Most of my rides are pretty flat and really using it as more of a touring bike that can handle any surface than a hardcore MTB and have been messing around with my saddle angle recently as well as fore/aft recently.

I seem to like it best with nose high but was quite surprised at the 9° angle and thought it was quite a lot but seems to take any pressure off my shoulders and stops that feeling of being pushed forward towards the bars.

What do most people prefer and do you reckon it depends on the type of riding you’re doing maybe and maybe the saddle you have with racers possibly taking a more aggressive nose down angle??

Flat. Anything else gets really annoying. I wonder if your saddle is too high?

It depends on a whole load of factors.  I run all my bikes with the saddle nose up as thats what works best for me.  Keep the weight on your sit bones tho

Is it a hard tail? What does the angle look like when the forks are sagged?

I run mine pretty much flat but for the reason above, it looks flatter on the full sus bike than on the hard tail.

Slightly down, nothing close to 9 degrees though… if its flat or nose up i get uncomfortable chafage…. With the saddle nose down a bit it takes the pressure off the gentleman vegetables and I can use my sit bones properly.

Nose up might mean your saddle is too low.

For years I insisted on dead flat, but now I have mine nose down as I hate sitting on my perineum. Maybe my pelvis has shifted orientation over the years.

Nose down by about 5 degrees. This is the same across all three MTBs with the full suss set the same as the pre-load lowers front and rear by the same amount (within 1mm).

You want to be sitting on your sit bones not your perineum or any soft tissue. Having the saddle nose up means that you’ll be tilting your pelvis backwards to do this, putting strain on the lower back.

seems to take any pressure off my shoulders and stops that feeling of being pushed forward towards the bars

This sounds like you need to work on your core muscles.

Slightly nose down for me but a bit more on the mtb than drop bar bike. I think the saddle height is the first thing to get right though and then tweak angle around that.

I moved to nose down to solve nerve damage in my little and ring fingers after long (more than 12hrs) rides. I’d tried lots of things before trying saddle angle. The problem was that it took a long while to figure out as I’d have to wait a couple of months for feeling to return to the fingers before trying something new. Dropping the saddle nose solved the problem.

It was after I’d done this that I came across this Guardian article about BC’s research in this area https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/aug/15/team-gb-cycling-saddle-sore-medals  (yes it discusses the women’s team but the findings are applicable to both sexes) which led to a change in UCI rules about saddle angle.

Nose-up can cause perineal numbness and worse as you’re pulling onto soft tissue – often an indicator that the position is wrong

Nose down, I would imagine by a couple of degrees, I find when seated & sag is taken into account it is effectively become nose up otherwise & gets a little ‘invasive’ after a while!

It’s a hardtail and where I ride with quite a bit of road riding I lock out the forks.

Certainly seems the consensus is towards either flat or nose down, I’ve had both my hips replaced so wonder if maybe my sit bones are more sensitive as a result and the slight nose up takes some pressure off them but I do notice it immediately behind my undercarriage.

The seat height I’m pretty sure is about right, I tried raising it a bit a couple of months ago and it had a really bad knock on effect on my knees which really didn’t like it at all.

My only other thought is if the bike’s a size too bike and there’s too much reach which is why I feel like I’m sliding off the front when it’s level, I’m going to get a bike fit but the person that does them is away for a couple of weeks but will as soon as he’s back.

I’ll keep experimenting in the meantime and cheers for everyone’s input 🙂

I tend to go with between 3-5degrees nose down. I like to have a bit of leg stretch when climbing so sit further back on the saddle, then forward and slightly lower to give clearance and more leg spring on undulating singletrack.

I used to be more level saddle, but I’d like to think my balls are bigger as I’ve got older…..

Most likely I’m less flexible as I’ve gained bulk and have more hip rotation than I used to. #thedisappointingtruth

@witterings – I’ve had one hip replaced and basically don’t notice it but I’m aware that some people can get accidental nerve damage during the op so this might have happened in your case.

There are so many other factors that what works for you may not work for another.

I have found that saddle angle can compensate for the bars being the wrong distance away or height.

Also different saddles work at different angles for me, nothing to do with saddle height.

So anyone that claims to have some rules beyond the basics  is generally to be ignored IME.

Saddle flat on my MTBs. Slightly nose up on my drop bar commuter and drop bar gravel bike.

but I’d like to think my balls are bigger as I’ve got older…..

I just loved this comment 🙂 .. sadly as I’ve got older I think mine have gone the other way though.

@cynic-al – the only mention of “rules” is in one of my posts where I mention the UCI. If you read the linked article you’ll see that horizontal saddles were one of the “just because” rules. Ostensibly it was because a nose down saddle increased power output but I suspect it was more because it’s easy for race officials to visually check a saddle is level rather than take a spirit level to each bike.

I’ve different saddles and angles on my bikes – it’s a case of finding what’s best in each case.

Maybe I’m being a bit slow – and the fact that nobody else has asked the question could be confirmation of this – but I have to ask…

Why is “29er” mentioned in the question?

Maybe I’m being a bit slow – and the fact that nobody else has asked the question could be confirmation of this – but I have to ask…

Why is “29er” mentioned in the question?

I could have just as easily put MTB instead of 29er … it was just to distinguish it from say a road bike where riders lean further forward and some tilt the nose down because of that / their riding position.

I could have just as easily put MTB instead of 29er … it was just to distinguish it from say a road bike where riders lean further forward and some tilt the nose down because of that / their riding position

Yes, that would have been better. 🙂