How do I work out my perfect saddle height?
Im sure there is a test one can do.

try 4ft3″

Thanks GW – just what I wanted to know.

My left knee ‘might’ be knakkered and have been told it may be down to my saddle height.

Is there a formula I can work it out? Im 180cm tall – inside leg is 81cm. – for you oldies – 5’11” or 71″ tall and inside leg is 32″.

Leg should be straight when heel is on pedal.

This then means that when pedalling your leg will have a slight bend at the bottom position.

Use this as a starting point and adjust as necessary.

My 2p – if you already have muscular/skeltal issues then a proper bike fitting with a look at whether you need any shoe inserts would be the best route to take. You probably need a bit more care than the ‘heel on the pedal axle’ standard method.

I usually start from being able to put my heel (whilst wearing cycling shoes) flat on the pedal with my leg fully extended whilst the crank arms are in line with the seat tube and work from there.

Hope that makes sense

Pressume you mean for a road bike?

Depends on crank length, BB height surely.

15 degree bend in knee when full stroke and balls of feet over axles is near enough to start – from there move up and down a mm or so to perfect it.

If its an MTB then mine changes throughout the ride depending on terrain.

How do I work out my perfect saddle height?

you can’t.

get a bike fit. best £60 i ever spent. carlton road clinic in southampton

What Jase said.

On a MTB. I never move the seatpost. Thanks for all input. Any other methods worth trying?

Think about getting some decent orthotics made for your cycling shoes, they can make a big difference to knee and ankle alignment. I got some after dislocating my knee a couple of years ago and they’ve really helped me.

I never move the seatpost.

have you never even used the wonder that is ‘woods height’ ?

For what it’s worth, Ive found that the amount of layback on my post can cause me knee problems.

I swapped my layback Thomson to an inline on my singlespeed after getting a bit if knee trouble and it cured it.

The main techniques are explained here but they should only really be used to find a starting point which you refine.

the cost of a fit analysis isn’t that great when you consider how much you might spend on seatposts, stems, bars and everything else in pursuit of getting it right otherwise.

Try the Specialized Body Geometry Orthotics – you don’t necessarily have to go the whole hog and buy the shoes, too. But it’s a good place to start, and their shoes are pretty great.

The diagnosis sounds pretty vague, too. Might not be saddle position – or it might be a bunch of stuff *and* saddle position. Spending on a bike fit is worthwhile, but don’t go spending loads more on other stuff.

I looked at this a while back as my son was intent on having his too high so his hips were rocking.

Various sources but I will not say which is more correct than the next, however…

http://www.bikefitting.com/English/Theory/SaddleHeight.aspx

http://sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html

http://www.ebicycles.com/bicycle-tools/saddle-height

My take on it is you need it as high you can get it with out having to rock your hips. Hip rocking means that you are over extending. The lower you have it the less efficient the stroke will be as you will not be using all the available muscle.

I have had knee problems, mine seem to have gone since I did some exercises to strengthen some of the “weaker” muscles around the joint as advised by a physio a few years ago.

http://www.ebicycles.com/bicycle-tools/saddle-height/mountain-bike

worked for me

There is no perfect height – several reasons but some are:

– no one has agreed what ‘perfect’ means
– it will depend on other variables such as your flexibility, saddle to bar drop/reach, saddle set back, and so on – you can’t set saddle height without considering other variables of fit.

Heel on pedal with fully extended leg is a decent starting point but is only that.

I have had knee problems, mine seem to have gone since I did some exercises to strengthen some of the “weaker” muscles around the joint as advised by a physio a few years ago.

Examples?*

*Please 😀

My left knee ‘might’ be knakkered and have been told it may be down to my saddle height.

Key word here is may…

It could also be the seat/bar/control/cleat position, along with frame/stem size and saddle height.

Try a few positions and see what works best for you. Even two people with identical measurements might set things up differently depending on personal prefereance, variations in flexibility, a bias towards performance/comfort etc. etc.

The leg straight with the heel on the pedal at it’s furthest point (crank in line with the seat tube?) works well for me, but bear in mind that you can gain a few cms of reach by over extending the hip and knee – I like a relaxed, straight leg with my heel on the pedal etc.

Sort of in-between the heel on the pedal measurement (which is generally pretty close) and a full on bike fit is this (from a book by Tim Gould and Simon Burney, so not just nonsense I made up!) :
Stand in bare feet and measure between the floor and the top of your leg/inseam and then times that measurement by 0.885.
This will give you a measurement from centre of crank bolt (or were one would be on,if using Hollowtech cranks e.c.t) to the top of the saddle, or rather the top of the saddle directly above the seattube/post.

Clubber = winner!

p.s would agree that not even a full on bike fit will give you the ‘perfect’ setting, as there are so many variables, some like the saddle set lower, such as Tom Boonen who runs his saddle deliberately lower than he should as he finds it suits him.
Also makes a difference if you pedal with your heels up or down and shoe size/cleat placement e.c.t.
But the above are good starting points and in fairness I doubt the OP expected a definitive answer! 🙂

I used to be quite particular about it but these days I really don’t mind within a range of about 3cm.

My bikes have a range of about 3cm depending on what they’re used for and how they’re set up. Anyone who thinks that your road bike with a big drop from saddle to bars and your mtb with very little/no drop and shorter reach plus different handling requirements should all be set up the same doesn’t really understand bike fit.

Have a look at this

I generally work it by putting the arch of my foot on the peddles and having a slight bend in my leg. for flat and uphill obviously. It’ll change depending on the downhill. steeper it is the lower it’ll go. Works for me. mtb mind, I don’t road bike.

some seatpost have numbers on them (Ragley do) 😉
but yeah for me different terrain i adjust the seatpost but try not to do too much.. if its proper rocky downhill then the seatpost must go down to asume the attack body position for me – i dont wana fly over the handlebars at speed…thankyou. lol… 😉