Possibly a pointless question because I don’t know many that swap back and forth. I just got thinking about this because I’m trying to decide between a 350mm and 400mm Gravity Dropper and the general vibe has been to get a 400mm. Now I should get on the bike to test how high I ever have the saddle but I can’t because my ankle is broken (hence all the posting…) I just have this feeling that because I ride so heels down on flats I’m getting full pedalling power with my saddle a couple of inches lower than someone of the same leg length on clips.

Any thoughts? This wouldn’t be an issue if manufacturers would get rid of bottle bosses on the seattube – I don’t want them anywhere but at least on the downtube they don’t restrict how far I can drop the saddle.

I have found in the past I tend to have full extension on clips to gain the most power. Whereas on flats I tend to have it a little lower and have a bit of give in my knee still on full extension to compensate for foot on pedal postion.

Also on flats I am riding more for fun than fitness so aren’t looking for best pedal power position.

Full height for pedalling uphill (may be slightly different height due to thickness of shoes/pedals over normal SPDs.
Down for anything else.

Bottle bosses are good please don’t get rid of them. Can’t be bothered with bladders anymore.

Yes,

When i used flat pedals on my road bike, I had to raise my saddle by a good inch at least, when I put clips on.

Bit of a wild assumption here: assuming that the Gravity Dropper internals are the same regardless of total length, then surely you can order the longer one and chop it down if necessary?

Full height for pedalling uphill (may be slightly different height due to thickness of shoes/pedals over normal SPDs.
Down for anything else.

This. **** my back good’n’proper to climb with my saddle below “proper” height.

Down for the downs though.

I find that the difference is huge. I have my saddle much lower on flats because I need to have my legs a lot more bent to stop me from bouncing off the pedals when riding through fast rooty sections and also because my feet are further back on clipless pedals, thus making my leg length effectively longer.

Cant say that I have noticed to be honest. I normally ride flats on more aggressive/technical rides so saddle tends to be lower due to that not the pedals.

I wont wear spds when pulling the kids trailer and when I swap the pedals over I don’t bother changing the height of the saddle.

Those of you riding flats with the saddle up way high, are you doing the racing bike pedalling where you’re dropping the heel on the way up and then extending the ball on the way down, effectively lengthening your leg? I do that on-road if I’m in a hurry but off-road the heel stays down more to keep me on the pedals on the rough stuff.

tim, I suspect you’re right about the GD internals – I did contact them and ask about being able to buy the outer tube as a spare to lengthen things but they seem reluctant to sell it individually. I’ve never needed longer than the 350mm post on my Boardman (though it is a layback so that adds a fractional amount of pedalling length) but Cotic have made me paranoid that someone of my height 5’10.5″ to be precise with average length legs (about 33″ in most trousers) needs a 400mm post, so it’s more a question of going longer than shorter. Right now I like where the saddle ends up with the 350mm post all the way down until it hits the bottle bosses, 50mm higher would be a bit annoying.

I swap betwen flats and spds quite often. I keep same leg stretch, but a pair of decent flat pedals and shoes will have less ‘stack height’ so I lower the saddle accordingly. I drop my saddle for tech sections anyway, cuz I iz rad.

yes. sometihng to do with the angle i pedal at with different pedals…

yes.

what bigjohn said about being bounced off the pedals.