Saddle height

[FrancoisO]

I went for a propper setup and it seems that my seat was 2.5cm to low.  How will this benefit me, now that I sit higher?

[AndreZA]

You will pop a wheelie easier.

[The expat cyclist]

You will see clearly now...

 

Hahaha...

 

As far as I know, it works likes this:

Lower seat hight - more leg power

Higher seat hight - better blood flow, thus better endurance.

 

You pick your flavour.

MJ loves MTB2009-06-22 04:48:21

[udxcob]

I reckon less effort on your muscles per revolution........

[gummibear]

You will pop a wheelie easier.

 

.....and break the seat post easier

[zerocool]

well

Lower seat will put more stress on the knees and upper legs.

Higher seat will use more of your calves and lift your heal to reach the pedal. (which is not good)

 

To activate your main cycling muscles you should have a bend of around 25-35 degrees in your knee when sitting on the bike with your foot horizontal and at the 5 o clock position.

 

 

 

[Cassie]

I also went for a "proper" set-up...at a biokinetics guy...

 

my previous position (from LBS) setup was also ~25mm to low....

 

On my first ride after about 10kms...my lower back started to ache like never before!!

 

I decided to drop back the saddle about 10mm or so and voila....no more pain for the rst of the ride...  go figure...

 

So, what should i learn from this....that there is quite a bit of tolerance between absolutely correct setup (calculated via experts0 and something that is more comfortable for me in the long run?

 

 

[Polka Dot]

As far as I know' date=' it works likes this:

Lower seat hight - more leg power

 

[/quote']

 

I've found that the opposite is true, higher seatpost = more power. The negative side is that if your seatpost is too high, you tend to overextend your hamstrings, which will lead to lower back pain.

What works for me, is to set the seatpost as high as possible, thereby tapping into the most power available, and if your back hurts you've gone to far - drop a couple of mm.

[Matchstix]

Unless the did the setup with a goniometer I wouldnt trust it that much

I don't like calculations in my experience they put the saddle to high.

 

[splat]

25mm is a lot to change at once.

Maybe your optimim position should be higher than it was, but the change should be made gradually 5-10mm at a time so your body can adapt.

 

Your saddle to bar relationship has obviously changed as well, perhaps your bars should move up a tad as well. That will definitely affect your back.

[TYGA]

How do you compensate for "sag" on a dual suspension bike when setting up seat height? The seat with you standing on the pedals would be higher than when seated causing the bike to sag, or when pedalling with Pro-Pedal on, your seat higher than when Pro-Pedal off and the bike set to Plush travel mode.  

[Matchstix]

Saddle heigt is measured from the centre of the bb(or from the pedal) to top of saddle. The sag of the bike should not influence your saddle height.

if it does it a bad desighn in my eyes.

 

[TYGA]

Makes sense...forget I asked.... Maybe I should get back to work rather than sit here thinking up *** questions which I haven't thought through properly.

 

 

 

[AndreZA]

The distance between and the saddle BB should not change no matter how hard you stomp on the bike. Like vierhoudjie said, it's a bad design then.

[IdeJongh]

Yes saddle doesnt sag compared to BB, but during initial compression does the seat angle not change a bit? iow should your seat angle on a DS be different that on a HT?  Or is it too little to make a difference?

[AndreZA]

Yes saddle doesnt sag compared to BB' date=' but during initial compression does the seat angle not change a bit? iow should your seat angle on a DS be different that on a HT?? Or is it too little to make a difference?

[/quote']

 

 

 

If you sag so much that the angle of the seat tube becomes a problem, then you've got bigger problem then you think. You should be out of the saddle then.