…to want to stay seated even when going downhill or across technical/rocky stuff?

I was going round the 10 under the Ben course this morning, which many will know, and whilst I’m very comfortable standing for rough stuff or steep stuff, I definitely prefer to be seated as much as possible, or just move my arse back a few inches on the saddle. Especially for corners I find.

Is this a bad thing, or perhaps a better question is would I benefit from spending more time standing?

Would a FS bike be advantageous?

move my arse back a few inches on the saddle. Especially for corners I find.

there will come a day when your front washes out and you might change your mind

Is it not a bit uncomfortable?

Yes you should be stood up!

FS will jut make you even lazier.

Do some planks (other core exercises are available).

You’ll bruise your coccyx one day, then you’ll never sit down off road again.

Are you my 6 year old child ?
If so tidy your room

I think it will be just you tbh

Yes
Yes
Yes!

Unless it’s smooth, you’ll probably be much quicker standing up, using your legs as suspension….

get a dropper post – it’ll force you to stand up and ride properly.

That’s fairly unanimous then! I shall stop being so lazy.

Unanimous but not as important as lining your tyre logos up with your valves.

Are you my 6 year old child ?
If so tidy your room

I’m not.

But I will anyway.

Thanks for the reminder 😉

I was a sitter before I got my dropper post. It took a bit of getting used to, but with the saddle out of the way it forces you to stand and you soon get used to it and it transforms the handling of the bike – or at least your ability to ride it properly. The proper technique of leaning the bike into the corner can’t be fully achieved with the saddle in the way, it’s not unitl you drop your saddle out of the way that you can really lean the bike over. The result is night and day. Now, as soon as things start to go downhill my saddle is dropped as quickly as possible.

Dropper post is a good idea – drop it, get the saddle out of the way. Then assume a good ‘attack’ position. Bend knees and elbows, weight forward and drop your heels. You chin should be roughly over the stem.

Shifting your weight back isn’t ideal. It unweights the front and you’ll lose grip. It’ll also make it harder to control/steer the bike if things get a bit frantic.

Stand up and pump! Good technique but tiring…

No need for a dropper post just lower your seat.
Weight forward pushing onto your front tyre for corners.
Just get stronger and don’t sit down.

Rule of thumb, if you’re not pedalling, you should be standing.
That’s not to say you should only sit to pedal… standing pedalling makes you smoother and faster through technical…
I can’t think of a scenario where being sat down and not pedalling should occur.. Unless you are completely gassed and litterally cannot function 😉

I can’t think of a scenario where being sat down and not pedalling should occur.. Unless you are completely gassed and litterally cannot function

Freewheeling down a long smooth fireroad?

Bearback you might be getting to the crux at the end there! There’s a definite lack of fitness after quite a few years with no MTBing at all.

I find it best to keep most of my weight on the pedals

A mate of mine drops his post and still sits down, so a dropper won’t cure you. The non-scheduled endos should! 😀

The bike is much more stable when you’re standing as your centre of gravity is around the BB. With arse on seat, your COG is much higher up (i.e. at the saddle). So you’re much less stable going along sitting down.

The bike is much more stable when you’re standing as your centre of gravity is around the BB. With arse on seat, your COG is much higher up (i.e. at the saddle). So you’re much less stable going along sitting down.

Spot on 🙂 This is what I explain to people on my MTB skills courses. It’s such a fundamental technique, it’s worth persevering with to get it mastered. If you do find that you get tired quickly, do some regular exercises to improve your core strength and perhaps also start doing single leg squats to improve your leg strength. If you’re still struggling, it might be worth having a half day session with an instructor, who can assess your technique and advise accordingly.

HTH

My raised saddle made sure I went over the bars today after I had a dodgy moment on a drop off. I was just being lazy – short section downhill, couldn’t be bothered to lower it. Once the front wheel had stalled and I was rotating forwards, the saddle position gave me no chance of pushing back and saving it.

Sore knee, egg-sized lump on shin. 😳

Of course, those blokes on the Olympic XC all had their saddles sky high going over rocky drops, but they’ve got that ‘skill’ thing.

For me the best thing about dropper posts is being able to raise the seat for climbs.

Standing up is tiring, if you don’t do it very often, but if you make it a point to stand as often as you can, you’ll develop the core strength to make it less tiring…

Get a singlespeed. It’ll help build core strength and ‘standing up skills’

You don’t need to be standing up ALL the time, dont’ be daft. If you’re just rolling along hte easy bits, who cares?

Stand up and attach when it’s needed, which it sounds like you are.

As for putting your weight back in corners – it depends on the corner. Fast sweeping corners – definitely weight forward. Tight sharp ones – weight backwards. Your bike has to pivot around the rear wheel contact point when doing these, and having your weight over that allows it to whip around quickly. Trust me!

Cheers, the COG stuff makes sense explained that way ie seat vs pedals.

I’ve obviously misled re the sitting back and cornering – the sliding back is for going down steeper stuff, for cornering my tendency is to sit so I can get the outside pedal down. Not moving backwards for corners.

My instructor pinched my saddle a few weeks ago to try and improve my cornering body position. I was worse on the first few gos but perseverance lead to an improvement.

I dont find my saddle is in the way that much even quite high for xc cornering. I have dropped it permanently about 20mm now and its given me a bit more on the drops and corners with limited loss of pedal power.

I stand up loads more too.

As above… Knew one guy who removed his GFs saddle on the descents to encourage her to stand up…..

Stand up. Go faster.

Find a skills course

Knew one guy who removed his GFs saddle on the descents to encourage her to stand up…..

Not from this guy though

I have dropped it permanently about 20mm now and its given me a bit more on the drops and corners with limited loss of pedal power.

running your saddle at the ‘wrong’ height permanently sounds like a recipe for future knee problems to me.

Depends where it was to begin with. I used to run my saddle a smidge too high, until it was pointed out to me that my pelvis was in fact rocking from side to side. I lowered it, it felt wrong at first, but then I realised it was better.

Well, what a difference a few adjustments make.

Moved my shifters/brakes further round the bar so that they are comfortable for standing rather than comfortable for sitting. That seems to have resolved the numbness when standing which presumably subconsciously encouraged me to sit.

And again, dropping the saddle at the top of a descent made a big difference, not only for ease of movement but also for pedalling standing up, that seemed much easier too.

Also tried flat (carbon cycles) pedals for the first time in 12 years. They’ve come on a lot!

Cheers

tga