I don’t know how a guy who shows off the better part of a half meter of seat post comes to the conclusion that his saddle is too low, but that precise thought occupies an enormous amount of time. Ever closer looms the minimum insertion point on my seat pin, yet I am irrevocably bound to explore its limits.
I actually wish my legs were shorter; long legs are only useful for the anorexic models who distort our youth’s self-image and for skipping steps on staircases. At the same time, I’ve spent the majority of my life wondering if my seat post was slipping; has my saddle always felt this low? In previous years, I have known better; the question will claw its way into my mind, usually when I’m struggling on a climb, and I will look at the strip of tape I’ve stuck around my seat pin just above the clamp and note that it has not curled up due to the pin sliding through. The saddle is at the right height.
These days, I’m riding a fizik seat post and fizik seat posts come with this cool little sleeve to mark the height. It works perfectly, apart from the fact that it doesn’t curl up like the lowly electrical tape does; were the seat pin to slide, the sleeve would simply side with it. Which means I have to judge the distance between height demarcations on the post to decide if it’s slipped or not. It used to be higher; I’m climbing this badly because the saddle slipped down a bit.
These are easy lies we tell ourselves; that the lack of performance is borne of a problem in our setup – our position or our equipment. Merckx was famously obsessive about seat height, why shouldn’t I be? I just make a casually deliberate stop at the roadside, swiftly raise the saddle a bit, and stage a Cyclocross Remount – the only way a Cyclist should ever board their bicycle once the ride has begun.
But then I got better at judging the marks on the fizik post, and was sure it wasn’t sliding. But still my power was waning and surely it wasn’t my form because I’ve been riding like a thing that’s been riding a lot. Perhaps my position on the bike is evolving, perhaps I should reconsider my stem length and slide my saddle forward to get more over the bottom bracket. Except that I’ve ridden happily in roughly this position for years – and in roughly the same form.
Then came the rains; they had been lacking this Spring, almost to a fault. It had been several weeks or even a few months since I’d been astride my Nine Bike. I set off, and was struck instantly by how comfortable I was, how fluidly the pedals were spinning, and how easily I gobbled up the climbs. Was I peaking today instead of in the usual Two Months, or was there something more sinister going on? There was no question of longer stems and saddles sliding forward; I had the usual sensation that I was in my element, that I was born to be in this position on two wheels and that walking was a locomotion I was leaving behind in my short-lived evolution as a human being.
Knowing the geometries of the two bikes – #1 and The Nine Bike – are virtually identical, I decided to revisit the measurements on #1. I measured the Nine and checked them against #1; the only difference was that the saddle on the #1 had crept up a whopping 4mm. Four millimeters over a saddle height of of 830. I climbed aboard her and set off, amazed at how good she felt. Immediately the power was back, the inherent comfort of riding a bike returned.
All over a lousy 4mm.
Fellow Velominati: we are all students of La Vie Velominatus. We must look to the future and seek to evolve; to experiment with new positions, new techniques, and with new technology. But we must also look to the past and recognize what worked well, when did change affect how well we ride our bikes or how much we loved it? To recognize the boundary between the evolution within us as athletes and to adapt to what feels good over time and those that erode our capacity as riders can be difficult. Sometimes we need a Sensei to help us recognize the difference, other times it will come to us through solitary meditation.
Embrace change, but also keep it at a distance. We should always be ready to return to the past and rediscover what worked before and apply it to the chance we face in the future. Vive la Vie Velomiantus.
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View Comments
Slipping carbon post, paste, shims? Could be the seat clamp/collar orientation.
Found info here
@unversio
Yes! The saddle can make all the difference. I went from an old Selle Italia SLR XP to an SLR "monolink" and discomfort disappeared immediately. Nearly the same saddle, but an improvement noticeable in a single ride. My LBS in Seattle has a program that allows you to try out saddles for a specified time. If you go on a decent ride, you should be able to tell if you get sores etc. Try them, I think it's the only way to know...
I have found that the curvature of the saddle is important, in addition to width. The flat top kind (e.g. Fi'zi:k Arione) require you to be a bit more flexible, whereas something that flares up a bit toward the back (e.g. Fi'zi:k Aliante) will allow you to sit on the curve a bit to assist in getting in a more horizontal position while in the drops etc.
@frank
I'm surprized that you even use the saddle when climbing.
@trenchfoot
I did look into such a possibility. I did an exercise to test and I could do it happily. Maybe it's worth looking into it more.
@frank
Stretching, or massage? I've had a massage every week for five weeks now. It was getting better but not I have ramped up the intensity ( lots of short hard efforts), I'm back where I started.
@Mike_P
@PeakInTwoYears
Me too!
@Mike_P
Yeah, there was a lot of talk about degrees and whatnot. I pedal a bit on my toes and he tried to fix that but gave up because it's just how I am. He did say "Pantani used to pedal on his toes a bit, and he went ok" and gave me a wink; that made my day really.
The best thing about the fitting was finding that I needed an orthotic innersole thing. I had one made up buy a guy who does them down here and in carbon fibre. That made a huge difference to how my legs tracked and thus my ability to maintain cadence. If a fat mess like me can still maintain 90+rpm going up then no one else has any excuses.
In the end though, the whole fitting ended with with my saddle too high and me bouncing about combined with a stem 10mm too long and about 10mm too low. Fine on a trainer with sensor dots on me, once on the road there was pain.
Sometimes you need help getting close to your fit but then need to back yourself with some decisions on comfort versus cool factor (slam the stem? Love too, my sack doesn't quite enjoy it though).
Frank one way to keep your seat from moving is to have the seat post nicely frozen into the seat tube like some people I know, who shall remain nameless. Assuming you don't get osteoporosis or any compression fractures, you're all good. Why should you have to move that bad boy otherwise?
@frank
You want a seatpost that doesnt move? Get a frame with an integrated seatpost, like a LOOK.
Allows for adjustment with the various size shims, and once you have your height dialled, there is NO movement.
Then again, an ISP even with no post removed, isnt going to be long enough for you.
I give mine a little check every couple weeks to make sure it is right at 68.8cm. 2mm either way is no good at all for me. So yeah 4mm that seams right for a big fella to notice. Maybe it's in my head sometimes but knowing that # makes me happy and I swear I can feel it in my old f-uped knees if its off.
Cheers
@Ccos
Indeed. Old school integrated seat post!