Originally Posted by
ridethecliche
Go out for a ride and find your comfortable spot on the saddle. Once there, hold your left or right foot down at the bottom of the stroke as you would while pedaling. This is assuming your cleat position accounts for any discrepancy in leg length.
When your foots at the bottom of the stroke in your normal pedaling motion, push down with the foot that you have at the bottom of the stroke. If your butt rises off the saddle, your saddle's too low. If you can't apply pressure to the pedal at the bottom of the stroke, your saddle's too low and you'll probably have trouble with hard corners.
I think that your advice is confusing people. Experts advise that the leg have a 25-30 degree bend at the bottom of the stroke during normal pealing. Saddle height will vary depending in the amount of heel rise that the riders finds to be "normal". If you start with a height that places the foot horizontal with the leg fully extended at the bottom of the stroke, it takes about a 3cm rise of the heel to create that 30 degree angle. Riders who pedal with a relatively horizontal foot would find this height too high and some who raise the heel even more will find it too low.
If you put your foot down at the bottom of the stroke and try to push up without pedaling, the heel will naturally drop to nearly horizontal and there would be no raising off the saddle, just like my suggested starting position. If the rider pedals flat-footed, that height would be much too high, with the leg near full extension at the bottom of the stroke, rather than having a 25-30 degree bend.