The saddle is not only visually the center of your bike. It determines to a large extent how comfortably and safely you move with your bike through the urban jungle. If the bike seat height is incorrectly adjusted, it quickly leads to pain, which significantly reduces the driving control. But, how to correctly conduct the bike saddle fitting?
We’ll show you how to measure and determine your seat adjustment. In addition, we explain how you can also optimally correct the angle and thus ensure a comfortable sitting position.
Why the Optimal Saddle Adjustment on the Bike Is So Important
Adjusting the bicycle saddle is not a trivial detail that you can simply ignore. That’s because it’s a critical factor in your riding experience, significantly affecting not only comfort, but also performance and safety.
Let’s start with the obvious: Comfort. Proper bike seat adjustment ensures that extended bike rides don’t become an excruciating ordeal for your rear end. It reduces the risk of sore spots and uncomfortable pressure points that can severely dampen your riding pleasure. If it’s set too high, too low, too far forward or too far back, you’ll feel it. And you definitely won’t like it.
But the influence is not limited to the feel-good factor. Optimal adjustment is the key to maximizing your performance. A saddle that’s too low will result in inefficient pedaling, while a position that’s too high will put unnecessary stress on your muscles and joints.
The right bike seat height gives you powerful and effective pedaling movements, allowing you to ride faster and farther – with significantly less effort. And as we all know, more riding range never hurts.
Ride Safely on a Correctly Adjusted Bicycle Saddle
Saddle height directly affects your control of your bike. And thus your safety. In emergencies, it is essential that you quickly regain the proverbial grip and can brake the bike. For this purpose, however, the height must be selected accordingly so that you can at least touch the ground with the tips of your toes when standing.
Calculating the Ideal Bike Seat Height
The saddle is the link between you and your bike. Fortunately, it’s not tricky to determine the correct height.
To do so, sit on the bike and put your foot on the pedal when it is in the lowest position. Your leg should be almost fully extended, with only a slight bend in the knee. If the leg is severely bent or feels almost fully extended, you will need to conduct a bike seat adjustment.
You can also consider the stride length; this will give a very accurate result. Therefore, measure the distance from the end of your stride to the center of the saddle. Multiplying this value by 0.885 will give you the optimal bike seat height in centimeters. All you have to do is adjust it on the bike. Nothing could be easier!
Setting the Right Saddle Angle
This may seem like marginal fine-tuning at first glance, but it can make the difference between effortless gliding and uncomfortable contortions.
Alignment has a direct impact on your seating comfort. A forward leaning saddle may cause you to slide forward very uncomfortably and can put unnecessary pressure on sensitive areas. If the saddle is tilted too far back, you’ll be too far from the handlebars and have less riding control.
Ideally, you should choose a horizontal position. Change the tilt gradually and feel how the posture on the saddle and the riding experience change.
Determine the Perfect Horizontal Bike Seat Adjustment
The correct saddle setback plays a critical role in your riding comfort, stability, and ultimately, your performance on the bike.
With a saddle set too far forward, you’ll consistently lean too far forward and put unnecessary pressure on your wrists and shoulders. On the other hand, a saddle set far back encourages you to lean too far back, which affects stability and makes you inefficient when pedaling.
Skillfully horizontal
To adjust your position, first put the pedals in a horizontal position. This means the pedals should be parallel to the ground. Now sit on the bike and grip the handlebars firmly with your hands.
Your knee should ideally be positioned just above the pedals. Your shin should not be straight down, but slightly back. The important thing is that your knee is perpendicular to the pedals.
You can use a plumb bob to help you: Place it at your knee and make sure it runs straight down, directly above the pedal. If the plumb bob is not correctly aligned, move the saddle forward or backward until the position is perfectly aligned.
The Correct Bike Saddle Fitting: A Step-By-Step Guide
By now you’ve realized that it’s not particularly complicated to properly determine and adjust the individual parameters on your bike seat height and angle. In this guide, we have summarized the individual steps so that you can enjoy the most comfortable riding experience possible in the future:
- Preparation: Make sure your bike is on a flat surface and securely supported. You will also need a ruler, an optional plumb bob, an Allen wrench and a little patience.
- Pedals in horizontal position: First, put the pedals in a horizontal position, parallel to the ground. This makes the adjustment easier.
- Assume a sitting position: Sit on the bike and grip the handlebars as if you were going to ride. This is the natural sitting position you will assume while riding.
- Check knee position: Now look at your knee. Ideally, it should be perpendicular to the pedals. Your shin does not go straight down, but slightly back. To check this, you can use a plumb bob. Place it at the knee and make sure it runs straight down, just above the pedal.
- Adjust the saddle position: If the knee position is not correct and the plumb line is not perpendicular above the pedal, it is time to adjust everything a bit. Use the Allen wrench to loosen the seat post clamps on bikes like Ampler’s Stellar model. Then you can move the saddle forward or back until your knees are perfectly aligned over the pedals.
- Adjust saddle angle: A horizontal saddle is often the best choice, as it provides a stable and comfortable position. However, you can easily adjust the tilt to accommodate your personal preferences.
- Test sit: Again, assume your natural riding position and do some test riding to make sure the adjustments feel good. If not, simply readjust.
Conclusion
If the riding experience with the current saddle is consistently uncomfortable, many look for the reason in the material or in the supposedly uncomfortably designed model. Often, however, the culprit is simply an incorrect bike saddle fitting – and you can remedy this yourself with a few simple steps.
You can easily determine the optimum bike seat height for you and adjust it precisely, just like the saddle angle, with our step-by-step instructions. Normally, that’s all it takes to glide over the asphalt with significantly more comfort.
However, comfortable riding is not influenced by the saddle alone – the perfectly balanced height is of little use if the frame geometry of your bike does not match your preferred riding position or your everyday riding routine.
At Ampler, with 5 different holistically tuned frame designs, you’re sure to find a bike that fits your personal needs. Models such as the sporty Curt model not only offer high riding comfort and comfortable saddles from the factory, but can also be easily fitted to your optimal seating position. Therefore, achieving the correct bike seat adjustment will be a piece of cake.
