pbass

Recently, I started playing around with my saddle height on my 27.5 hardtail while out riding---leaving it my optimal riding height for climbing and non-demanding stuff, and then lowering it as far down as it will go for descents, tricky stuff, and whatnot. Previously, I'd just been practicing using my body position behind the saddle, etc. I'm a relative noob, so just curious--there's only about 1.25" difference between the two settings. I do think I feel some of the potential advantages of doing this, but do other folks typically mess around with saddle height on hardtails during rides?

skol

never mess with my saddle height - get back behind saddle in some cases for more control otherwise use the hover over seat technique when descending

Zephyr11

That's the entire idea behind dropper posts...raise it to pedal, drop it to get out of the way. They're pricey though. Anyway, for extended descents, it's worth lowering. For shorter descents, eh, you can decide whether or not it's worth the extra effort to play with it manually. I'd mark the seatpost with a marker so you know what your pedaling height is (that's what I've traditionally done...wears off, but you can remark it every so often.).

pbass

Yeah, so far, I've done it where there's been a lot of up and down so I kept finding myself climbing with the seat all the way down, which definitely didn't feel ideal.
I think I'll save it for when I know it's an extended way down as you say. My seatpost has these nifty little lines printed on it so that helps a lot.