Judging by the number of people I see on the road rocking their hips and pointing their toes to reach the pedal at the bottom, there are a lot of people who don't share your perspective........is all I meant.
Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
Re: Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
Bike fitting D.I.Y. .....http://wheel-easy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/bike-set-up-2017a.pdf
Tracks in the Dales etc...http://www.flickr.com/photos/52358536@N06/collections/
Tracks in the Dales etc...http://www.flickr.com/photos/52358536@N06/collections/
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Re: Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
I think one reason for incorrect saddle height is poor pedalling style. I see a lot of people with their knees stuck out like a scally on a BMX. Your knees should almost brush the top tube*. This affects saddle height because, when your knees are sticking out, you need the saddle lower.
*Moultoneers will know this makes the bottle bosses unusable, but Moultons were always more about form than function
*Moultoneers will know this makes the bottle bosses unusable, but Moultons were always more about form than function
Re: Do you just want to say older bikes are better by starting these threads?
There's so much could be said about this observation ...... I know both from my own behaviour and that observed in others that what makes many humans "happy" is often very bad for them, for their interests, for their family and friends, for the rest of society, for the planet - and in fact isn't even making them happy, as all they're doing is scratching a mind-fashion itch and making it itchier. If only we could stop absorbing the programming of the mass media, eh?Tangled Metal wrote: ↑4 May 2022, 1:33pm Personally I think people put bar and saddle heights at levels they are happy with. I don't think that's a new or old thing.
As to saddle height, it's taken me a lifetime of slow and intermittent experiments to get it so that I'm "happy". All those sprurious "reasons" I followed in the past, from "both feet on ground" to "look like a Tour racer" were tried until I could admit my "happy" was somehow "unhappy". Even now, I find that changing circumstances, from getting a new pair of shorts to growing older, means I have to go a-searching-oh for "happy height" once more. Just yesterday I tried a 0.5cm drop and found it pleasing ..... so far.
Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes
Re: Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
Same observation, but I think that the causation is often the other way round. And sometimes related to "both feet on the ground".rogerzilla wrote: ↑9 May 2022, 10:01pm I think one reason for incorrect saddle height is poor pedalling style. I see a lot of people with their knees stuck out like a scally on a BMX.
Jonathan
- warey4life
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Re: Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
I notice a lot more how some people struggle up hills in a really high gear.
Last edited by warey4life on 29 May 2022, 10:37pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
Yep. Agree.rogerzilla wrote: ↑9 May 2022, 10:01pm I think one reason for incorrect saddle height is poor pedalling style. I see a lot of people with their knees stuck out like a scally on a BMX. Your knees should almost brush the top tube*. This affects saddle height because, when your knees are sticking out, you need the saddle lower.
*Moultoneers will know this makes the bottle bosses unusable, but Moultons were always more about form than function
Brushing the top tube is good, and the bottle fitted on the seat tube of a Moulton takes some getting used to. I'm always conscious of it and can feel it as a I pedal along.
Mick F. Cornwall
Re: Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
Is that because the seat-tube on 'modern' frames is too steep?
Does any one remember a thread - possibly a couple of years ago - where the writer had received a new custom-built-to-measure frame on which the seat-tube was so steep that he couldn't get his saddle far enough back? It seemed to me to be an awful situation and the frame-building company should have been taken severely to task. I can't remember the name of the original poster - or the title of the thread.
Re: Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
Yep. I think people are pedalling with knees out cos their saddles are too low, not having their saddles low so they can pedal with their knees out.Jdsk wrote: ↑11 May 2022, 12:41pmSame observation, but I think that the causation is often the other way round. And sometimes related to "both feet on the ground".rogerzilla wrote: ↑9 May 2022, 10:01pm I think one reason for incorrect saddle height is poor pedalling style. I see a lot of people with their knees stuck out like a scally on a BMX.
Jonathan
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Re: Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
I bought an Arundel aero bottle and cage to sort of solve the problem. It's a horrible bottle.Mick F wrote: ↑12 May 2022, 2:12pmYep. Agree.rogerzilla wrote: ↑9 May 2022, 10:01pm I think one reason for incorrect saddle height is poor pedalling style. I see a lot of people with their knees stuck out like a scally on a BMX. Your knees should almost brush the top tube*. This affects saddle height because, when your knees are sticking out, you need the saddle lower.
*Moultoneers will know this makes the bottle bosses unusable, but Moultons were always more about form than function
Brushing the top tube is good, and the bottle fitted on the seat tube of a Moulton takes some getting used to. I'm always conscious of it and can feel it as a I pedal along.
Re: Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
Also makes it easy to give your bike the fashionable "high saddle low bars look".
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How is that getting a comfortable position - or am I missing something? In my book fit is everything - not fashion. I'll leave that to you
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Judging by the number of people I see on the road rocking their hips and pointing their toes to reach the pedal at the bottom, there are a lot of people who don't share your perspective........is all I meant.
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Well I couldn't disagree with you. I wonder if those people just ride short distances? I can't belive they aren't saddle sore through taking too much weight on the saddle.
When I changed shoes from the winter ones I had to lower my saddle by a few mm - the soles were a different thickness. I could feel the difference without difficulty.
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How is that getting a comfortable position - or am I missing something? In my book fit is everything - not fashion. I'll leave that to you
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Judging by the number of people I see on the road rocking their hips and pointing their toes to reach the pedal at the bottom, there are a lot of people who don't share your perspective........is all I meant.
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Well I couldn't disagree with you. I wonder if those people just ride short distances? I can't belive they aren't saddle sore through taking too much weight on the saddle.
When I changed shoes from the winter ones I had to lower my saddle by a few mm - the soles were a different thickness. I could feel the difference without difficulty.
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Re: Are saddles too high on modern bikes?
On sunday, I came the nearest yet to flagging a fellow cyclist down and telling them to sort their saddle-height out.
Middle-aged guy on a sporty hybrid, all dressed-up for exercise. He very obviously had short legs and a long back for his height, and he had the seat set so high that the rocking was actually painful to watch, and his feet were like a ballet dancer on points at the bottom of the stroke.
Going along behind him for a bit was bad, truly bad, and I bet he gives up cycling, or buys an e-bike, "because its too difficult".
Middle-aged guy on a sporty hybrid, all dressed-up for exercise. He very obviously had short legs and a long back for his height, and he had the seat set so high that the rocking was actually painful to watch, and his feet were like a ballet dancer on points at the bottom of the stroke.
Going along behind him for a bit was bad, truly bad, and I bet he gives up cycling, or buys an e-bike, "because its too difficult".