A further expansion on Saddle Setback

With our ‘baseline’ setback calculated, what happens for those of us transferring over to other disciplines?

If you missed it, I talked about road saddle setback here:

So what next?

It should go without saying that how much a particular athlete needs to modify their setback to move between disciplines is individual and dependant of a number of factors, not least overall priority discipline and riding style. But I’d like to outline some broad, typical considerations when moving from an existing and well honed road saddle setback and taking that over to some common alternative types of riding.

Mountain Bike Cross Country

Generally, a rider will use a more forward saddle position. This is due to two primary factors: ease of transferring weight fore/aft and getting behind the saddle, as well as very steep inclines where front wheel lift can be a potential problem.

Modern mountain bike geometries have taken this to somewhat of an extreme and I have on several occasions encountered situations where we cannot move our saddle of preference far enough rearward.

Another important consideration is that a full suspension bike will have less setback when measured unladen than it’s hardtail counterpart. The goal is to achieve the desired setback with the ride on board creating sag.

Cyclocross

With similar considerations to a hardtail mountain bike, though may match road setback for some riders.

Again, with steeper seat tube angles, achieving desired setback can be a problem for some riders.

Gravel

This category is hard to define and very individual, dependant on terrain especially. But most riders will settle for a setup somewhere between road and cyclocross dimensions.

Track Endurance

I will always begin a track setup as close to an athlete’s road setup as possible, then adjust from that point. It is common to arrive at a point of identical, or a little further forward of their road setup, to allow for a lower torso angle as loading the front end a little more is a worthwhile trade off in favour of aerodynamics.

Time Trial

Continuing along the same lines as track, most riders will utilise a more forward position to generate free hip movement.

The goalposts are also somewhat moved when considering TT positions, as an athlete can usually hold far more weight on the front through their elbows, than through their hands on a drop bar setup.

With the influx of Tri-oriented bikes used as Time Trial machines, this is another subset of setups where a frame’s geometry can be limiting.

I like to take in to consideration how much time an athlete is realistically spending training on their time trial bike. A road-focussed athlete who isn’t spending many hours on their TT rig I will commonly advise keeps their saddle setup closer to their road setup to limit the adaptation time required. But again everyone is individual!

Triathlon

Probably the most wide-ranging category, dependant on competing distance and belief system.

But generally, triathlon setups are by the far the most forward of all, favouring a more open hip for comfort, aerodynamics and to ease transition to running over outright power production.

Saddle height may also need to be reconsidered depending on shoe setup, particularly for the longer-distance athletes.

If you have any questions, comments or counters to any points I have discussed, please drop me an email!

If you’re interested in how a real Bike Fit could help you, just get in touch.