Saddle relative to bars

[uforgot]

My saddles are 2.5 inches above my bars (measured from bar tops).

edit, I ride for fun, commuting, and sanity (it's debatable if that part's working), and yes, they're drop bars.

You know, I just went out and made my saddle even with my bars. I swear, if this has been my problem all along...

I have been through so many stems it isn't even funny. I may try even lower, since hearing from you. Thanks for the input!

[Eden]

You know, I just went out and made my saddle even with my bars. I swear, if this has been my problem all along...

I have been through so many stems it isn't even funny. I may try even lower, since hearing from you. Thanks for the input!

You lowered your saddle? - That will cause problems with your legs/knees if you have your saddle too low... or did you have the lee way to raise your bars? From what you've said it sounds like you've lowered your saddle - That's kind of the important part - you want your leg to be fully extended with just a tiny bend when the pedal is all of the way down (fully extended if you put your heel on the pedal). Only differently sized cranks would change where your saddle height is.

Bar height doesn't really have one "right" place - it totally depends on your personal flexibility, desires, riding style. Different people, even if they happen to be the same size could be comfortable with widely varying amounts of drop on a bicycle that was otherwise pretty much the same size.

[uforgot]

No, I said that wrong, I lowered the bars. Fortunately, I have a long fork, so I just stacked some spacers on top of my stem. I know better than to lower my saddle. Or to move it fore or aft. I seem to be more evenly distributed now.

As for a fitting, I'd have to drive a couple of hours for one, but I may make the time. I just wanted a reasonable estimate of where I should try, and to verify that it wasn't unusual for the bars to be lower than the saddle for comfort. I particularly wanted the female point of view, since I'm working with crazy long legs compared to a stubby body and arms. Seems like I just need to experiment since everyone is different. I was looking (drooling?) at the Luna website and noticed that a lot of the bars in the gallery were lower (relative to the seat) than mine were. Somehow I was thinking higher bars, more comfortable, but it seems like all my weight was over my saddle. I'd also read the Rivendell articles about how most people like their bars higher. That's why I asked. Now I know that higher isn't the norm, although it's right for some. I also think maybe I could just save those pennies and go custom, since I really want to stick with steel!

Thanks for all of the input! I always learn so much here.

[PinkBike]

i got a high dollar professional fitting, and have pretty much altered everything since then. the biggest was shortening my stem and increasing the rise. It's still about 2" lower than the saddle.

What I learned was: I thought i had found THE PERFECT SEAT. Everything fit so gooooooooooood, it was an absolute joy to ride. Then I took the bike in for a minor tuneup and found it wasn't the saddle but the fit. They must have moved the seatpost to fit it in the stand, because I have tweaked and tweaked and just cannot find the sweet spot again. But it was so good I'm going to keep tweeking a silly mm at a time til I get it back.

[radacrider]

...Then I took the bike in for a minor tuneup and found it wasn't the saddle but the fit. They must have moved the seatpost to fit it in the stand, because I have tweaked and tweaked and just cannot find the sweet spot again. But it was so good I'm going to keep tweeking a silly mm at a time til I get it back.

good luck with re-tweaking. I'm always doing something that seems to cause me to lose my settings, so I starting measuring and recording things like top of seat to BB, stem height. Just so I can reset things, cuz it does take so much to get things just right.

[PinkBike]

thanx, i shoulda done it sooner but i will totally do it now - when i get it right

[arielmoon]

My bars are about 2/2.5 inches lower than my saddle.

[Cataboo]

good luck with re-tweaking. I'm always doing something that seems to cause me to lose my settings, so I starting measuring and recording things like top of seat to BB, stem height. Just so I can reset things, cuz it does take so much to get things just right.

I sometimes end up marking my spot with marker or a piece of tape or something on the seatpost.

[Kathi]

This spring I was having some lower back problems so my fitter raised my bars on my custom frame. I hated them higher, made my back feel worse and had to go back to the original setup. He also put on a new saddle, apparently I need a T shaped saddle rather than a Y or pear shaped saddle.

About a month ago I bought the mtn bike version of my road saddle for my mtn bike and had the shop put it on for me. I didn't like the shops methods of putting the saddle on and it didn't feel right. The bike had been fitted 5 yrs ago so I thought it a good idea to have the fit checked. I went to my fitter and he readjusted the saddle and decided to raise my handlebars since the theory on mtn bike fit from 5 years ago has changed.

My fitter is 45 mins from me but his work puts a smile on my face when I ride my bikes and I learn a little more about myself in relation to my bikes.

One thing to remember if you do see a fitter is to give your body time to adapt to the changes. Your body has adapted to your bike, a fitter will adapt the bike to your body. My first fit took about a month of riding before my body adapted. I could feel my body fighting the changes then slowly fewer things bothered me and one day it was ahhh, this feels so good!