Riding position and saddle comfort
 

I see a lot of posts regarding saddle comfort, shoe/foot comfort, hand /glove, getting "fitted" for a bike etc. The idea behind a comfortable ride is a balanced position. Not too much weight on the bars, or saddle, and sort of making your body a hammock between the two. Riding over rough sections of road or trail ones behind should lift off the saddle slightly and suspend above the saddle. Your arms should be bent and loose to absorb shock.

I see a lot of bikes pictured with the saddles tipped down in front. If anything the saddle should be tipped up in front allowing your behind and back to slump back and relieving any undo stress to your arms and hands.

There is also a current trend toward steep angled seat tubes that position one right over the bottom bracket. This may be advantageous to the Tri-athelete but for the average rider it puts you to far forward on the bike. Shifting your weight back can relieve the pain from constant pedal pressure if you are to far forward. Pawing the pedals and ankling are more efficient if you are sitting back in the saddle.

I find myself adjusting my position, moving the saddle fore and aft, tiltring the bars, raising and lowwering the stem frequently. My fitness level is fairly weak so I tend to look for a riding position that gives me the most comfort to how I am feeling day to day, ride to ride.

Just my two cents and hopefully a some helpful observations.

I pretty much agree with your observations but I'll add that saddle angle depends a lot on the saddle shape (and your shape of course) - I don't have any saddles that tilt down but all of my more modern saddles are level while my Brooks professional and Cinelli Unicanitor tilt back slightly and my Brooks Champion Flyer tilts back quite a bit. The one thing my new saddles have in common and that is different from my older (or older design) saddles is that they are completely flat. Setting the saddle level works perfectly - you don't slide forward and the nose doesn't press into your tender spots. The older ones always seem to have a dip in the middle that forces you to angle them up. I had to tighten and lace the Champion Flyer to make it rideable for that reason.

Hmm. I'm tallish (6') and ride frames that people always say are too big for me. It's true that the frame size I like is too tall to allow me to stand over the top tube. However, the longer top tube lets me stretch out my body in a way that lets me feel comfortable.

I say this because I always feel cramped on "properly sized" frame--even with a long-extension stem. On these "smaller" bikes, of which I have a few, I always feel like my weight is too far forward (especially with the long-extension stem!), and that there's too much weight on my hands, which I HATE! On these bikes, my saddle is always maxed out in the rearward position, and I'm always wishing for more.

I've tried adjusting the saddle nose up, which allows me to slide some weight rearward.

However, I don't like it. In traffic, I like to be able to slide forward sometimes to prepare to stand up, and I don't like having to hoist myself over the saddle. Plus, when you ride a non-anatomic leather saddle, it just seems threatening to the personal plumbing infrastructure.

Depending on the type of riding you do, you can make a number of modifications for more comfort, but I have found that these all result in power loss on road bike frames. Not that I care--I'm a total, er, what's the word for the guy with his bars way above his saddle?

My $.02.

Eric

My Brooks Pro is essentially level, but when it was new I had to point the nose slightly upward to avoid the tendency to slide forward, which caused all sorts of handling and stability problems and put too much load on my hands.