I bought a Schwin bike seat for the wife because she wanted something cushy. I got it on there and the second she gets going on her bike the seat flips up. I tightened it up again and the same thing. Is it worth fighting with this seat or am I better off getting my money back?

I don't know what your wife needs but a "cushy" seat is not a good or comfortable thing IMO. Good luck.

Before getting your money back I’d verify that you’re installing it correctly. Maybe post pictures here or take it to a shop.

Take it to a bike shop.

In the brief time my wife was riding her new bike, she also played the saddle swap game. A obscenely wide Schwinn saddle was one of the many she tried and liked. But only for a few rides. Then it'd be another saddle that felt great.... for a few rides. I'm pretty certain that if she continued to ride the bike that eventually when the saddle swap game played out, that the original saddle the bike came with would be back on the bike.

That's pretty much how it worked for me long ago when I too played the saddle swap game.


As for your saddle tilting. You either aren't tightening the clamp bolt enough. Possibly you have some of the parts mismatched in the wrong order. Or it might be missing a piece. I believe I had to take back the first one we'd purchased for her because of a missing piece.

The seat flipping up is a problem with the seatpost clamp, not the seat. So swapping it for another seat isn't going to help. A photo might help to show the problem.

The saddle is going to be wrong and the old saddle might not have been an issue it could have been poor adjustment for the rider. However if the position of the saddle on the seatpost is moving like others have said that is a clamp issue and that may require a new seatpost of higher quality or taking apart and reassembling the one you have currently and using a mild threadlocker or proper grease and torque.

A good saddle should be supportive of your sit bones and should be the proper width for them. Too wide or narrow and they aren't properly supported and too wide means you could easily chafe your legs or have to move forward on the saddle. The padding can be there but too soft and "cushy" and you are compressing padding till you get support which creates pressure points and that creates pain. However number one goal should be to make sure the old saddle is properly set up for her. Make sure it is adjusted fore and aft, the angle is right and the height is right and she rides it for a decent bit to confirm. That is always important and frequently over looked.

perhaps it's outside allowed range of the rails.

The proper torque is tightening the bolt until the metal makes a concerning creaking noise, then backing out a quarter of a turn.

Uhm... No.

I think Larry was attempting to make a poorly judged joke. Not cool under these circumstances.

If the clamp is this style, there's a good chance the grooves in the mating surfaces have been flattened (a very common occurrence), in which case a new clamp is needed. Six to 10 dollars.

Believe it or not, these can be tricky to adjust and tighten correctly. Once the correct angle is set, the nuts must be tight enough to prevent the slipping that damages the clamp.

Sadly one never knows. I know people who tighten nuts and bolts like that. As a side note, within the Ural motorcycle community, a Russian motorcycle, the joke is, tighten until it breaks, then back off a quarter turn.

That's a very old and possibly universally known mechanic's joke. Probably doesn't date back as far as Archimedes, but I wouldn't put much money on it.

Yep, and in very common usage within the Russian motorcycle community, and is the common reply when asked about a torque specification.

And throughout the rest of the world, judging from how often you come across it. One similar joking suggestion, for fixing a problem by using more force, that I've heard from a few mechanics in different businesses in Baltimore: "Put some Johnson on it."

There's a reason why Larry is on so many block lists.

I tighten all my bolts like this. Except I don't back them off.

Ah, yes, the tractor seat. I started with one of those; it was fine for about five miles, and then the chafing started. Thus began my saddle journey, each one with less and less padding, until my ideal saddle turned out to be a Brooks B17 Softened; super comfortable right out of the box and I can ride it forever.

@topher5150, you might want to make sure your wife has a properly sized saddle. Unless she's sitting bolt upright, it's unlikely a super wide saddle will be comfortable for long. Below shows you how to measure. I wish her many happy miles on her bike!

I gave up that fight long ago....but then again the majority of her biking is on the trainer for a little bit of exercise.

To try to please a non-cycling spouse, we changed saddles and bicycles many times. But the $3500 tandem that was only ridden 3 or 4 times as a 'cycling couple' was the last straw. Sometimes cycling with a spouse is a pipedream.

I think I picked that one up when a coworker made a joke about "What do you mean by tight, Italian tight, German tight, Japanese tight? I forgot what country was associated with what I said.

None of the above. Judging by how many Teslas are reported to have missing bolts, maybe what you described above is Fremont tight?

Yes, everyone knows that the correct amount is "...and then just a little more."

Geez, you guys don't know anything.