Positioning observations and questions

[Jay in Tel Aviv]

It doesn't rain here from April through at least October, so today the
fenders came off my Sam and I took it for a ride in the hills for a
very decadent lunch with some friends in their yard. I was in France
last week with my wife, so she took the kids and lots of leftover
cheese in the car. Good time.

Anyway, the Sam is set up my commute, which is a pretty flat 15 mile
round trip. I've been putting my saddle a little farther forward then
usual lately and cutting a few minutes of the ride, noticeably faster
and quite comfortable. This ride was in the hills, about 20 miles each
way, and I found that I didn't like the forward position on the ups.
So I put the saddle back a bit, which was much better, but slower back
on the flats. Also, despite a lot of playing around with saddle tilt
etc I couldn't really get to a comfortable position. One thing I
thought about trying but didn't was to tilt the handlebars (Noodles)
toward me a bit.

Does any of this conform with popular wisdom on saddle position? Is
there such a thing? I've been fooling around with this stuff for years
and haven't gotten it right yet. It would be great if someone could
list a few rules of thumb.

Jay

[Jay in Tel Aviv]

Or possibly my position was fine to start with and the problem was my
flatlander
legs. :)

Jay

[Mojo]

As an aside to your observations, I remember my mid-80s (I think) Trek mountain bike came with a seatpost that had a quick release for set back adjustment. And the post had a long slot to allow for waay setback position. In practice I never used it.

 

I have always found spinning with an attempt at high power output puts me "on the rivit," on the nose of my saddle. Sustained climbing finds my butt on the back of the saddle. There is a sweet spot that allows efficient spinning and climbing from the same saddle position. For me that position has moved back 1/4 inch after I graduated from competitive cycling.

[EricP]

The Sam Hillborne has a slightly slacker than average seat tube angle if I remember correctly.  Something like 71.5 degrees instead of more common 72 to 73.  So, yes, a slightly forward saddle position may change things for the better for some riders.

 

On my SH, the saddle is all the way back, and it can sometimes feel like getting off the sofa when standing up on the pedals.  It's not noticeable if I ride that bike a lot.  Becomes an "aha" moment if switching between bikes.  (As an aside, don't notice anything like that on my new SimpleOne so am assuming the seatpost is less slack.)

 

Eric Platt

St. Paul, MN