Saddle angle

I’ve never really had to worry about this before because my saddles have a flat profile & I just line them up horizontally. However I now have a Fizik Aliante which has a pronounced upward curve at the back which makes it difficult to judge what is level. If I line the saddle up by using the rails then to my eye it looks (very) & feels (very slightly) nose down when the rails are horizontal. I know I should go with what is comfortable, but what datum are you supposed to use to determine if the saddle is horizontal or not?

what datum are you supposed to use to determine if the saddle is horizontal or not?

Align it with Uranus.

Sit on it, see if it’s comfy, adjust as necessary.

whatever is comfortable to you. there is no rule saying it has to be horizontal. I run mine slightly nose up.

The atarting point for Specialized saddles with curves us the middle section of the saddle flat.

Rear goes up, middle flattens and comes up towards nose then drops off.

imnotverygood
Full Member

what datum are you supposed to use to determine if the saddle is horizontal or not?

Not even sure you’re supposed to? You got it right in the first post, get it so it feels nice

Align it with Uranus.

sit and ride.. if its putting pressure where you dont want it.. then tweak it..
i tweak mine so it is comfortable but no more, as that seems to weight my hands more and more from then on..
I have noticed that one of my saddles with a raised back i seem to have to (appear to) nose down more than i would expect

Ride a bit and adjust to be between ouchmynetherregionsarebeingsquashed and itsnicetofeellikeseankellyontherivetsometimesbutnowImslippingoffthefronttoomuch. It can be nice to place a hardback book on the saddle to give a flat surface and take an angle measure even if just with a phone app and start to quantify the changes each time. It doesn’t take much angle change to really change the comfort and feel

Interesting video, not least because it actually answers my question. A ‘level’ saddle does not necessarily have horizontal rails. I had assumed that the natural way to design a saddle would be for its ‘neutral’ position would be to have rails which were pointing neither up nor down. Thanks for all the other replies.

It doesn’t take much angle change to really change the comfort and feel

100%.

I’ve been fiddling with saddles and seatposts a LOT recently so am endlessly tweaking things. One thing I noticed was that a very slight excess forward tilt gave me a weird pain in the elbow, I guess because my arm was having to take more weight or was subtly more bent or something.

Similarly, I was amazed how much more comfortable I was after tilting the saddle back. It seems counter-intuitive that going more ‘nose up’ would be more comfortable but I guess it subtly shifts your weight more on to the sit bones than the perineum.

IMO / IME ( and I believe part of this is about flexibility) a nose up position takes weight off your arms as you are in effect rolling off the saddle backwards. I am only comfortable with a slightly nose up saddle – flat is very uncomfortable for me

its all personal preference like most bike fit things.

Counter to all the above I prefer a slight nose down setting, 5deg or thereabouts. Basically as you lean forward you are avoiding pressure on the soft bit. It does require a stronger core. I spent around 18 months getting everything sorted – I’d get nerve damage in my fingers, usually the little and ring fingers but occasionally all of them – that would take about a month to subside then I’d change another thing. It was only when I pointed the nose down that I avoided numb hands.

After that I could change anything else and it didn’t really make any difference. Some of the changes could be quite dramatic such as going from standard riser bars to Velo Orange Crazy bars with their 45deg sweep or vice versa and I’d still be comfortable after 20hrs riding.

I had assumed that the natural way to design a saddle would be for its ‘neutral’ position would be to have rails which were pointing neither up nor down.

I think it’s generally (if not always) the case that the rails slope upwards from back to front. Therefore if the saddle is level the rails are not.

Some Cobb saddles have the rails at such an angle that moving the saddle back also lowers it to avoid having to change seatpost height (based on a specific seatpost angle). Clever stuff to avoid dicking about moving an aero seatpost to tweak position forward a smidge.

A common mistake I see people make all the time on mountain bikes is not accounting for sag.

Surely, as soon as you load the bike, that saddle is going to tip back by the change in effective seat tube angle and be nose-up. The fork sag will rarely compensate fully for the rear-end sag, especially when seated, as both fork and shock are set up for the attack position where weight is balanced forwards.

eg

On an MTB I have a flat to slightly nose up saddle as I am sitting upright
On a road bike I have a flat to slightly nose down as nose up is not comfortable when in the drops

Similarly, I was amazed how much more comfortable I was after tilting the saddle back. It seems counter-intuitive that going more ‘nose up’ would be more comfortable but I guess it subtly shifts your weight more on to the sit bones than the perineum.

Lol, this comment didn’t age well!

Have been playing around with a Selle Italia Flite Boost, on the basis that I *thought* I didn’t like scooped saddles any more, it felt like they were irritating the back of my sitbone.

The Flite started off very comfortable, I particularly liked how ‘thin’ it felt between the legs, no pressure on inner thigh.

However three rides in I was suffering more and more lower back pain. I just presumed this was because I had taken a week off the bike or something but reading up on it, flatter saddles will offer less support to the pelvis (obvious really) which means your poor old beleagured lower back muscles end up under loads of tension as the pelvis wants to roll back whilst also being pulled forward.

Explains why the slightly more scooped Fabric Scoops on my gravel bike (and the Prologo Scratch on my turbo bike) probably feel better, they have the scoop I guess.

Will try tilting the Flite forward a bit but I think I really need something with just the right amount of scoop, not too much, not too little.

It’s amazing, the more fiddling around you do the more you realise that the manufacturer’s blurbs are usually (shock!) actually quite correct. Don’t try to ride long gradual distances on a flat, short nosed race saddle. Similarly don’t try to do long gravel rides on a saddle with a super exaggerated scoop designed for TT bikes… 🙄

I know what I like 🙂

I use the FWE trail saddle (which I think is a scoop clone) and find if I put my spirit level between the arse pads and the nose and have that level, then that’s most comfortable.

Depending on the bike, there may be some fore/aft adjustment to be done.

I mostly ride older saddles, most are level ish but Flites definitely need a tilt up, so my sit bones are on the wider rear part of the saddle I think. I’m glad I’ve found what works for me, no need to experiment.

“ A common mistake I see people make all the time on mountain bikes is not accounting for sag.”

Surely people set their saddle roughly horizontal and then keep adjusting after riding until it’s ok? I’ve just had my suspension serviced, new damper on the front and more travel on the back and I know I can’t get the saddle angle perfect until the suspension is balanced correctly.

I have an Alliante Versus and spent a lot of time getting it exactly how I want. It sits very slightly nose down because otherwise very long rides (more than 15 hours) put enough pressure on the manhood area to cause numbness. If I never did any rides that long I might well have it sitting more or less level where it might actually support my sit bones better. Bit of a compromise really but it’s the best saddle I’ve got, and I actually get on OK with most of them.

It’s one of those things where everyone could give you a different answer on what works for them. Level is a good starting point from where you can tweak it to suit.