SchmoBike Clean Again
It's been years since I changed the color of my tires and bar tape, but with Vredestein discontinuing the Fortezza Tri-comps as progress marches on, I have to start using up my stash of tires. Yellow tires means I have to match the tape. It's in the rules!
Since of course I am morbidly bound to notice the most irrelevant details, how much setback are you running? It's hard to tell for sure, perspective and whatnot, but I'd say 3 to 4 cm?
ReplyDeleteI've got it at 2.5 cm, I think. I don't know which point of the seat clamp is supposed to be the zero mark, so I'm just going by where the most forward one is attached to the rail.
DeleteCouldn't help but noticing the saddle is slammed all the way forward, now I can't make my mind up whether your seatpost has more setback than usual which would be 25 mm, or it just looks that way to me because of the shape. I know 32 mm are commercially available although a little harder to come by.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it looks like you could get an inline seatpost and still have your saddle clamped in the middle of the rails - so I was wondering if you ever experience pain and/or numbness to your hands and wrists?
To measure setback, most internet sources would instruct you to drop a plumb bob from the nose of the saddle and measure horizontally from the center of the spindle, but IMO using a long enough spirit level is easier. In a pinch, you could replace both of them with a nut or any other object that can be tied to a piece of thread.
You're right, that seat is slammed as forward as I could get it. When I got that new saddle last year, I put the rails on the same markers as my old Specialized saddle, and then I found that I could barely reach the brake hoods. So I kept moving it forward until I found my usual position. That seatpost is over 10 years old, so maybe the new saddles are doing something different with the rails. After I got the saddle in position, I haven't had any problems with my hands or wrists. I was worried that I would have to return it when I got to the end of the rails and I was still too far away from the bars!
DeleteProbably what happened with my previous saddles was that the seat was too low, so I could move the saddle back. But when I fitted the seat height for a straighter leg angle last year, the saddle had to come forward. That's helped since 2012 after having to sit out for 7 months with really bad knee tendinitis. Better fit with higher cadence has made my knees much happier.
Several manufacturers have reduced, for whatever reason, the length of the clampable area. Luckily not everyone, e.g. I have a Prologo which has pretty decent rails and an SMP with loooooooooooong rails, but that's one of the many design features specific to that brand.
ReplyDeleteLooking at that clamp, there's a chance your post is a 32mm (that's an easy check anyway), a seatpost with less setback would give you better adjustability, and having the railed clamped in the middle should reduce the chance of it breaking (you're clamping very close to the rear bend now). Possibly some weight savings, too.
I was asking about your hands because that set-up, saddle slammed forward with little or no drop, is often a quick fix for too much reach, which should be addressed by swapping the stem with a shorter one instead - changing with the fore/aft adjustment of the saddle affects the front/rear weight distribution, and too little saddle setback results in overloaded arms which hurt on longer rides, especially on flat terrain and long descents. Another telltale sign is localized pain/exhausted quads after hard efforts.
For my next saddle, I'll have to worry about those rails if they're short like they are now, and maybe pick up a new seatpost. Probably another couple of years. I'll check that setback with a plumb bob when I get a chance.
DeleteI've read some new bikes are quite annoying to dial in because they've got posts with monster-sized clamps and saddles with short rails = ~0 adjustability. Cherry on top? with aero seatposts, good luck finding a replacement...
ReplyDelete