Dropping your drawers...er, seatpost

So I'm starting to ride a little more aggressively downhill, but I'm still not getting far enough back on my bike and occasionally endo. I think my problem is the trails here are a lot of up and down; If I drop my seat for a descent, the intermittent climbs are a b*tch. But if I don't drop my seat, it's hard to get back and low enough for the steep downhill parts.
So two questions: How much/how often do you adjust your seatpost on singletrack rides? And does anyone have experience with the auto-adjustable seatposts like the Gravity Dropper or the Crank Bros. Joplin? A couple of friends have them and swear by them. My concern is that they might be finnicky or gimmicky...and they're certainly spendy. Any opinions?

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Originally Posted by TBird

So two questions: How much/how often do you adjust your seatpost on singletrack rides? And does anyone have experience with the auto-adjustable seatposts like the Gravity Dropper or the Crank Bros. Joplin? A couple of friends have them and swear by them. My concern is that they might be finnicky or gimmicky...and they're certainly spendy. Any opinions?

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There are a couple of schools of thought on this.
There is the die hard XC race school where you never change it. Some folks swear by this but I think it's silly and unsafe, unless you are a racer.

I change my seat a lot. I learned the value of it at the camps I go to that are coached by mtb world cup champs and coaches.

Fully extended is great for non technical trails with out a lot of terrain change. We mark this height on our seat posts as "climbing height".
For technical rolling terrain, I drop it some but I have to be able to climb somewhat comfortable. But, for extended climbs, saddle up, and for technical descents, saddle down. There's kind of a sweet spot for the middle place. Having good body position is important too - you need to have good body english and dynamics, not using the saddle as a prop for your technical riding or descents.

I think gravity dropper type things are way cool and wish I had one. They don't work real well with Specialized frames is problme #1, and then of course there's the cost. But if you can do it, I say go for it!!

I'm pretty biased, I 've got no qualms about putting my seat down. I think more people would have less trouble with descending and technical riding if they would just put their saddles down, and learn how to get off thier butts to ride!

Do you have enough reach to get TOTALLY behind the seat when your seat is up high? I mean, like putting your belly on the seat, butt nearly on the back wheel?

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Originally Posted by alleyoop

Do you have enough reach to get TOTALLY behind the seat when your seat is up high? I mean, like putting your belly on the seat, butt nearly on the back wheel?

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AFAIK, that can't be done. ;) For me, if I think I'm going to need to be out of the saddle and back, the saddle is not up. Period. If I know there's going to be climbing involved, too, the saddle is somewhere in the middle. High enough that I don't feel like a monkey on a circus bike when climbing, but low enough so that I don't sit on it all for my descents or technical bits.
I don't see how you could get that far back with the seat up, anyway, the saddle would be in the way of where your body needs to be.

There's a great video somewhere, lost the bookmark, of a guy riding techical stuff down in Texas, seat jacked up, and how he goes over the bars. I do believe he was doing a demo, too.

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Originally Posted by TBird

So I'm starting to ride a little more aggressively downhill, but I'm still not getting far enough back on my bike and occasionally endo. I think my problem is the trails here are a lot of up and down; If I drop my seat for a descent, the intermittent climbs are a b*tch. But if I don't drop my seat, it's hard to get back and low enough for the steep downhill parts.
So two questions: How much/how often do you adjust your seatpost on singletrack rides? And does anyone have experience with the auto-adjustable seatposts like the Gravity Dropper or the Crank Bros. Joplin? A couple of friends have them and swear by them. My concern is that they might be finnicky or gimmicky...and they're certainly spendy. Any opinions?

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If I'm downhiling (and I mean lift service up to the top and riding down a mountain) I drop my seat.

Otherwise, my seat stays at one height - MOSTLY all the way extended. All we ride here is singletrack (constant up and down) and getting behind the seat is a learned art as well as a physical science.

Gravity droppers are WAY too expensive IMHO.

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Originally Posted by Irulan

AFAIK, that can't be done. ;) For me, if I think I'm going to need to be out of the saddle and back, the saddle is not up. Period. If I know there's going to be climbing involved, too, the saddle is somewhere in the middle. High enough that I don't feel like a monkey on a circus bike when climbing, but low enough so that I don't sit on it all for my descents or technical bits.
I don't see how you could get that far back with the seat up, anyway, the saddle would be in the way of where your body needs to be.

There's a great video somewhere, lost the bookmark, of a guy riding techical stuff down in Texas, seat jacked up, and how he goes over the bars. I do believe he was doing a demo, too.

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Well, sorry, I should have bene been more clear. What I mean by totally behind your seat, is when you are in attack position (Cranks nearly parallel but front foot slightly higher, legs mostly extended but knees slightly bent) you should be able to move your body back far enough for the seat to be in front of you. Sure if your seat is way high your legs may not be able to extend enough to get the seat through your legs, but most people find a compromise seat position that is high enough to get good leg extention but you can still get back behind the seat for drops etc. It is only practical to get off and drop your seat if you are, like MtnBikrtChk says, doing long downhills.

I was concerned that maybe the OP is on a bike that didn't fit her. If she can't find the above position with a seat height that allows good climbing, then I'm betting her bike is too big, or not fit properly. :eek:

My riding is constant up and down, also. A couple times I have fallen off the back of the bike while decending some knarly bits. It might just me, but I would rather fall off the back of the bike then endo, any day!!

Thanks everybody, for the input. Irulan, I think I pretty much do what you say you do: have the seat in a comfortable climbing position for the way up, then find a sort-of compromise for the roly-poly down. (It's rarely ALL downhill here; we don't have any lift-serviced DH kind of stuff.)

It seems to work pretty well, until I get to those certain pitches that sketch me out. Physically, yes, Alleyoop, I can get my butt behind the seat and my chest on it. It just feels awfully awkward, like I'm going to crack a rib if I still take a digger. I guess it also seems like steering would be compromised, and I kind of worry about my feet getting stuck in the clips. I don't have great flex in one ankle (old tennis injury) so maybe that's part of my head issue.

I don't THINK my bike's too big (I'm 5'8" and it's a Giant medium). So maybe I just need to practice that position--butt just off the rear wheel. Any suggestions on riding technique? I'm dying to conquer a rock face that I've been walking for far too long!

I'm not much of a mtb'er, but I've been wondering about this behind-the-saddle position myself. There's a heinously steep slope down one of the paths I sometimes ride to work and I have to get all the way behind the saddle to not topple over forwards. It helped when I switched my saddle to a narrower, shorter one, but it does feel very strange to be "hanging" from the bars and not steering with my thighs anymore, I'm obviously used to doing that a lot. I'm a little terrified of sitting down on my rear wheel... :o