I've just paid good money for a pro bike fit. Generally very happy. Arms and wrist much more comfortable with wider bars. However he put the saddle height up by several cm and after 30 miles I have hamstring pain on the back of my legs at knee level. Anyone out there know for sure whether I should work through this or drop the saddle slightly. I have a 1200km audax in two weeks so I don't need this pain!!

zardoz

If you have had your saddle raised by that amount it will take a few weeks for your body to adapt properly to the new riding position. My riding position was changed quite a lot after a bike fit and the advice I was given was no ride greater than 2 hours, ride at medium pace, no hills for 2 weeks and then build up after that mainly because of using muscles differently. I found that I did ache a lot more than usual for the first couple of weeks but the ride felt better and I was faster by about 10%.

JayKosta

Make sure that your hips stay level. If you need to 'rock' or 'tilt' your hips at the bottom of the stroke, then the seat is too high.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

Evil Laugh

Drop the saddle. Try 3mm at a time until the pain disappears. You're pulling your hamstrings.

wyadvd

Evil Laugh wrote:

Drop the saddle. Try 3mm at a time until the pain disappears. You're pulling your hamstrings.

I dropped it literally 2mm and most of the pain has gone . Still up by a good 2cm from where I started though. Seems amazing that such a tiny movement can make all the difference!

declan1

wyadvd wrote:

Evil Laugh wrote:

Drop the saddle. Try 3mm at a time until the pain disappears. You're pulling your hamstrings.

I dropped it literally 2mm and most of the pain has gone . Still up by a good 2cm from where I started though. Seems amazing that such a tiny movement can make all the difference!

Yup - I was training for a race the other day and needed to put my saddle down to fit the bike in the car. I'd marked the seatpost but it was only a rough line.

I put the saddle back up when I got there, but obviously had it too low as I got severe pain at the front of my knee after 20 mins. I raised it by 3mm or so and the knee pain was instantly gone!