How to correctly adjust your saddle.
Posted on enero 9th, 2008 leslie dean brown
I see some people returning our rental bikes with the saddles tilted in the most awkward-looking positions, so I thought I’d begin to offer some free & simple fitting advice for men:
- Start with the saddle completely level. Obviously the bike must be on level ground and finding such a place is not that easy in Tenerife -Â so it’s best done on a level floor.
- Forget any fancy invention you may have seen to measure saddle tilt and just eyeball the adustment.
- If you get pain or numbness in the front side of your groin, rather than lowering the nose of the saddle, raise the nose of the saddle slightly. This may seem counter-intuitive at first, but what it does is to move your weight backwards, thereby easing pressure in the front region.
- If you begin to slide off the back of the saddle or it feels like there is no support, only then lower the nose of the saddle.
- Also, start with the saddle clamped in the middle of the rails. Don’t attempt to fit a bike that is not your ideal size by making up for the difference here. Too far forward or backward can lead to knee problems, etc.
- When the cranks are level, the ideal position for the seat is when the front part of your knee lines up with the pedal spindle axle.
I have a friend that swears that tilting the seat upwards a little greatly helps in power output. Not sure if true
‘counter-intuitive’ – yes it does seem that, I must say.
But seeing as I find myself constantly pushing my bum back on the saddle, and incidentally putting more strain on my hands and wrists doing so, I’ll give this a try.
Thanks for the tip