Originally Posted by
Unglued
Great article, thank you for sharing.
Raising the saddle has helped quite a bit. I adjusted based on the average of the different methods found online. (Lemond's chart seems to have gotten me near where I want to be). Based on that, it was actually about 1.5cm too low. I may be a tad (1mm or so) high now. I feel some tightening/stretching in the back of my legs at points.
I have some residual pain from when the seat was low in the petellar and quad tendon, but nothing like what I experienced before where it was a global ache in both knees.
I also did the fore/aft alignment (KOPs) as well. I think I'm in a good neutral spot, maybe slighting forward as some recommendations said being a little more forward is less detrimental than backwards. Seat tilt is currently level.
I have a few questions on fine tuning... What is the best bet for climbing. Should I adjust a little more forward or backward? I have a lot of medium sized climbs and any 15 mile route could include 900ft of elevation change over multiple hills from 2-12% grades. I spend most of my time climbing seated, if that makes a difference.
Also, Speedplays seem great. May be my first upgrade as I move along with this.
I can't say anything about pedals, save that I still use toeclips.
It's good that you raised your saddle - if I was low by 1.5 cm I'd be quite in pain! Too low gives you pain in the front of your knee and too high in pain in the back of it - at least, these are the rules of thumb.
Regarding front-back - your body doesn't necessarily move forward because your saddle is placed forward. For some of us, the body wants to pedal where it wants to pedal. For me, the lower the back position that I want, the farther back my butt wants to be. Think of it like a deep ski tuck versus a shallow ski tuck, or a shallow squat versus a deep one.
When your butt gets in the optimum position you are balanced over the pedals (expect some discussion on this point!), and based on your core strength there is a minimum of weight on your hands. Where the saddle comes in is that your butt placement dictates your sit bone location, and that is where the wide part of the saddle has to go.