Leisesturm

I've been thinking about fit because of some lengthy discussions about fit in some recent threads. I decided to use my relatively extensive collection of accessible riding platforms to explore fit in some detail. One of the areas of controversy in one of the recent threads was the "elbow to the saddle nose, fingers to the bars" method of calculating "reach". One poster wondered if varying saddle dimensions might not make this an arbitrary measurement at best. It turns out he may have a point. I was of the notion that all my saddles were 10.5" long but this is not true for two of them, they are longer by an inch (25.4mm).

There is an aspect of fit that is frequently reported here and has become something of a truism: the perfect saddle is an elusive quest and you must sample a few or maybe several different models before you find your perfect match. I don't know... I find it hard to believe that a person has to buy three or four $90+ saddles to find the one that they will be able to live with. I am convinced it is the way most of us sit on our saddles that contributes to the often excruciating pain and sometimes permanent nerve and tissue damage from bad saddles.

It is usually quite clear where a given saddle design expects a rider to put their ischial tuberosities (sit bones). My educated guess is that a large percentage of riders sit well forward of that point, rarely ever rearward of that point, and as a result have very little support for their sit bones but have a lot of pressure placed on the tender tissue in between these bones. Tipping the saddle nose up only makes the pressure worse! Simultaneously with the pain in the ***, the new cyclist is contending with pain in the hands from too much weight on them for which the go to solution is usually a more rearward placement of the saddle... ...

After measuring the seat to bar distance of all six ridable bikes I've come up with an experiment along the lines of @jyl's suggestion to collect data on various rider dimensions for a comparison database. It occurred to me to directly measure the distance from the centerline of the handlebars as they pass through the stem clamp to the point at which a perpendicular to that central axis would pass through the widest point of the saddle, or, the point clearly designed to received the riders buttocks. For my best fitting bike this was 28.5". It does not exceed 29" for any of my other bikes.

I feel strongly that when pain enters a bike/rider relationship the response should always first be "what can I make shorter", not "what can I make longer". Pushing saddles rearward makes the distance to the bars longer and increases the stretch to the bars. Bad idea. If hands hurt you can raise stems, get shorter stems or bars with shorter reach or more pullback. Moving saddles around should be to fix problems with torso and leg relationships, not to solve hand pain issues. FWIW.

H

Dfrost 

Remember that bars have a variety of reach and width dimensions, and measuring to the centerline at the stem fails to take those into account. Brake position on the bars can also make a substantial change In effective reach. I measure from the center back edge of the saddle to the tips of the brake bodies for consistent reach distance to eliminate those variables.