How do you level a curved saddle?

You should level, let’s say from picture, first half of this seat. Rear of the saddle will be pointing upwards a little bit

Had and still have issues with saddles in general, but I learned couple of things. If you experience sit bone pain, no amount of tilt will resolve this pain. You need a new saddle unfortunatelly. Also note that you need a new saddle if you had a couple od mid length rides with it and felt the same issue being sit bone pain.

You level the center of the saddle. At the Biomechanical Reference Point. Place your iPhone vertically on the seat and check level there it’s usually where your saddle is 80mm wide but some saddles have the BRP marked underneath.

Use a book…

This looks like a good starting point, of it’s more comfortable try getting the nose down a little bit more. But make sure you don’t slip forward

You don’t. Get the height and front-rear position correct firstly.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, bike shop, fitter, or minimum YouTube.

Then, get the tilt level how you like it. It may be an iterative process, try and error!

Level the rails.

“Level” would be based on the rails, but that really doesn’t matter. Fuddle and adjust it until it’s comfy. Your cranks are probably too long and your saddle too high and too far back. I am basing that on nothing more than generalization. I see road bikers all the time where these things are obviously true.

I just eyeball it and then adjust for comfort.

For saddles of this style (shorter nose), I would definitely not aim for a perfectly level fit. Any time I’ve tried that, it’s been a nightmare within 5 minutes of riding. In my experience, you’ll have far more success pointing the nose down by even just 1-2 degrees, especially on a gravel or road bike. From there, you’ll need to play around with saddle height as well.

It’s fiddly at first, tilt the nose down just enough to relieve pressure without feeling like you’re sliding off, then dial in your saddle height, since tilting forward effectively lowers it. Hope that helps someone!

I personally prefer flat saddles for this reason, but it’s really just finding the balance point that’s comfortable for you, will probably take some trial and error

Generally you want it level or the nose very slightly below the rear. But it really depends on the saddle, and I think even on variable such as the seatpost and your weight. It’s possible that there’s a lot of flex put your weight on the saddle.

I have one of those curved unpadded carbon fiber saddles, and I find it extremely sensitive to the correct angle. After some experimentation, I found that the comfortable angle for me is exactly -3 degrees. Instead of guessing, I have a basic $20 digital level that I use.

Make sure your BIKE IS LEVEL first!

I start my Level app on my phone. Place the phone on the long flattest part of the saddle. Not the back that curves up.

I set it 0 or -1. If you lay anything across the whole saddle and use that to level it’ll be pointed up too much.

I’ve had a bike fitter (a good one) mess with my saddle tilt, I’ve had “very knowledgeable cyclists and trainers” mess with it, Ive always gone back to my setting which resulted from – riding and fitting it myself. And that works for me. And it’s not levelled. 🤷

i tend to sit back on the saddle and mine has a little bit more curve to it than yours so the nose is pointing slightly up. that way i wont feel like im sliding or leaning forward. i ride for a while and then make a slight adjustment to see how it feels.

i have had sitbone pain on some saddles even though the shape and width were ok. the problem was that the top of the saddle was too hard for me. specfically on a brooks c17 and the selle italia model x (the material was also too sticky and was like fine sand papper)

Level the saddle rail with the mortar bed joint behind assuming your bike is level then see how it is – the middle to the front wants to point down a little amount.

Anything between the flat nose section being level to just placing a board nose to tail and setting that level.

I have mine the latter give or take a few .1s of a degree.

Just need to find the angle that locks you in.

These saddles generally work well for people with natural forward tilt on pelvis or those that need encouragement to do so to get the glutes working / neutral spine etc….

Only get a flat saddle if you can touch your toes easily. If not, that upward curve is essential, so much more comfortable.

So to answer your question, i bet you would benefit from tucking the nose down a fair bit (ignore the flat saddle snobs )