Originally Posted by
Prowler
A friend is a trained and certified bike fitter. I saw that he measures reach from the front of a saddle vs the sit bone position. "Are all saddles the same length? I measure from where the sit bones are." "Ah, that's what they taught us." Hmmmmm.
Yup. I measure from where my sit bones park. Even with superficially similar saddles, or variations of the same model from the same maker, there are just enough differences that measuring from the nose or rear is good only for a rough baseline setup.
Ditto using the rail marks. Those aren't uniform even with different model saddles from the maker. And rail/saddle angles may not be identical, especially if one saddle has a more flexible shell for rougher terrain. So I can't just transfer the same rail alignment from one bike and saddle to another slightly different bike and saddle.
After that I'll ride a bit wearing my usual kit (pads in shorts/bibs make a big difference in fit), figure out where my sit bones like to park, then measure from that area.
That usually gets me within 1 centimeter of the sweet spot. After that I'll tote a multi-tool or necessary individual tools in my pocket for a couple of test rides and make adjustments during rest breaks. After a couple of rides it's pretty close to perfect.