[Closed] Saddle Height - Adverse to buying a dropper post.

Am i alone on this?

Well I didn't have that problem, when I changed to flats early last year. Doesn't mean I'm not the one who's alone though.

I think you need to define what you mean "it's more difficult".

There might be a difference in the thickness of the sole of your new flat shoes thats changed your preferred saddle height.

On the money thing I'm with you, but all I've to my gravity dropper in 7 years is lubed it once. It didn't need it, but I just felt I should! Took 5 minutes...

I found that it felt more natural to run my saddle about 4 inches lower when I switched to flats from clipless - partly because of the reduced shoe/pedal height and partly because it felt more natural to move the bike around beneath me a lot more.

4 inches, that is some seriously thick flat shoes. I feel that i cant bend the knees to absorb lumps and bumps as much. I like to have the seat high for climbing. Perhaps ill have it a cm or two lower to see how i get on.

For climbing yeah adjust your seat and for decending lower your seat. That's only twice not every 5mins like you say....as time goes on you won't have to adjust all the time. I've learnt that I can manage my seat position slightly higher for some descents, but for relay steep tec decents then yeah I drop the saddle. My son just bought one of those dropper seatposts where you have the button control on your handlebars, so no Need to ever get off your bike ever to adjust your seaport length.

elaine anne - Member
For climbing yeah adjust your seat and for decending lower your seat. That's only twice not every 5mins like you say...

The common slogan for dropper posts is that they help descending.
I disagree - I think they help climbing more than they help descending.
I have owned a few dropper posts and they are great but unfortunately most are pretty unreliable.
I went back to a regular seatpost.
I found techy descents trickier but that was massively improved by a very small drop and slight forward shift of my ideal saddle position - I'm talking 1cm or so.
At first my climbing sufferred massively but I soon adjusted and I can keep up with most group rides now.
It doesn't take much space for your saddle to clear your shorts on techy stuff.
I don't personally understand why some people say they need 5 inch drop posts.

Clipped in, seat up, no problems.
Tried flats, but hurt myself when I came off the bike. Dropping the seat might have helped, but im not doing that every 5 minutes. So bollocks to that.

Iike I said druid, learn to decend with your seat abit higher than u would normally,-for not so steep descents then u wont have to keep getting off your bike....

Lol at kiwi...oh dear I'm afraid u have to iiman up a bit more...you fell off and hurt yourself cos of flatters....MTb,ing is where it's at ....you are defo gonna fall of at some point otherwise your not riding hard enough. Lol

I find that with tech descents I can slip off the back of the saddle OK and still shift weight around effectively - but when getting pretty much any air comes into the picture - std seatpost at xc height provides an unpleasant lack of ability to shift weight around - but maybe my I was not destined to fly [s]at all[/s] that gracefully. 😐

I noticed that Dropper posts got a lot of bad press for reliability not just the cost factor.

Gotta cut those Kiwi's a bit of slack.
Once they accept they're just a small but significant Australian island they'll grow some bollocks.
Until then they have a bit of an identity crisis.

Cos of flat pedals.....oh.... I luv flat pedals for mtb

clip ins for road bike yep... Flats for mtb.. if I'm gonna fall off I want to be sure my feet are not stuck to ruddy clip ins lol...

It's one of those things where you don't actually need to drop your saddle for descents or technical stuff, but if you do you can move about more and ride faster. Also landing on your saddle off a 4ft drop is fairly unpleasant.

With a dropper you don't have to keep your saddle at that compromised height that's no good for climbing or descending.

Also recently swapped to flats - decided I ought to learn how to ride my bike properly (note: this is an entirely personal statement - it is not meant to suggest that riding certain types of pedals indicate an ability - or not - to ride properly in others :D).

As part of that plan I went to see Jedi at ukbikeskills. The session was excellent and one of the (many) things I came away with was that I found it much easier to move the bike around under me with the saddle lowered.

I was somewhat averse to getting airborne before the session but I am now looking for things to launch off - having the saddle lower helps there as well - again, this is for me - YMMV. The last thing I want on flats, especially still being relatively new to them, is to have the saddle give me a bit of a nudge as i fly through the air inches from the ground. I suspect that feet would leave pedals and I would leave bike...

I have since bought a KS i900 with a remote on the handlebar and it's been worth every penny IMO. Riding trails I know it's good but riding trails I don't know it's brilliant. I can react to changes in the trail easily and it makes me feel much more confident.

Just my 2p.

🙂

I don't personally understand why some people say they need 5 inch drop posts.

You don't '[i]need[/i]' to keep on breathing, as long as you're not averse to dying.

Likewise, you don't need to drop your post for anything as long as your not averse to going slow downhill.

Riding anything tech with your saddle up just sucks!Get the saddle out of the way and enjoy descents rather than survive them.

OP, when changing from spd's to flats you place your foot further forward on the pedal, hence lowering the seat post, it is also more important to drop your heels which isn't possible at spd height.

Try dropping your saddle a wee bit and pointing your heels down when peddling (including uphill) so that you're trying to push your pedals at your front hub. Still get full leg extension for the power, but the saddle is more out of the way in readiness for the next wee bit of down.

That's a jedi trick.

I tend to find a compromise with my saddle height that may be slightly geared towards the dh side of things. It does mean that on steep climbs it forces me to get out of the saddle and sprint up, rather than spin, which is no bad thing, and helps fitness.

For trail riding dropper posts remove the need to compromise.

high5 guys 🙂

For trail riding dropper posts remove the need to compromise.

But the OP doesn't want a dropper seatpost.

This is STW, it's not all about the OP you know! 🙂

mikey74 - Member

But the OP doesn't want a dropper seatpost.

Aye, he has magic retracting pants which do the exact same job.

With spd's you can generally get away with a roady type optimum efficient saddle height over rough-ish ground as your attached to the bike. With flat ties you need a little slack in saddle area to prent arse-to-saddle interference bumming your feet off the pedals. As above, drop the saddle 1/2 to 1", drop your heels and enjoy.

<scuse me- meant "wants" not "has">