Is it perfectly okay to ride in this setup if I feel comfortable in all type of terrains? The exposed saddle post height is about 4.8-5 inch and a bike expert told me that’s too short for road bike types.
by josealvarezjr
Is it perfectly okay to ride in this setup if I feel comfortable in all type of terrains? The exposed saddle post height is about 4.8-5 inch and a bike expert told me that’s too short for road bike types.
by josealvarezjr
12 Comments
To heck with that expert. That is unless he was seeing that your leg extension is insufficient to prevent injury. Can you put your whole foot on the ground while seated on the saddle?
This looks like it would be OK but there’s not a lot to go on here as far as bike fit goes.
You need a new”expert” bike fit has to do with biomechanics
The amount of exposed seat post is irrelevant, the distance from the top of the saddle to the pedal is what matters.
It’s perfectly okay if you are getting the proper amount of leg extension. If you are not getting enough extension, you will damage your knees. If you are getting too much extension, you will wear your hamstrings and calves.
Most true road racers and the people that want or need to be like them have their saddle height well above their bar height. But they do this for a living or a very serious hobby, they put in tons of miles and conditioning, they have very flexible hips, backs, and shoulders, and strong cores, and they weigh nothing. Saddle about even with bars is pretty normal for recreational road riders.
If it fits, I sits.
It sounds like the fit works for you and that’s what matters. I have short legs/long torso so I have a lower seat height as well but I’m comfortable and efficient.
Very similar to my setup. If comfort for an enjoyable ride is your goal this is it, if you want areo for racing jack it way up.
No “expert” can tell you anything of value by just looking at your saddle height.
Stop watching bike races on YouTube :-). I think pros try to ride the smallest frame possible to minimize the weight of the bike they are riding up the side of a mountain. So you often see heads extended pretty far over the front of the bars and seats that are extended. With my road bikes, the seat is generally no much higher than the bars.
What matters is the geometry of the touch points…. pedals, seat, bars. The rest of the frame’s job is to support those components. I bet if you went back 40 years and told cyclists that flat bar road bikes would be very rare and they all had slanted top tubes, they would laugh at you.
As one other person remarked…. If I fits, I sits.
It’s all about comfort. Start with setting you saddle height so you can pedal with your heals with you saddle central over the seat post saddle clamp, adjust these slightly +/- 15mm approx. Then setup reach etc. stem/bar angle/levers to suit and brake/change gear safely. Basically in order to get level saddle and bar tops your setup looks ok.
If that is the saddle position that gives you the most comfort on that bike, then there’s definitely nothing wrong with that and that is how you should leave it.
With that said, in general a bike fit with a bit more seatpost exposed might be more “ideal” since more exposed seatpost should provide slightly more flex and also gives more clearance for things like saddle bag, rear light on seatpost, etc. However, there’s no way to achieve that without changing the frame, and it’s probably not worthing making that kind of change just for those reasons.
Did the expert tell you they were a road bike expert? They lied to you. That makes zero sense.
Saddle height is based on your leg length. Period. If the frame is the right size and the saddle is set correctly for your leg length then it’s correct.
Definitely check and confirm that those two things are correct. The statement “it’s too short for road bike types” is 100% bs.