Lawrence08648

I met someone who was sold the wrong size MTB a few years ago. She only uses the bike for trail & path riding, not as a MTB in the woods. It's a 19" frame and she should have a 17" frame. She has an offset seatpost. I turned the seatpost around today and leveled the seat. Any problems doing this? The offset is now forward facing rather than rear. I didn't know if this would put undue stress on the seatpost head and break.

I was also either going to put a much shorter stem on the bike or an adjustable stem.

Retro Grouch 

I'm surprised you could get the saddle level after reversing the seatpost.

fietsbob

well ,in effect, now the bike has a really steep seat tube..

you could shop for a zero set back seatpost
the clamp directly on top of the post.. with those..


she might be better suited not to be on a men's geometry bike frame.
mountain bikes can be pretty long in the top tube length.

Trek for 1 has WSD frame designs. Terry company is built around fitting women.

FastJake

Well, the saddle should only be set in relation to the pedals. It has nothing to do with reach. That is adjusted by the stem, handlebars, and of course the frame itself.

The saddle should be set in the proper position for pedaling and THEN the reach to the bars should be set. But honestly, if this is only used for short slow rides it will probably not matter either way. When my mom rides her bike around at 9mph fit is not all that important...

Bezalel

There is no mechanical problem turning the seatpost around but you're just trading 1 fitting problem with another. You should look for a shorter stem, look at BMX stems if you can't find a MTB stem short enough. There was an article in one of the Rivendale Readers about putting a stem on backwards but I don't remember when it was.

Retro Grouch 

When you're holding a losing hand the sooner you get out the less you'll lose.

Basically, your friend has a bike that doesn't fit. Doing a bunch of goofy stuff, like turning the seatpost around is likely to result in a bike that not only still doesn't fit but that also can no longer be sold.

Lawrence08648

Retro Grouch, I agree she was sold a bike that was a size too big. Many shops either do a poor job fitting or they sell the wrong size bike, either from fitting ignorance or to reduce inventory and make a sale.

Turning the seat around may screw up the correct knee pedal axle alignment. I went over this with the boyfriend and what we may do is install an adjustable stem that will bring the handlebars higher and closer or go with a steeper and shorter stem.

hueyhoolihan

i have an MTB that will allow me to reverse the seatpost and still mount the saddle at the angle i want it to be at (about level). it's close, but doable on mine. and i can also mount the saddle fore/aft at just about the same distance with the seatpost reversed, again it is close, by moving the saddle back in the clamp. YMMV,

it surprised me a little too.