- Right, yes, you did read right in that thumbnail
and that's how to ride with your saddle at full mast height.
'Cause us dudes at the GMBN are all about the dropper post
and telling you how great it is.
How to get it down, out of the way when you're descending,
when you're going out in rough stuff and all that.
But we never talk about the old, trusty seat post.
I learned the hard way. I learned to have it up high.
So I'm gonna show you a few ways,
how to ride with your saddle up high.
Let's go.
(upbeat jazz music)
Okay, this is tip number one,
before you drop into the trail,
just lower that saddle height by a half an inch or an inch.
I've lowered it by an inch,
just to give you that little bit more clearance
between your backside and your saddle,
especially when you wanna get up off the saddle
and shift your weight over the back wheel
when your descending.
So when you've lowered it that much don't worry
because your pedal efficiency is gonna be the same
when climbing and on the flat roads.
(upbeat jazz music)
(sighs) Right.
Thing is when your having your riding,
your saddle up high like this at full mast,
your riding style will change.
When I have my saddle slammed on my drop post,
quite low down, I let my body bounce around the bike,
super aggressively, I can throw it about,
be nimble, all that jazz.
But having your saddle up high,
my riding position changes a lot.
My body weight, my torso, I lower it.
So it kind of matches my top tube
and I'm quite precise and I'm thinking a lot more
where to put my body weight, on the bike, out on the trail.
What I do know is, that I do use my saddle to push grip
and my body weight through to that back wheel
or through down to the wheels
or through to my bottom bracket
to find a little bit more grip on the trail.
Especially if it's like a little g,
a little force like here, see this little dip?
I would sit down, lower my outside foot, sit down,
push on my saddle, let my body weight bounce on that saddle
to keep that body weight and that grip
on my tires through the trail.
It's interesting, it's different.
(upbeat jazz music)
Wow.
Look how sexy my bike looks with a high seat post.
Look at it.
Look at it, it's like built for a mission,
I'm gonna conquer this mountain.
Alright, anyway enough of that,
let's talk about cornering because that's the next thing.
And I quite like having a high saddle when doing cornering
because kinda sit into it to transfer my body weight
through the seat post, down into my pedal,
and on to my back wheel
and get as much grip down to that wheel
in a turn as possible
and kind of push out through to the next turn.
Not saying you're gonna just sit on your saddle
and just bounce away and get through enjoying it.
That's enjoying it too much and it's not cost effective,
you're not gonna get enough pump,
enough speed to carry out through down the trail.
Also, when I find myself stood up over the bike
and my legs are kind of way more stretched
and it's pushing my body weight over the front
and I haven't got enough grip in the rear
when I'm doing a turn.
So, I find sitting down slightly,
to get as much weight down to that rear wheel
to get more grip is cost effective
so you can carry on through the trail.
(upbeat jazz music)
Alright, when it comes to another technique
of sitting down into your high saddle
is when you come to a flat turn like this
and you're coming in quite fast,
so you wanna get as much grip down to your toes as possible
and being stood up over the front end, I always say,
there's not enough weight on the rear to get grip.
So, I kind of sit back into the saddle,
put my foot out and just let that saddle,
sit into that saddle to transfer all my body weight
through to that rear wheel to get maximum grip
on this kind of non-existent, burmed corner,
then down there into the trail.
Oh man, and to be quite honest,
sat down on your saddle foot out,
makes me feel so moto, feels good,
feels aggressive, feel like I'm in control.
Sat back, in an arm chair, being aggressive.
Sat in an arm chair, being aggressive.
Sounds good, let's keep going.
(upbeat jazz music)
Right, perfect having the saddle up when climbing,
'cause it makes it super comfortable.
You can sit forward and stuff like that,
but when the trail gets rough like that,
having the saddle up is (laughs)
It gets a bit shaky, it gets a bit loose as well,
because that saddle is gonna be bouncing up into your bum,
it's gonna be pushing your weight forward
over the front of your bike.
When you're descending,
you don't want your weight over the front,
you want it all over the back.
This brings on to line choice.
You gotta pick your line very wisely.
So, it's all about line choice,
so you gotta pick the nice, smooth line
to stop that saddle from bouncing up around.
I can see a number of lines here.
I can see the outside line, I can see a center line,
I can see a high line.
The high line, the beginning of it is a lot of roots.
It's gonna be rough.
The down side, this side here, is quite smooth,
but I'm scared I'm gonna clip my pedal on this.
The only choice I've got, I wanna do actually,
is to go over this old stump right here.
What one can predict is that when I lift up my front tire,
my rear wheel's gonna hit that
and it's gonna be pushing my front,
my back wheel up and the saddles gonna come up
and it's gonna bash me in the backside.
Moving on through the trail.
So, I think that's gonna be the hard, the roughest bit,
a bit of a sketchy bit.
Now, there's two line choices,
basically there's three, I can see.
'Cause you got the outside one, you got a middle one,
and you got the right hand side one.
For me, I'm gonna go right.
It looks smooth, there's a lot more roots,
but it's smoother, where as the middle here
has a little bit more rougher roots, bigger roots.
The outside one here has a big drop,
so I'm gonna keep my wheels on the ground
through this section here
and into that next turn.
(upbeat jazz music)
Okay, there you go, there's a drop, there's an obstacle,
there's a jump, now that's daunting.
When jumping having your saddle quite high up.
Oh I recommend if you're gonna hit any obstacle,
dirt jumps, whatever, trail flat tabletops, whatever.
I recommend just slamming that saddle.
It's gonna be better, it's gonna be safer,
'cause you don't want that saddle hitting you in the bum,
sending you way over the front, in the air
and your doing this and you land like this
or it just throws you over the bars.
That's not cool.
It's scary, it's horrible, it's unsafe.
So, you need to adopt a different body position
with a high saddle when it comes to obstacles
such like this little drop right here in front of us.
What you wanna do is have your elbows bent,
you wanna get into that little bit of a press up position,
you wanna bring your torso quite low to your bike.
So you're bringing it quite level with your top tube.
That brings your body weight quite central to the bike,
plus you wanna let the lip,
you wanna let the take off do all the work.
You wanna bring in that bunny hop technique
to clear the obstacle as well,
but it's all about keeping your body weight quite central
to the bike, you don't want it to be too far back,
'cause that's gonna send you over the front.
You don't want it too far forward,
because that's still gonna throw you over the front,
especially if the lip is a little bit sharp,
it's gonna hit that back wheel and send you over the bars.
(upbeat jazz music)
Whoo, I got a few tips on how to ride
with your saddle quite high up into your backside,
but your riding technique does change.
Hopefully these little tips help you out
when riding your saddle at full mast.
Just remember, when you're gonna hit some jumps,
please I can't stress it enough, lower that saddle,
'cause it is quite dangerous, it's not very safe.
And also when you're at the top of the trail,
it doesn't take much, undo it, lower it as much as possible,
get that saddle away from you,
'cause you're gonna be a little bit more comfortable
out on the trail.
If you are worried, maybe sketch it, mark it,
so you can put it back up when you get to the bottom
to the right height.
So, hopefully these all helped you out.
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