Jon Marshall said:ds.dial.pipex.combike1.jpgOpen ↗
I would appreciate any suggestions on my setup and if there is anything obviously "wrong" with it.
I'm not saying it is absolutely wrong, but the first thing that struck me about the picture was you
seem to be sitting on the front of the saddle. This may be encouraging your sit bones to rotate
around the saddle a small amount as you pedal. Have someone follow you while you ride, and look at
whether your upper hips are moving as you pedal. Try moving the saddle forward an inch or so, to
see if that makes any difference. Theoretically, if nothing else, it will change the balance of
muscles used when pedalling away from your back muscles, but in practice may or may not make any
difference at all.
One thing I picked up as a very useful comfort tip on a bike is to do the following test: (this
works best if the bike is mounted in a trainer, but can be done leaning against a wall) From your
normal cycling postion, with the cranks horizontal, try raising yourself such that you
simultaneously release pressure (not necessarily contact) with the saddle and the handlebars. If
this is balanced, I tend to find the bike position to be comfortable. If not, I move the saddle (and
bars if possible) horizontally to make it balanced. It started as a cure for slipping forward or
backwards on the saddle (to which the schoolboy solution is to angle the saddle - not such a good
idea). Now I use it as a sanity check to avoid a number of comfort problems on bikes which I may not
be familiar with but need to ride for more than half an hour or so. It seems to be independent of
saddle and handlebar height. I would like to be able to attribute this to the web site I picked it
up from, but that escapes me at the moment.
Oh, and try everyone elses tips too.
Jim Price
