Leg soft tissue injury

Sutton_Rider

On a road bike how important is saddle height when it comes to leg soft tissue injury or pain around the knee?

Given that both legs are the same length and the saddle is set at the perfect height, how much can that height deviate up or down before pain and/or injury becomes a strong possibility.

In other words just how important is it to get the saddle height spot on, how much room is there for error?

BTW I'm not looking at loss of performance here.

reformedfatty

For me, there is about a cm long sweet spot that I'd call comfortable, anything else is obvious within a minute or so.

robert88

It's a fine margin IME. My bikes are set up with exactly the same height. Getting it wrong doesn't immediately impact, it can be hours after getting off the bike if the saddle is too high when the ligaments behind the knee complain. Having the saddle too low is more obviously uncomfortable.

There many methods for 'getting it right', the one I use is the heel on the pedal, leg just bent one. It's simple and it works for me.

pblakeney

Robert88 wrote:

There many methods for 'getting it right', the one I use is the heel on the pedal, leg just bent one. It's simple and it works for me.

Excellent rule of thumb starting point.
Only minor adjustments are required from there.

Sutton_Rider

Thanks guys. I use the heel method and found it has always worked well, but I've suddenly got this knee injury, (down the inside edge of the left knee and across the top of the knee cap) it may not even be cycling related, but I can't think what else could of caused it. MRI scan in 2 weeks should ID the problem. In the mean time I've been thinking about saddle height, hence the post. Been off the bike for a month now, bummer.

pblakeney

Sutton Rider wrote:

Thanks guys. I use the heel method and found it has always worked well, but I've suddenly got this knee injury, (down the inside edge of the left knee and across the top of the knee cap) it may not even be cycling related, but I can't think what else could have caused it. MRI scan in 2 weeks should ID the problem. In the mean time I've been thinking about saddle height, hence the post. Been off the bike for a month now, bummer.

FWIW, I've noticed grand tour riders legs are a long way off straight on the downstroke.
I know we are not pros but they ride many more miles and must know something.
Maybe a lower saddle without going extreme might help.

Sutton_Rider

I came to the same conclusion via a different route and have lowered the saddle 5mm, I've yet to test it as the leg is still not right.

cyberknight

Just put my winter commuter saddle down 2.5 mm as i had ot factored in longer crank length properly , could be though i do run at the upper end of my sweet spot ?