Why Your Bicycle Saddle Height Is Important

Setting the right saddle height is essential for comfort, efficiency and avoiding injury.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Hannah Reynolds, Fitness Editor at Cycling Weekly Magazine. Today I'm at Bespoke

00:17Cycling's flagship store in Canary Wharf with expert bike fitter Ben Hallam, who's going

00:22to tell us a little bit about how to set our saddle height. So where do we start?

00:26Well Hannah, there's two ways that we can get roughly in the right ballpark in terms

00:31of saddle height. The first uses your inseam, and the second we can do on the bike itself.

00:36For the first method, what we want to do is find your inseam measurement. So I find the

00:41quickest and simplest way to do this is using a ruler, just stand roughly shoulder width apart,

00:48pop the ruler between your legs just as high as it will go, keeping it nice and level.

00:51We want to take a measurement from the side and see how high that is. So that's 7 by 5.

01:01Once we have that measurement, we want to times that number by 0.887. So we want to transfer

01:07this measurement across to the bike. We're measuring from the centre of the bottom bracket

01:12to the saddle. Another way to get in the general ballpark in the right place in terms of saddle

01:20height is to use the bike itself. In this method, if you put your heel on the pedal at the bottom

01:28of the pedal stroke, like so, and then raise the saddle until your knee is locked out and

01:36straight, and then clip back in, we're going to be in roughly the right ballpark. Now, this

01:48doesn't take into account how long your foot is, so again, this is just to get in roughly

01:54the right position. So how do I know if my saddle height is now right?

01:58Well, what we're looking for at the bottom of the pedal stroke is a soft knee bend, so roughly

02:04about 150 degrees. But your saddle height is only one part of your bike fit.

02:10Certainly. There are many elements that make up the fit, be it cleats, saddle, bar position,

02:18and each of them are interrelated, and changing one can have an effect on the position of the

02:23shoulders. So this is why going as a professional bike fitter gives a comprehensive solution to

02:29all of these elements. So how do I know if my saddle height is wrong?

02:34You may be getting knee pain. This is a very common complaint from saddle height issues.

02:39Now a very general rule of thumb is that if the pain is on the front of the knee, then the

02:44saddle height might be a little bit low. If the pain is at the back of the knee, then you

02:49might have your saddle set slightly too high. In this occasion, I would probably suggest

02:53moving the saddle roughly three to four millimeters maximum to see if this helps alleviate the

02:59problems.

03:00If you have any more questions on how to set the saddle height, leave a comment at the

03:03bottom of this page.