Originally Posted by
Road Fan
Heldenberg already has knee pain, so I would advise not to make big changes in the wrong direction. So the first change should be rather small to limit the impact in case it is in the wrong direction. Often (at least in some books, like Zinn, Arnie Baker, and Priuitt) it is recommended to raise the saddle if the pain is in front or on the side, but I don't if that is a hard general rule. Caution in changing ride position was a key point made in "Road Racing, Techniques and Training" by Bernard Hinault and Claude Genzling. Claude migrated Bernhard to a different frame size, at the rate of about 1 mm per week. Of course then-Champion Hinault had legs worth a huge number of francs, but mine are quite valuable to me. It also tends to validate the idea that 1 mm changes are significant under some conditions.
But I'm not a doctor of any sort, just a cautious guy where it comes to my knees.
With all respect to yourself and to Le Blaireau making a small adjustment of 1/8” (3.2mm) is not going to hurt anything unless the position is already drastically wrong in first place. In that case the subsequent pain/injury should be the indication of how wrong things were and have been and should be followed by a big really big change in opposite direction. My suggestion to OP would be that if 1/8” did in fact make such a positive difference he should try another 1/8” or more in same direction.
Dropper posts encourage large changes all the time. Have not heard that owners of dropper posts are being injured. More like they learn the dropped position works pretty good.
Going back to vintage operation of vintage bicycles it used to be quite common for racers to grab a spare bike, any bike, rather than wait for a wheel change. This of course worked better when everyone without exception was using Campy 1037 pedals. What happened when racers grabbed a bike way too small was they adjusted in a mile or two and continued on as if nothing had happened. When they grabbed a bike that was even very slightly too big it was hopeless. No power and no possibility of a fast corner.
Using the Hinault regimen of 1mm a week it will never be possible to correct large errors. Most errors are large. The way to find out if an error is in progress is to try stuff. Mix it up, move it around. Bike position is not about micrometric precision. It’s cold outside, we all just got a lot less flexible than we were a month ago. Stuff as basic as overall height varies between beginning of ride and end of ride. Varies with time of day and how well we slept last night.
Speaking of winter, riding lower, getting the center of gravity down, is enormously safer. No reason to care if the ride is a little slower in January. My long term experience is that once any rider puts the saddle up too high they are married to that position. Nothing, not even repetitive injuries, not repetitive surgeries, will make the saddle go down. So my new tack is put it down for winter. Might save a crash on the ice. Might allow a recovery from a slip on that one wet leaf. And after a month or two with the saddle down it might turn out that is where the saddle stays.