just recently ive been getting saddle sores on my right hand side of my under carriage, quite painful - got some ointment for them which clears it up
but with being persistent now im now starting to question if its just my saddle height being too high - ive tried numerous seats and always the same
then i started reading into it and how to prevent them and looked at saddle height,
ive just gone off feel before and it felt ok apart from saddle sores
however when ive done the lemond way (centre of bb to top of saddle) it suggests im a good few cm's lower than i actually am - problem is when i tried it with the lemond measurement it felt incredibly odd/unefficient and like i was on a bmx - just felt so weird and not natural
so how do other people measure up and is the lemond way accurate for you? theres no way i could carry on riding it like that, i felt like i was on a bike a size to small for me at the height it suggested :/
heel on pedal, leg straightish
yeh - thats how ive always done it - but i can when testing, replicate a striaghtish leg to a straight leg as in stretched and it yields a good difference in cm's so im not really sure how straight its meant to be - everything ive read suggest generally saddle sores are caused by saddle being too high - guess really ill just have to set it what im used to and then go down ever so slightly till it doesnt feel too small like the lemond way and hopefully find something inbetween that cures the sores long term
If I'm measuring with a tape, my cycling inseam without shoes on minus 10cm puts me in the ballpark for BB to saddle top.
Jumped on a hire eMTB yesterday with no tape, so put a crank in line with seat tube with pedal away from saddle, get a straight leg with shoe heel touching pedal without feeling like I'm tilting my hips.
Check you have saddle in line with top tube, off to side could mess up your sit points on beefy part of saddle.
Since approaching 50 a few years ago, my knees generally get upset if I have less than 30 degrees bend at the bottom of the stroke.
oscillatewildly
^^ Might be causing the issue 😉
Do you use padded/chamois shorts/liners? Or cream? Trying that (or changing them) might help.
thanks for replies so far
haha way to much oscillating - yes various pads / always cream and now pretty much sudocreme / acne cream on area after every ride
my inseam on the wall is bang on 85cm - and it suggests my saddle height off that is 75.5cm from saddle to centre of bb - which sounds very similar to your thinking @n0b0dy0ftheg0at but that feels so wrong pedalling uphill like im slouched back and on a sofa with little to know power going through my legs
wearing bibs/shorts with a worn out knackered pad can be a cause of them for me. I binned an old pair off a few weeks ago after I'd picked them out the drawer by accident and they caused me a sore the next day.
I've used this method for over 50 years. Works for me. If I change from flats to clipless I notice the few mm. difference and adjust accordingly.
If the sores are one sided - perhaps theres something else biomechanical going on - one leg longer than the other maybe, or something else asymetric in the way you're either sitting or pedalling.
so how do other people measure up and is the lemond way accurate for you? theres no way i could carry on riding it like that, i felt like i was on a bike a size to small for me at the height it suggested :/
Did you start with an accurately-measured inside leg length? (edit, seems so from your later post) If so, the Lemond method is pretty good I think, ime it works for most people to get within maybe 5-7mm of an ideal saddle height on a road or gravel bike and only needs more variation from there if you pedal either wiith a lot of or no 'ankling' motion, have huge feet or tiny cranks, etc. It's one of the more useful fit formulas. Try 1.09 inside leg to get pedal top to saddle top? That's a good checker as it includes crank and pedal spec.
It did feel low to me to begin with and 5mm feels like a big adjustment on saddle height. That's just muscle memory though - you'll get used to the new height in time. Might want to adjust the bar lower too. FWIW I tend to use Lemond Method height within a few mm on my drop bar bikes and go about 8mm lower on my MTB (XC/trail use).
Ride less and/or stand pedalling more 👍 👍 👍
put a crank in line with seat tube with pedal away from saddle, get a straight leg with shoe heel touching pedal without feeling like I'm tilting my hips.
This works well enough too. Unless you wear high heels.
Last year when I was riding a lot, I was getting them really badly - in the form of very sore boil type lumps.
Three different bikes (emtb, HT, gravel), three differing saddle heights. padded shorts, not padded shorts, shower before the ride, shower straight after the ride. Nothing seemed to work they appeared after every right, usually overnight
I noticed last night that Specialized give a suggested BB to saddle height based on shin length, from just under knee cap to ankle.
For the Tero eMTB, at ~39cm chin length it suggested 71.5cm, only a fraction lower than I typically use on bikes.
I've just used the method in that RCA vid to help fit a new road bike. The Lemond method has always put me too high, as has the heel on pedal only method.
Is the saddle level after the suspension is compressed. Its surprising how much a sag in suspension changes the ' levelness" of the saddle and can affect comfort.
