Are there any rules/guidelines to setting your saddle up in the correct position?

You could always try Sheldon

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/technique-how-to-get-your-seat-height-right-14608

Is this not generally dictated by how comfortable you feel whilst sat in the saddle and pushing the pedals, is it more technical?

Edit – reads the above and realises it might be!

couple of simple things to get it roughly right, then fine tune afterwards by how it feels:
first set height so that if you ride around with heels on pedals your legs go about straight, without your hips rocking side to side, at the bottom of the pedal stroke. this way when you move the balls of your feet to the pedals you get a bit of bend.
second get a friend to look at you sitting on the bike with one crank forwards, your friend looking from the side (ideally the opposite side to the foot that is forward). From this position he can see where the spindle from the pedal comes through the crank arm. the front of your knee should be either directly above this point, or an inch or so back from it at most. further forwards and you are pushing backwards when you pedal, which can be bad for your knees, but further back may be ok and is favoured by powerful riders who prefer to push hard.

Thats very rough. If you ride a lot of technical trails you may want to be lower, enduro rides a tiny bit higher. Also, make sure the saddle is pretty much level – in fact it should be a "saddle" with a slight dip in the middle.

Hope this helps.
Chris

thanks for the replies – all seem to contradict 🙂

So essentially i should be sat with my foot` on the pedal at th3 o clock postition with my knee cap in line or slightly behind the pedal axle?

I've never seen the relevance of the "knee above pedal" thing.

Scraping the pedal with the heel of your foot (when it's furthest away) + a few mm higher works for me. I think there was a multiplier of your inseam also, 1.09?

Knee above the pedal is a roadie thing IMHO, there is too much time spent out of the saddle when MTBing for it to be relevant.

If you ever have your knee below the pedal then you have got it all wrong.

Knee above the pedal is a roadie thing IMHO, there is too much time spent out of the saddle when MTBing for it to be relevant

True but you spend a lot of time pedalling sat to get to the good bits. Dont read too much into it, a few mm either way can make all the difference, BUT it does give you a guidline and a start point.

So essentially i should be sat with my foot` on the pedal at th3 o clock postition with my knee cap in line or slightly behind the pedal axle?

Its drop a line off the front of your knee and it should be inline with the pedal spindle.. As I said its not a hard and fast rule but a decent place to start.

You will find moving the saddle forward and back means a further check of the extension is needed, until it all works.

I went to see a chap called Mike Veal at bikedynamic. There's some useful stuff on his website if you want to set yourself up. I went to see him for a session and set up my road bike. I then copied this info across to the saddle/pedal section of my mountain bikes. It might be psycological but I feel faster and stronger for it. There's a difference between a static setup and a dynamic setup.