Dropping your drawers...er, seatpost

[TBird]

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!

[lph]

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...