Originally Posted by
Rhinelander
I've seen some real naturals recently. Little movement in the saddle.. took me 6 months to learn when I was 14. Every other ride, our trainer wouldn't let us push anything above 52/15 to acquire what he called a "round" tread. Designed to keep our butts quiet which helps the transfer of energy to the legs. And practically because most sanctioned european B youth classes (14 to 16 if I remember right) were restricted to those gears and rear derailleurs were checked for that (if you had anything below that on your rear wheel), as the 52 max on the front end.
I suspect a lot of riders today set their saddles higher that people did 30+ years ago. Quiet butts/non-rocking hips is a result of not-too-high a saddle and a hip closure that is not too extreme (rising foot does not come up too high).