Like, the post is usually set so the part where you attach the saddle rails is facing the rear wheel, I'm wondering if it's possible to rotate the seat post 180 degrees so when I attach the saddle, the part I'm attaching it to is facing the front of the bike.

In short, can I reverse the seat post to get the saddle just a tad closer to the pedals?

(my fore/aft position is currently set all the way forward using only the saddle rails as adjustment)

If it works, then yes.

It'll look funky. Why not get a 0 setback post? Ritchey WCS posts won't break the bank.

Of course you can. Are you on a tri bike?

On a CAAD9 road/racing bike. I figured it'd be better to ask than break the post because of wrong positioning. But then, I doubt I actually weigh enough to break through metal.

I don't want to get another post because, well, I have this one, and I'm a poor college student.

No, you can't.

I just tried it, and I managed to get the post reversed & the saddle leveled, but it didn't seem to help very much with the fore/aft position; in fact I think I might even be farther from the knee-over-pedal ideal now. Weird.

Edit: I test rode it & it felt better than before, so I guess I'll keep riding like this and go from there. Why do you say you can't reverse it, by the way?

depends on the seatpost, and whether its possible to get the seat level with it reversed. Some seatposts will let you do this.

sounds like you need a smaller sized frame

or pay for a fit

And here I thought this was a parody thread.

Yes, reversing the post was popular with triathloners before tri-specific frames with steep seat tubes were widely available.

There are forward seat posts (Profile makes one) for the purpose of poor-man TT set ups.

I've tried it on some seatposts and the angle won't allow the saddle to be level, but if it works...

Just an update: I rode on the reversed saddle for a week or two while I eventually bought a replacement head stem; 80 mm instead of 110 mm. The replacement just arrived today and I installed it & placed the seat stem to its original/intended position. Now when I look at the front hub from the hoods, it's completely covered. The fort aft position is more or less fixed too. Success.

A final question: when I'm on the drops, am I supposed to be ahead of the hub or is it still supposed to be completely covered? (as it is, I'm a cm or two ahead of it)

As someone with freakish dimensions, you need to be where you are comfortable. At 6'1", I am most comfortable on smaller, more compact bikes. This means shorter stems and saddle slid forward, but not too far as to break THAT rule about the knee and the pedal axle.

Not seeing the hub is, at best, a rule of thumb. If you have two bikes which are the same except top tube length, the shorter bike with a longer stem with less rise (or more drop) may fit the same as the longer bike with a shorter stem, but the position of the hub will be different relative to the bars.