I have a friend who is borderline OCD. He’ll sometimes wash his hands dozens of times a day, doesn’t like sticky stuff, cats drive him to antihistamine hell and there is a place for everything, with everything in its place. This can be annoying, not only for those around him, but especially for himself. It’s not a great place to be.
The upside is his bikes are always meticulously maintained, fully Rule compliant, or they are in a state of tear-down having last week’s grease freshened up and each ball bearing individually polished. He’s gotten it under control quite admirably these days, and while a chip in the duco of his beautiful steel frame will still understandably piss him off, there’s not the slightest hint of sending it back to Italy to be re-sprayed by the 78 year old artisan who originally painted it, who inconveniently happened to retire in 1984. But you can rest assured the touch-up job he’ll do himself is of paintshop standard.
But I’ve never seen him muck around with his seatpost height. Not once it’s set, anyway.
This poses the question: did The Prophet have OCD? To this observer it seems so, if numerous viewings of Le Course En Tete and A Sunday in Hell are any reliable indicator. The guy was constantly fiddling with his seatpost height. His mechanic must’ve been ready to throw his hands in the air proclaiming “Merde, Eddy! I’ve measured it three times already! Why do you not trust me?”
It seemed to matter little to Eddy that poor Charly had adhered to the numbers scribbled on the lid of his toolbox, taken the slide rule and spirit level to every possible surface and angle, and used his impeccable line of sight to position the saddle just right, exactly where it was requested to be. “How’s that Eddy?” “Is perfect.” “Then why are you borrowing a spanner from RDV’s team car? Hmmm?”
If he wasn’t adjusting his saddle, he was adjusting his stem. If he wasn’t adjusting his stem, he was squirting water from his bidon onto his brakes. If he wasn’t doing that, he was simply laying down the law. The law of The Prophet.
Obsessive? Yes. Compulsive? For sure. Did it affect his ability to waste all comers? Not likely.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/brettok@velominati.com/merckx terryn/”/]
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@Rigid
Who cares how they run? What they look like on a bike is the real question.
on the question of saddle height, how much does frame geometry come into play? For a while I thought my #1 saddle height was a touch on the low side but then did the competitive fit and found, according to their calculations, that I was on the high side. Having just rebuilt bike #2 I figured I'd just replicate bb to saddle height from #1 (which felt low but was 'actually' high) and low and behold, the same height felt too low. This despite the fact that #2 has 170mm cranks compared to 165 on #1. The geometry on #2 is more upright and I have significantly shorter reach, so I wondered whether that might affect saddle height. I realize that a higher saddle will result in longer reach, but I'm basing the feeling of needing the saddle higher on leg extension. Anyway, I'm beginning to think, like @Calmante said in an earlier post, that precision here is a little misplaced and that the best results can be achieved on feel. And isn't that the essence of the v-meter?
@Marko
It's a Singular Gryphon. A British company run and owned by Sam Allison, (an Aussie we imported back here) he designs all the bikes and has them manufactured in the far east, and then has them all finished in the UK, powder coat and decals. He is building up a steady following and many Singulars also sell Worldwide.
The bike is obviously set up as a SS (although it will take a derailleur) with Thompson Masterpiece seat post and Elite stem. The handlebar is a Salsa woodchipper, bead blasted and anodized in silver (Salsa only do them in black). Wheels are Stan's Arch 29er set up to run tubeless mated to Chris King Clissic ISO hubs via DT Swiss Revolution spokes. I had the rims re-powder coated to match the frame colour. Brooks Swift Ti saddle and honey bar tape take care of the ass and hands contact points, crank is White Industries ENO 175mm arms x 34 tooth chain ring polished alloy with CB Eggbeater 11 pedals. Avid BB7 takes care of stopping duties with a 180mm disc up front, 160mm at the back.
It weighs just under 20lbs, which I think is quite light for an XL steel MTB. It's tons of fun and whilst I thought about getting rid of it recently I'm gonnna keep it and build a rear wheel with a Shimano Alfine hub to make it more useable when I go off roading with my buddies.
@James
Whoa, dude. I don't want to be misunderstood... I do believe that the precision that these formulas pretend to have is misguided, but I'm not a proponent of setting up "by feel" alone. Rather, use a formula to get you close, and then see where you are. The precision part should come after you have found your seat height, so that you can properly duplicate it. Like @frank mentioned, even a couple of mm is noticeable at times.
Do any of you notice whether or not your setups work as well when you're fatigued? I found that I had to tweak my setup to cope with my Novice VM legs throwing their souplesse out the window when I'm hooped, turning me into a hip-rocking square-pedalling mess. Turns out 5mm off the saddle height sorted it out a treat.
@Calmante
Yes sorry: after I wrote that I realized I had misrepresented what you said. I guess my point was just that having used a precision method to get an initial measurement, I found it interesting that the different geometry on my two bikes seemed to make the same height feel different. Less profound now I think of it but the fundamental question remains - should one aim for the same exact saddle height on every bike one rides, or might the height vary (slightly) according to how aggressive the frame is?
@James
Whatever works best, is the only answer.
@Dr C
holy smoke!! I haven't seen that in over twenny years. I loved that shit. If you bought it in London where can I get some?
@James
@Oli
I know it sounds like a frustratingly obtuse answer, but Oli's correct; whatever works best is the only answer.
@zalamanda
actually I got it in Belfast, so I imagine if you email them, they'll tell you who stocks it - are you in London?
Had another one last night - did 60K in the dark - trying to ride without eating, which backfired as I have a 250m hill between me and anywhere else, so bonked as I hit the bottom of it and made my slowest most miserable ascent in history - that said, Owd Rodger was in the fridge, and coursed through my veins like a transfusion with Epo added, and I slept like a baby last night!