Are my hips moving too much and thus, suggesting that my saddle is too high?

Youtube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A37Cl3m6QLE&feature=youtu.be

Thank you in advance!

Dude, It's completely and absolutely impossible to say whether your saddle is even in the ballpark from a rear view. This video tells me absolutely nothing.
A side view would give all the relevant info

I understand. Here is a newer and better video with the side view:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A37Cl...ature=youtu.be

I'm a firm believer in adjust to feel and not adjust to look, especially since different people pedal differently, have different flexibility levels, and balancing power generation, aerodynamics and comfort require input from the rider.

These sorts of fit videos are popular on triathlete forums where they use their voodoo magic to artifically generate wind tunnel tests and smoke lines to determine if someone's fit is aero or not.

I do find it interesting that you avoid the drops in the video and that you seem to lock your arms quite a bit, suggesting you might have a little much in terms of saddle to bar drop. Take that with a grain of salt though. I don't get paid $100/hr to fit people.

The side to side motion could simply be from trying to push too high of a gear, although you do seem to be ankling a bit, so a too high saddle isn't out of the question.

I'll add a few points

First in the video it seems the in the lowest position the heel is pointing upwards in the lower most position of the crank. I get the feeling that if the foot was level in the lower most crank position the leg would be completely straight. This would indicate that the seat is a bit too high as you need to reach down with your foot to achieve a comfortable knee angle. This is of course individual preference. Some like the toes pointing down pedaling position.

I also notice the locking of elbows. All in all the position doesn't look too comfortable. as a few quick fixes I would raise the bar a bit, get a stem which is a bit longer and move the seat back a bit. Also you might want to rotate your hips a little forward to achieve a better hip angle. To me it looks like your sitting on you backside too much and not enough on the sitbones. opening the hip angle will also help with a lower position and breathing.

Best thing you could do though is to learn the basics about fitting. Like how every adjustment affects the comfort and power of the rider.
A few pointers.
Seat height affects injury prevention, aerobic efficiency, comfort and power.
A seat which is too low is both uncomfortable, low in power and aerobic efficiency and is prone to cause knee injury.
A seat position with a knee angle of 30 degrees is good for comfort and power but bad for aerobic efficiency.
A seat position with a knee angle of 15 degrees increases risk for injury for riders with limited flexibility bu maximizes aerobic efficiency.
The knee angle is usually measured so that the pedal is in the furthermost position from the saddle (crank is paraller with seat tube) and the foot is level on the pedal. This allows for the baseline and more individual tinkering for preference.

The seat fore aft affects the knee over pedal ratio, bike weight distribution and rider weight distribution.
A seat which is more forward will give a better high cadence performance and can give more power for high effort excecises. TT'ers and triathlonists have the seat extremely forward because 1) they get the power and 2) they can support themselves on the aerobars in a bone lock so arm/wrist comfort is not an issue
A seat which is more back will give more hand and arm comfort due to more of the rider weight sitting on the sitbones and legs and not the arms. It will also provide better torque and low cadence power. Care must be taken to learn a good high cadence rythm also as constant low cadence can hurt the knees.
The knee over pedal thingy doesn't have any actual science behind it. It's a good starting position but don't be worried if you end up in front or behind the KOPS. I like to ride slightly behind and too forward hurts my knees.

Reach improves comfort and aerodynamics.
Too little reach and the rider will compensate with the lower back. This will lead to trouble very quicly. Too much and your back and hands will tire. Usually too much reach is more easily noticed than too little. Sufficient reach is generally measured thus: when the rider is in the hoods riding position with the seat fore/aft position in the preferred position the arm and torso should create a ~90 degree angle. Give or take a few degrees. Amateur riders usually are in the area of 87-89 degrees when pro riders are in the area of 91-93 degrees (I'm actually puling these numbers from personal observations and not from actual data). An angle over 90 degrees will start to require additonal core strenght to maintain a comfortable position on the bike.
Preference with reach will change with hours on the bike. Don't be worried if you start shopping for a longer stem at the end of the season. Keep the old one though because when the next season starts you might very well need a shorter reach again. It fluctuates even mid ride. I have had instances where I left on a ride feeling stretched and returned scrunched. When that happens it's best to just suck it up. Stem swaps mid ride... well, each to their own.

Saddle bar reach
This is extremely individual. If one rides with the competetive athletic sense a lower position is usually better. If one rides with leisure or touring in mind a more upright position is better. There are some reasons for this.
A lower position will put more weight on the arms and hands. However the additional power one generates by oedaling will unweigh the torso so hand/arm comfort is not affected. This is why in touring a higher position is better since one is no constantly trying to push for more power. It would make sense to have different handlebar settings for recovery, normal and heavy riding.
The correct level of drop in competetive sense is the lowest position where you can comfortably maintain the hoods position for hours and ride the drops for about an hour or hours depending on preference. Being able to utilize the drops is critical so don't go dropping the bar so low the drops become unavailable.
More drop increases reach to bars so that needs to be taken in to consideration when doing adjustments.

Don't be afraid to try new things. If something hurts, change it. If you ever decide on a pro fit you will benefit from it so much more when you know what the fitter is actually doing and you can anticipate the changes/take use of them.
Take a hex key with you on rides and try out different things. Basically before anything else the bike should be comfortable. From there you can start with the performance increases (saddle higher, position lower etc). When you do changes however always take note of what the change was, which direction and how much so you can always go back if it doesn't work.

And lastly. If someone tells you millimetres make all the difference in the world they are most likely somehow illusioned by some weird thingy. I know a dude who lowers his seat depending how thick his chamois is... That is taking it too far. Stems are made by centimeret incerents. not millimeter increments...
At some point one might benefit from such behaviour but seriously, most don't. And you will feel if you need to do a change. Just have a rough baseline on where everything needs to be.

Don't know how much you actually need this advice but hope it helps.

That's what adjustable stems are for. Dual adjustable stems. Not a bad investment if you're serious about trying to dial in the right bar position. I only wish stores would have them to rent. So much of fit is personal and varies from person to person only you can tell if something is better. Fitters mostly fix gross errors and help guide you in the right direction.

This is the first thing I noticed in your video. It also appears to me your left heel is higher than your right heel at the respective bottom of each rotation. You appear to be rotating more than dropping your hips which could be related to the locked arm reach. I would first drop that saddle down a bit and see how it feels and try sliding the saddle forward a bit. Tape on the seat post and rails is a wonderful tool to get you back to where you were if you do not like the changes.

The saddle is as far forward as it will go. The bike is an XS and I'm 5'9'' so why is that the bike seems too big with only a 52cm effective top tube?

I'm not sure why the suggestion to move the saddle forward myself, but I'm not sure the bike is too big for you. You have more saddle to bar drop than you look comfortable with and you don't actually look all that stretched out to me. Do you feel stretched out? Do you feel lots of weight on your hands? My gut reaction is to lower the saddle, move it back some, and raise the bars to try dealing with the locked arms first.

I'm confused. Why are you riding a xs frame at 5'9"? I'm 5'10" and ride a 56cm!! Just asking.

It looks like your knees are almost touching the bar tops when you are out of the saddle.

If you are climbing or sprinting out of the saddle, with the bike moving side to side, how close do your knees come to the bar ends?

You should also ride, and film yourself riding, in the drops. How flat is your back, how flexed are your arms, can you comfortably ride in the drops for an hour or more?

My suspicion is that you are a little cramped - like the bar needs to move forward.

Your right I wasn't looking at the saddle position and looking at it again I have know idea why I suggested that. But it does look like the saddle needs to come down which will require sliding the saddle back slightly. The locking of the arms maybe more of a core issue from not being able to overcome the weight on your arms as Crescent has suggested and sliding the saddle back will help that.

When I rode more regularly I was more flexible. The bike hasn't changed, but I spent a few years riding a desk and running 50-75 mpw and riding my bike very little. I chose the smaller bike when I bought it b/c I was racing and the short head tube allowed me to feel more aerodynamic.

I switched stems recently just to change things b/c it felt like the bar was (wait for it) too high. I have a 120 stem that I'm going to install this weekend. My back and neck do not ache after riding and I feel quite comfortable- EXCEPT that as I began riding 2-3-4 hrs this winter on the trainer I've developed a persistent pain and tightness in the back of both my knees. I am certain that my bike riding is the cause of this pain b/c I practically quit running in December and the pain has not gone away.

I have never had a knee injury and even when I have been guilty of running too much, it never manifests in my knees- let alone, BOTH KNEES. My overuse symptoms from running occur in my ankles.

It has taken me several weeks to figure out that it is the bike causing my issues, but the knee symptoms are directly proportional to the amount that I rode on the day before.

Do a little reading a saddle that is too high can cause this. Front knee pain saddle too low and or forward, which was my problem.

That's very perceptive of you to notice the difference between my heel angle; my left leg is slightly shorter than my right.

Here's the latest video- on a DIFFERENT BIKE. I'm just throwing darts now trying to see if I can find the right coordinates and then maybe I can use those as a starting point to fit myself to my Scott. The Colnago is also an XS, but it fits much bigger and uses 172.5 cranks rather than 170mm.

New Vid Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEGY5...ature=youtu.be

I am curious what in particular made you feel your bar was too high. A bike feeling too something certain indicates something, but it does look like you have a tendency to lock your arms. Hands, wrists, elbows, shoulder, torso, saddle position? My gut reaction is still to try moving the saddle down and back.

In my case my right leg is shorter. I was able to eliminate my front knee pain in my right knee with saddle height but moved my left cleat back on my left shoe to account for the longer leg in order to eliminate the pain in the left knee. All is good now.

Your hips rocking could be related to the leg length difference.

Is that a UK bike? the chain rings are on the wrong side...

I've done much reading about this. The difficulty is that the feedback often is disassociated from the cause; in other words, it may take a few days for tightness or pain to begin so that it's imperative to make changes incrementally and also to take notes about the changes to track them and any subsequent symptoms.

One guy said that my knee angle on the Colnago vid was 142. Under current guidelines, I should raise my saddle 7mm b/c for a road fit, you raise the saddle 1mm for each degree shy of 150.

However, with my toes pointing downward, I don't think that I need to raise the saddle. In fact, raising it is what causes me to get pain the backs of both knees. Maybe my knee flexibility is not where it should be and certainly not where it will be after several weeks/months of consistent riding.

I believe that if I can be patient enough to slowly increase the saddle height as my flexibility improves that I will be able to eliminate the knee pains and also achieve a better knee/hip angle.

One thing that is baffling me is that my hips need to roll forward, but with my saddle at its optimal height and my fore/aft properly positioned, what else can I do to roll my hips forward? Should I lower the stem**********???

I would venture a guess that if your saddle is slammed forward on a bike that is too small for you with a steep seat tube angle, your fore/aft may not be properly positioned unless you are oddly proportioned.

back of the knee pain is absolutely saddle too high issue. Angles are guidelines. If something does not work for you, you don't have to go with it if it causes pain.

About the hip rolling. It also comes down on the saddle. Some saddles allow for hip rotation easily while some don't at all. Experimenting is since different saddles fit different people. I feel my Specialized romin evo is about as perfect a saddle I could have. I have it level, but it curves up from front and back so it supports my hip area. I don't have to put energy into staying in position. It has in my opinion the perfect amount of padding, ie. almost none at all and has a large cutout which allows me to rotate my hips more forward.

Hip rotation is something which comes with time and you need to work on it. It is in large part a flexibility issue. Can you get your palms on the ground with legs straight? Or are you just brushing fingers? Glute flexibility is the thing which allows for more hip rotation. Stretching can help you become more aerodynamic. You should'nt try to increase the rotation with a longer stem if it doesn't come naturally. You need to change the stem when you have rotated the hips naturally with added flexibility and notice the bike is becoming short as your effective torso length increases.

Saddle height and hip rotation work together in this. The most uber flexible pro riders can ride with a 15 degree knee angle and flat back. Most of us can't. If you have slightly more bend in the knee the hip rotation will be a bit easier as the hamstrings are not pulling on the hip. You can see this relatively easily if you bend forwards with knees locked (never do this other than in a test setting. Doing this while stretching is bad) you have more difficulty to reach down than when you have a slight bend in the knees. bend the knees even more and the reaching down gets easier as well. This is effectively what is happening on the bicycle.

To sum it up. You are putting pretty high requirements for yourself if you want to both increase the hip rotation and at the same time lift the saddle. I would advice to get the rotation sorted first and then start slowly raising the saddle. Do remember that we all have a limit on the rotation. Especially we males have something down there that gets in the way. So find your sweet spot and go with that. If you want to go further it may result in sacrifices in other areas of life...

I had a Specialized Toupe for years but switched to a Romin last year and this is exactly my perception. I used to be as flexible as a 2x4 but now it's a 4x4. The Romin allows me to rotate but takes the stress off my lower back with support from the the curved portion of the saddle, I'll never switch to a flat saddle again. The cutout is also perfect when in the drops.