Hi,

I have been riding my boardman road sport (claris drivechain) quite a while. It is 57.5 inch frame size the largest of it.

I have been analyzing setback effect on my power:



(1). I use the saddle above. My original setback way full back. This way I noticed my arms were very relaxed. However whilst riding I thought this wasn't my full power and hence point 2.

(2). I moved setback from max to 0 units if you can see the picture effectively moving the saddle forward by say 10 units. I noticed this opened up my hip angle but I didn't see significant power gain. And mind you like this I have hard time turning 50x11. I raised my saddle to compensate for setback but again I didn't see any real gain in terms of power. I have thought about this whilst riding today and for some reason I couldn't maintain the same speed that I did in point 1, and this seems strange because I thought opening hip angle will allow me to put more power on the big gear.

Now I am confused to either move "further" saddle forward or revert to my original position (as in point 1). My other concern was hitting of legs when using point 1 setup when I wanted to get aero.

I read stevehoggs website which stated that setback shouldn't be extremely back otherwise I will not be able to produce more power so according to him hence point 2. It also stated that cleats should be maximum back for endurance riders which raises another query whether engagement of calves might be necessary and to do that I might need to move cleat forward as it is rearward at the moment to get more power of course.

Personally I am 6 foot 2 inches and don't know if it helps. But in the end all I am trying to do is get maximal effort for the pedal stroke.

Back story: I have used to time trial on road bike using point 1 setup. And also used point 1 setup for club runs. I am thinking whether my experiment has failed by changing setback to get more power.