Originally Posted by
PeteHski
There you go, this is my point. There is no real consensus among fitters about saddle height - presuming you are a bike fitter right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJDeVD5YTo0
My personal n=1 experience is that I have far more margin for error on the low side of saddle height. I can drop my saddle a good 20 mm below my preferred height with no significant issues. But if I go 20 mm too high I'm in a world of pain. But that's just me.
I think you misunderstood my statement. Most fitters put people at pretty similar saddle heights, because most of us are using goniometers to set a knee angle between 25 and 35 degrees. Which is also the same as using 88.3% of cycling inseam from the BB, or 109% of inseam to the bottom pedal. I haven't run into a professional fit that departed greatly from this.
What I was saying is that I've encountered a lot of cyclists riding around with their saddles too low. They have likely not been fit. If another fitter has seen the opposite, that doesn't mean anything about how either of us determine saddle height, since I don't know why his observations occured.
The OP's second fitter delivered more extension by knee angle yet at a lower saddle height. Those numbers don't compute, suggesting poor measuring technique or just measuring to an unexpected part of the saddle.
In terms of too high or low, low does hurt knees. Too high can cause all sorts of problems, but is less predictable because some people will adapt to it by pointing their toes down, which they can tolerate without injury. That isn't to suggest that a high saddle is beneficial, just that it can be non-harmful for some people.