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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I can't find my ideal height, up and down like a yo-yo on a weekly basis. Changing between MTB and road bike doesn't help either, as I prefer a lower saddle on MTB for heel drop and control.
@Sam
Yeah see I think I've found your problem.
In all seriousness, I always feel awkward on the commuter, especially after riding #1 in the morning before work. I just can't bring myself to slam the stem on the commuter. Area of personal growth maybe
Excellent post.
I've been struggling with bike fit for ages, even visiting a retul witchdoctor to see if I could cure certain ailments... like my penis feeling like it doesn't exist (it does, I check thoroughly each morning).
I've found my perfect saddle by trial and error (thanks prologo, fuck you SMP) but the height is an issue.
I'm a fatty and when fatty climbs, fatty hurts; this particular fatty loads up in the quads, mid to high up in them. Do I need to add 2mm height? Do I need the saddle forward a bit more to get over the BB a bit more?
It's a vicious, consuming voodoo that can, and will, wake you up at night with ideas that see you scurry from the bedroom to adjust your bike, much to the VMH disdain.
After dropping a nice bit of jingle on a mad scientist of a guy to perform my bike fit, I have been terrified to adjust anything for a year. Recently I have dropped my stem, and was nervous as hell I'd be mid climb suffering some unforeseen pain in a mysterious location. Two days, 220 km, all is well. Change embraced....
@Owen
Slam it ... dropped mine last year and haven't looked back. I have found that the more completely -badass I look the less grief I get from drivers... also I made an interesting observation this winter that on Rule#9 days I have never had anyone chirp / honk / swerve at me in fact I get more room and courtesy ... maybe it is simply rule#9 effect, where a guy drives by and goes holy Fuck that dude is hard as nails, and if he is out here in the sleet and snow 20km from downtown I best not Fuck around with him ...
@frank That fizik doughnut thing is like a valve stem cap: it serves no useful purpose, especially if you already mark your saddle height with tape. Please dispose of it.
I often think my saddle is too low. When I raise the saddle my undercarriage tells me otherwise. On the other hand, my knees are not telling me my saddle is too low.
My knees were telling me I was too low. My undercarriage begged to differ. It was a problem throughout 2013. In December I got a fit from the cleats up. I'm further back, I was not too low, I was too far forward. As a result my knees are fine, my perineum is happy and I have found power I never knew I had! Should have spent the money for a fit years ago!
Hrmm. The illusive perfect fit. I felt pretty good 18months ago but wanted to make sure I wasn't builing up to an RSI so got said Retul witch doctor to check things out. Minor mods, too short and high a stem, seat too far back. Fast forward 18months and I have a case where my left quad & ITB ache/burn when the right is happy. For three or four months now I have not known what to do about it and done nothing. There is a "guru" by the name of Steve Hogg down south but he'll cost me just over $1k for the flights and fit. I've been thinking the cleats are to blame, should I get rid of the red and go back to yellow and I need shims? That's a lot of coin to drop to be told... "oh, your fit is fine".
So here I am, reading this article. I think I will take your advice, pull out the Retul fit chart and check #1 to make sure all is where it should be...
@Puffy tried the blue cleats?
My Retul fit really only got me in the ballpark, which I found odd considering how expensive it is.
Nice one Frank! Appreciate your articles.
I know how you feel. Today, I dropped my seat by 2.5mm. That's the width of the allen key I needed to adjust the sleeve on the post. The seat post is just right now. It's enough to drive you mad!
I wonder what height it will need to be next week?