Gary’s Blog

While out riding today I passed an older gentleman who was riding a comfort bike, he was seated darn near sideways on the bike, his head hung low and his face was filled with pain. He had committed a Newbie cycling mistake that most of us just starting out are guilty of, his saddle was WAY TO LOW!

There are more times than I can count or remember where I have seen people out riding who were obviously cycling neophytes. You see them coming from a mile away, you notice them because their knees are pumping wildly up and down and usually their shoulders rock back and forth. Once you get close to these folks they invariably have a look of disdain and discomfort on their faces, and viola, their saddle is inches too low! To an experienced cyclist this is a sure mark of a cycling newbie, the only thing that screams Newbie more is the dreaded Rookie Mark (AKA Chainring Tattoo.)

It’s a fact that bicycle saddle height can quite literally mean the difference between a life time of comfortable and pleasant riding and a short lived love affair with your bicycle.

But let’s first discuss the difference between a bicycle seat and a bicycle saddle. Some folks (myself included) call a road, mountain or comfort bicycle seat a “saddle,” this is because when riding these types of bikes much of your weight is supported by your hands and legs as well as your posterior on the saddle, hence you are straddling the bicycle much like you would straddle a horse. On a recumbent bicycle things are situated just a little differently, you are literally in a “seated” position and all of your weight is supported by your posterior on the seat. This article will discuss saddle adjustment for road and comfort bicycles that use saddles only.

If you think back to when you were a little kid you probably adjusted your saddle height so that both feet could be placed flat on the ground. The idea obviously being that when we stop we can put a foot down and not have to get off the seat, or perhaps we did this because we believed that we might be able to prevent a crash.

I am here to tell you that there are only three good reasons to adjust a bicycle saddle like this;

1) Bikes for small children - this method is very helpful for very small children just learning to ride because the child can easily put their feet down to prevent a fall.

2) Mountain Bikes - on a mountain bike there are times when it is safer to have lower saddle height for safety and agility reasons. We won’t be discussing mountain bike saddles in this article.

3) Banana seat bicycles - this bicycle type is strictly a “don’t I look cool” bike and is in no way an efficient choice for anyone seriously considering riding over 2 or 3 miles (I’ll explain why in just a minute.)

Those of us who have been cycling for a while and who take it fairly seriously learn from friends and other riders that we should adjust our saddles so that, when seated on the bike in a normal riding position each leg is almost straight when the pedal is at the bottom of it’s rotation arc.

The reason for this is two fold and is based on scientific studies completed on elite level athletes and recreational riders alike:

1) Extending the leg to near it’s full extension length generates much more power to the pedals and is the most efficient way for a human leg to pedal. The largest muscles of the legs and gluteus are doing most of the work. (think pushing down and pulling up, the motion is also akin to walking.)

2) Much less stress is placed on the knees. (when peddling with a low saddle height you are peddling via the knees and are performing a scissor action, the knees are delivering most of the power and taking most of the stress)

Ok, so lets go back to our childhood when we had the seats adjusted way down low, you’ll remember that while pedaling your knees would rise up to near handle bar level or higher and if you pedaled up a hill it really hurt! You might have even hit your chin with you knees a few times! The idea of riding 5 miles brought fear to many of us, but some of us did ride those distances in this poor position, and we paid dearly for days with aching legs! Without knowing it we were killing our knees and making our muscles fight each other… Cycling any distance like this simply isn’t enjoyable!

But there is a better way! 

So without further ado, here is a step by step method to adjust your saddle height for maximum comfort and maximum peddling efficiency:

1) Dress in your usual cycling clothes and put on your usual cycling shoes.

2) Mount the bike and get into a comfortable riding position, you can position your bike in a doorway or near a wall and use one hand to hold yourself upright, or better yet have a friend hold the big upright by the handle bars, they should also observe as you peddle and look for the rocking motion mentioned in step 7.

3) If you normally wear a cycling jersey place a handful of loose change in your jersey cycling pockets.

4) If you use clipless pedals, click into your pedals, otherwise place the balls of your feet over the pedal axles.

5) Rotate the right pedal until it is at the bottom of it rotational stroke.

6) When adjusted properly your knee should be bent at an angle of approximately 20 degrees. Once you have this set proceed to step 7   

7) Pedal backwards at a moderately slow pace (about 30-40 rpms,) your hips should not rock and your leg should be nearly straight when the pedal is at the bottom of the stroke. If you are wearing a jersey and have placed the coins in the pockets as described in step 3 you will hear the change gangling if your hips are rocking while pedaling, this means your saddle is to High.

Go for a ride of several miles, your legs will need time to adjust to this new position but you should notice a difference (it will be MUCH easier to pedal) immediately.

Over the course of several days make small adjustments to your saddle height to find the most comfortable height for your style of riding. Make adjustments in ¼” increments and always allow several miles or even better several days of riding between adjustments, your legs need time to be acclimated to each new position.

Notes:
1) As your riding level advances you may find that raising your saddle a bit more will give you added efficiency. My thoughts on this are that as your legs get into better condition your legs are able to extend more efficiently and thus you gain a fraction of an inch in usable leg length, however, you must be very careful, if your knees begin to hurt chances are you have raised your saddle to high.

2) Saddle Tilt Angle – Women are usually more comfortable when their saddles are adjusted so that the nose of the saddle and the rear of the saddle are level or slightly nose down, generally no one likes a saddle where the nose slopes down noticeably since you will continually feel like you are sliding down off the saddle. Men on the other hand often prefer to have the nose slightly higher than the rear of the saddle. (Google “bicycle saddle angle” for more info)

So take what have learned, adjust that saddle and take a ride! Your legs and posterior will thank you and you will no longer look like a newb!

Until next time, enjoy your bike and spread the word!
Gary

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 12th, 2007 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Cycling, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.