Originally Posted by
Road Fan
Not really paradoxical. The rear part of the saddle is wide enough to handle your sitbones. If you slide forward (kinda "fall off the platform") you'll be on the narrow part of the saddle, which causes perineal pressure. So raise the nose a bit at a time until you are set on the wide part of the hanging leather. If your bones feel the cantle plate you are sitting too far back. Then use whatever method you use to re-assess your leg extension, you might need to raise the saddle. Nose going up means butt is going down, so you might want to raise the saddle to adjust. This could also affect your knee position, but maybe just see how it feels after you get this much adjustment finished. Nothing wrong with changing to a setback seatpost, however!
If you slide the saddle back, you should probably again think about leg extension and adjust saddle height. I usually need to reduce saddle height as the saddle is adjusted back.
So here's a question. When Selle says to raise the nose 1/8 - 1/4" up from level, what is considered level? I can run a spirit level from the top of the nose to the highpoint in the back. Is that considered "level?" If so, even with the nose raised 1/4", the rear section of the saddle, the part where SA had made the pair of sit bone marks, that section is not level...that section is sloping down towards the front. If my sit bones are to rest on a section of the saddle that tilts forward, then I'd certainly expect to slide forward.
So the question is, what is considered a "level" saddle?