- [Simon] Despite the trend in recent years of people spending loads of money
getting a bike fit, if all you want to do is get your saddle in the right place,
that's not actually necessary. Here are a few simple steps that will mean that you
can get your saddle position in the right place.
Now, at the end of the video, I'll also compare it to my current saddle height
and position, and then we'll see whether or not these methods have actually got me
close to where I need to be.
We start by adjusting the saddle height. Now, a great way of doing this is to put
your bike on an indoor trainer, but you can actually do it out on the road
as well. Just be careful. So jump on your bike. You want to put the heel of your
foot on the pedal, and at this point your leg should be locked out.
But we're also now going to actually try and pedal to make sure that your pelvis
isn't rocking from side to side. It's remarkably difficult.
So you can see that my leg isn't quite locked out at the bottom of the stroke,
so I perhaps need to put my seat up a little bit.
I think that's ballpark.
Right, with the saddle height roughly ballpark, we're now going to look at how
fore or aft your seat is. Now, to do that, the adjustment is normally made by just
loosening one or two bolts on the seat post here, depending on the design of it.
And before we actually start, I've got to stress that the bike must
be completely level, so we've already been at it with a spirit level to make
sure that this is going to work. Then it's a case of using a
plumb line. Hmm. With your feet in normal riding position now,
you want to have your cranks horizontal, and then you need
to drop your plumb line from the bony bit at the back of your kneecap.
That should bisect your pedal axle.
So this is called the Kops method, and it does have its critics.
We'd be the first to admit, in fact, that it's got its limitations, so you will need
to fine-tune, kind of depending on what sort of rider you are.
If you ride in quite a stretched-out position, then you'll
probably find you need to move the saddle forward slightly.
Whereas, if you ride in a very relaxed position with upright handlebars
and a shorter stem, then you may need to go backwards.
Next, it's really important to make sure your saddle is level.
If it's tilted up slightly, it can put a little bit too much pressure on some
rather sensitive areas. And if it's pointed too far down, then it puts a lot
more weight through your hands, and you'll find yourself constantly sliding forward
on the saddle. So we think that horizontal is best. If you're racing,
the UCI tell you you have to have it horizontally anyway, and to check,
all it is is a case of getting your trusty spirit level out again,
making sure your bike is on level ground, and then adjusting it accordingly.
So we need to pull that slightly nose-down.
Once you've performed those three measurements, you then need to jump back
on your bike and go through it all again, because obviously, if you've adjusted your
saddle height after you've done the forward and backward, then that will have
a bearing on where the seat is placed. If you can, get someone to film you whilst
you're riding on the turbo trainer, and then you can get a real idea of how
you look when you ride. You particularly want to pay close attention
to your pelvis. You don't want that rocking at all, because that can
get really quite uncomfortable.
Now, we do also have to say that to get your really personal bike fit,
then you do have to take into account a number of other different factors,
like your flexibility, for example, or, perhaps more importantly,
whether you pedal with your toe down or your heel down. That has quite a
significant bearing on your saddle height, for example.
So, once you've got it ballpark, then you can fine-tune it to make sure that you
are comfortable and powerful. Powerful!
As we said at the very beginning, there is some debate as to how you find the exact
saddle height for you. But here are a couple of other methods that you might
want to try to see whether you can get it a bit more fine-tuned.
Now, first of all, do you have a goniometer? No, no, I didn't think so.
Neither do we, in fact. But you can pick them up for not too much money.
And if you get one, then what it does is it allows you to do the Holmes method.
Now, essentially, it allows you to measure the angle of your shin bone in relation
to your thigh bone. Holmes worked out, through quite a lot of research,
that the optimum angle for this bit here was 25 to 30 degrees when you're at the
bottom of your pedal stroke.
Another method is to measure your inside leg. And I'm going to apologize
at this point. We've tried to think of a way of doing this without it
looking so weird, but we can't. So the best way is get a long spirit level,
to put it between your legs, nestle it snugly to mimic the sensation of a
saddle, and then measure the distance from the end of your spirit level...
I'm not joking...to the floor. Now, I will take my shoes off first,
because I don't want them to alter the value of my inseam,
but I'll need to find a willing accomplice to measure this.
Anyone? Anyone want to measure it?
- [Man] No.
- I'm going to have to find a wall or something?
Take a note of that. Right. According to this, my inseam is...
well, 875 millimeters. Then, the next thing you do is you take away 10
centimeters from that, and that gives you your saddle height value when measured
from the center of the bottom bracket axle to the top of the saddle,
inline with your seat post. Complicated.
So there we have three methods for calculating your saddle height,
and one of calculating how forward or backward it needs to be.
But we said at the beginning of the video that I'd test it to see how it relates
to my own personal position that I've honed over the years.
So first things first. This is currently set up for the heel method,
and I'll measure from the center of the bottom bracket
up to the top of the saddle, and it comes out at 760 millimeters.
Now that is a quite significant 15 millimeters below where I think
I should be, which is 775 millimeters. But interestingly,
the final method of measuring my inseam actually gave me exactly
that figure, 775 millimeters. Now, that doesn't really mean anything
for the general population, but perhaps, in this instance for me,
the inseam method was better. However, I do have to say,
neither of them take into account the length of my cranks.
So in this instance I'm riding 172.5s, but I normally ride 175s.
But then what happens if I was on 167.5s? It's a fairly big variation there.
And also, it doesn't take into account the stack height, both of my shoe
and of the pedal, which can be a quite significant value there.
So the lesson from all of this is that all these methods will get you ballpark,
but you have to fine-tune it for yourself to find which is most comfortable
and most powerful.
Make any adjustments to your position, then do so gradually, because actually,
you can end up injuring yourself more by changing to the correct position
than you would do if you kept with your old position. And it's always a good idea
to make a note of where you started so that you can always go back to the
original position. So take a measurement from the center of the bottom bracket
to the top of the saddle, and from the nose of the saddle to the handlebars.
And that pretty much tells you your rough parameters.
To look at another aspect of your bike fit, which is how high and how far away
your handlebars need to be, why not click up there and watch a video specifically
about that? Then, to adjust your cleats on your shoes, we've got a video
about that. Just click down there, and you can go straight
through and watch it. Finally, to never miss another GCN video, which I'm sure
you don't want to do, why don't you subscribe by clicking on me?