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Old 03-24-09, 08:49 AM
  #21  
Longfemur
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Formulas are just a rough starting point at best. There's no way for any seat height formula to take in pedaling style, intensity of effort, and most importantly, the saddle setback you need because of the length of your thighs. The farther back you are, the lower the saddle has to be. And that's not even taking into account other things like the thickness of your shoes, the stack height of the pedals, the length of the cranks. Even the height of your handlebars affects the saddle height that works best for you, believe it or not.

The best you can do is to try the heel on pedal method and at the other extreme, the so-called LeMond formula (which actually has nothing to do with Greg LeMond as such). The heel method will probably be too low, and the LeMond method may or may not be too high for you. So, try different heights in between and see what feels best. The higher you are, the more power you can put down, but on the other hand, you are limited in this by the need to actually be able to ride on that saddle, and too high starts limiting your ability to spin smoothly. It's a compromise, and most people whose living does not depend on winning bicycle races should probably err on the side of comfort.

At a good saddle height, you need to be able to ride in all hand positions, including the drops. The drops is where you see if your position is right, because if your saddle is too low, you will feel like your knees are coming up too high (and you may even start to pedal by flaring your knees out at the top).
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