Something strange is going on. Year after year, I have raised my saddle a little more. This year I had to move it slightly forward as well, since raising it has the effect of also moving it slightly further back.
I finished building this bike (Summer) bike in February or March, 2009. In each year I've ridden it, the fit seemed perfect in the Spring and not quite right in the Fall. I would understand if it had something to do with my fitness level or riding style changing through the season so it went lower,higher,lower,higher, but instead it has gone higher, higher, higher, higher! I think I have hit the upper limits now; I would probably be over-extending my leg if I pushed it any further.
To answer the bike fitters in the group in advance, no, my hips are not rocking at all while I pedal. I don't even try to stay on the saddle and get a toe down any more, though... I'm not sure I could. The bike's fit seems perfect to me right now; but it felt perfect before, too, until it didn't!
Have any of you experienced something like this, or am I, as I have always known deep inside, just a big weirdo?
I finished building this bike (Summer) bike in February or March, 2009. In each year I've ridden it, the fit seemed perfect in the Spring and not quite right in the Fall. I would understand if it had something to do with my fitness level or riding style changing through the season so it went lower,higher,lower,higher, but instead it has gone higher, higher, higher, higher! I think I have hit the upper limits now; I would probably be over-extending my leg if I pushed it any further.
To answer the bike fitters in the group in advance, no, my hips are not rocking at all while I pedal. I don't even try to stay on the saddle and get a toe down any more, though... I'm not sure I could. The bike's fit seems perfect to me right now; but it felt perfect before, too, until it didn't!
Have any of you experienced something like this, or am I, as I have always known deep inside, just a big weirdo?
Yer Pal,
R A N T W I C K 
13 comments:
RANTWICK a weirdo? Never...you can tell by the image on this blog that you are normal!
-Trevor
Maybe your seat is just slipping down, and a new seatpost clamp would solve everything.
Must be global warming causing extra growth in the higher latitudes...
Trevor - Thanks, but grey and squinty good looks are no guarantee of normality.
Dan - In the first year, I thought perhaps so, so I began marking the seatpost to be sure. I has not been slipping.
Steve A - Not bad! Not bad at all. Soon I will be Tall, grey and handsome!
If the seat fits...and your body parts are happy...
all is good one would think.
Thanks for the post!
Middle age body geometry malfunction, I mean, adjustment? (I know, I know, you didn't want to hear that.)
Or, tires going flat?
Good observations from everyone. Steve A may be on to something.
You've hit the high point now. Going forward you may find yourself adjusting down and back up during the season.
Because I don't get to ride much in the depth of winter, my position changes as my activities change. Cross-country skiing changes the shape of muscles in the leg compared to pedaling. Inactivity brings its own changes, if the schedule and the snow conditions don't favor exercise. Stretching (or not stretching) affects my riding position as well.
People are squishy and stretchy.
This is actually senility setting in. You adjust the seat a bit higher in the morning when you are actually a bit taller, then adjust it back down at night because it's a bit too high then. Overnight you forget, and do it all again the next day.
Cafiend - "People are squishy and stretchy" I can always count on you to boil things down very nicely. I'm going to be saying that particular sentence out of context and for no particular reason for the next several days, just because I like it.
Annie - I don't mind hearing that... my mid life is working out pretty well, I think, except for unexpected squishing and stretching.
JRA - What the hell was it you wrote again?
I found just recently that I have been riding for about 30 years with my saddle lower than it 'ought' to be. Though it doesn't seem to have done me any harm. Fixing the 'problem' doesn't seem to have done me any harm either, so I'm happy either way.
I think 'correct' saddle height is some sort of weird geek propaganda, meant to make people who like to calculate bike geometry feel better about themselves.
My philosophy - get on the bike and if it feels uncomfortable, mess with it. Other than that, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That philosophy carried me 10,000 miles through Europe with only one broken spoke and a puncture during the whole journey. I really don't think bikes like being tinkered with - or at least mine don't care if I don't pamper them.
Ian - Your philosophy and mine match up pretty well straight on.
I like having my seat `too low` in winter for easy foot-planting in the slippery stuff...
I think you are suffering from the "seasonal growth disorder", which according to the Harvard Medikal Journal, affects people with first names starting with the letter P. Or something like that...
Peace yo :)
Chandra - Great, first Word To Form Syndrome and now SGD...
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