is my seat too low?
 

i'm 5'5 and i have a 49cm frame. my saddle is raised only about 1-1.5" off of the frame. i was riding with the seat all the way down until i learned how to properly adjust my seat according to my leg extension height.

i'm just a little curious because most people i see have their seats raised incredibly high.

My bike seems to fit me very well and there is only about an 1.5" of seatpost. I think the guys with long seat posts have issues, ya know?

well, it depends on how long your legs are. knowing how tall you are doesn't help anything but speculation.

rule of thumb: put your shoes on, get on your bike, and touch your heel to the pedal. your leg should be almost straight. therefor when you put the ball of your foot on the pedal, your knee is slightly bent. you should not be able to lock your knee - if you can, your saddle is too high.

When I first started riding a bike after a few years i never really understood seat heat either until i bought my first fixed gear and then understood better why the seats are high.
I guess what you want is an almost straight leg extension, some people (my friends) will say totally straight, others will say a slight bend. I had my seat almost all the way down on my IRO and didn't understand why going up a small incline would kill my quads, and then as I rode, the higher my seat went the less energy I was exerting for small climbs and it was way easier to ride.

The amount of exposed seatpost will depend on how your frame is sized.
If you can easily stand flat-footed over the top tube of your bike with clearance, you'll probably have a bit of seatpost showing. It also depends on the BB height, though thats a smaller factor (since there isnt a huge range) than then bike size.
You want a small bend in your knee at full extension while riding.

your friends that recommend "totally straight" legs are idiots.

Is my seat too low?

does my bike fit?

Be nice.

:roflmao2:

In an effort to properly answer the question, to the original poster:

Do you have a camera?
Can you take a picture of your bike?
Even better, can you take a picture of you sitting on your bike with the pedal (the one facing the camera) in the 6-o'clock-position?

then we could tell you for sure. But basically, the heel-on-the-pedal method mentioned above works pretty well.

Can you extend your legs? If you can extend them more without straightening your knees completely, raise your seat. If that position hurts your knees after some riding, put it down a little.

true story saber sabes. you should be able to comfortably place your HEEL on your pedal while its at 6 oclock without leaning over at all.

your knees will thank you. and your friends should start saving for a "wheelchair fund" :D

you want a slight bend in your knee at the 6:00 position.

i know, im fully aware that you should have a slight bend in the knee :p but i do know some people that prefer (for whatever reason!) theyre legs to be straight. I dont advocate it. Dont kill me, im just the messenger!
Anyway-my wheelchair will be sure to have rockets on the back

PS-Are you in LA yet? I remember you mentioning you were moving to SaMo

nope, decided not to **** over the landlord and wait the lease out til the end of the year. then its most likely going to be off to west hollywood or ktown. looked at some places on my last trip that were super hood, but what can i do? i wanna live there, ill make the sacrifices i have to make.

Taller people will not only have larger frames, but there will be more post showing (longer legs) and the saddle-bar drop will be greater (longer arms). Its all proportional. Frame size and human stature do not have a 1:1 relationship. I'm 20cm taller than you, but I don't ride a frame thats 20cm taller with a 20cm longer top tube....a frame that size doesn't exist. Naturally, on properly fitted bikes, taller people will be running more post and longer stems than munchkins.

Yeah that sounds about right.
My girl friend is 5'4" on roughly the same size bike, and has roughly the same amount of seatpost showing.

But people fit on bikes differently.
I am all legs at 5'11" and ride bikes in the in the 53-55 ST range because anything bigger normally has me stretched out to much in the TT.
I buy bikes based on my TT measurement, and ideally ride a 100mm stem, and then adjust saddle height accordingly.
Easier to do than getting a stubby stem, and screwing up my steering.

I just adjusted my seat. I gave it a little raise since my knee was slightly bent when my heel was at 6'0'clock. Now it's practically straight and slightly bent when My foot is in my clip. I hope It feels better.

If your seat post is too low you'll quickly develop symptoms of chondromalacia if you ride over 30 miles per day. Biggest indicator of this is knee soreness/stiffness from sitting down with your knee bent.

Having your seat too high is just generally uncomfortable and it'll make it harder to spin high cadences.

^^^^
TRUE

There are plenty of online resources that help you get proper fit, but the nearly straight leg extension is probably the easiest and most accurate to follow. You know if the seat is too high when you are pedaling at high cadence and notice your hips having to shift side to side to reach the pedals.

the heel on pedal method didn't work too well for me. 1.08*inseam worked much better. It's pretty much spot on.