New Saddle Blues
 

The past couple of months has seen my bikes go from sporadic use to daily use. The first thing I found when I started putting 20 plus miles per day on the bikes was pain due to the cheap saddles.

Last week I bought one of the Terry's Liberator Titanium Race saddles on sale for $39.99. Great looking saddle, but, now I am having fits getting it to fit. The area where my sit bones rest is substantially higher(about an inch) from my previous saddle and the new saddle is not a flat design.

For fore and aft alignment I did do the middle of the pedal check vs. knee with pedals in the horizontal position. I still get some knee soreness with this method. So I believe I should move the saddle slightly to the rear in spite of what "the book" says?

I went to the Wrench Science website to verify what correct fit should be and started from there as a guideline. Measuring from the middle of the crank bolt to the saddle, the website states that my saddle heighth should be 27.33 inches. If I measure to the forward area/flat area of the saddle, 27.33 inches puts the sit bone area very high and I get numbness in my legs. Dropping the seat tube height slightly the numbness is reduced.

My question to you people is: how do you measure saddle height on your bikes? Do you measure to the sit bone area or the forward flat area of the saddle?

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Neither for me , I usually try it in different positions a little at a time until it feels most comfortable to me.
:beer: :D

Ride around with a wrench for a few days.

.33 of an inch? How did they compute that.
What is the variability due the squishiness of saddles, the length of the crank, thicknes of pedal and shoe sole/cleat . About +- 1"

Put your saddle where you want it to go.

When it came time for me to buy a new saddle, I went to my LBS and asked if I could ride new saddles in the store. This actually meant that I rode the trainer with different saddles until I found the best fit. Now, after 500 miles, the saddle has conformed even more to my anatomy. The longer I ride, the harder I want my "sits platform". Good luck.

Well, even if your in pain, you MUST have your seat at an exact 27.33 inches...otherwise your screwed. If you drop your seat to where its comfortable....something bad might happen.
I have my seat at an exact 27.33 inches....just like they tell me.
Naw man come on....i dont think anybody measures how high they have their seat up....on my xc bike I just put it to where it feels good, and then if I have to lower it I scrape a line in the seatpost to know how far to put it back up!:D

Actually, 27 1/3 was a good starting point. Given a reduction for cleat height, the actual seat height ended up being closer to 27.1 inches - give or take a tenth or so.:p

Even so, the saddle sucks. I put on a Selle Italia Fluid and it beats the hell out of the Terry.