October 31, 2023

Beyond Saddle Height: The Crucial Roles Of Fore-aft, Tilt, And Equipment Choice In Your Saddle Position

By Justin Goulding

Your bike’s saddle height is often touted as the most important part of your bike fit, and rightfully so. How you “sit” on the bike is largely considered to be the foundation of your overall position and plays a critical role in a comfortable, efficient and injury free riding experience. What is often overlooked is that height is really only part of the equation, what matters more is your saddle’s overall position.

What is the saddle position you ask? Well, it’s the combination of the three adjustments available for your saddle:

Saddle height
Saddle fore-aft (aka setback)
Saddle tilt

To complicate matters further, the specific components and equipment you use also play a role in determining all of the above. To help dig down into the relationships between these adjustments and the gear you use, this post will cover:

How height and fore-aft are related
How saddle tilt impacts saddle position
How your cycling equipment impacts saddle position
How to measure your saddle position

What this post will not cover directly is how to find the right saddle position for you. Not to worry, we’ll link to great resources throughout the article you can use to help you find your perfect saddle position. Once you’re done, we also recommend using MyVeloFit’s Free AI fit check to find out how your saddle position stacks up based on industry leading best practices.

While height and fore-aft are separate adjustments with different roles in establishing your position on the bike, they are inextricably linked. Because your seatpost angle is not completely vertical above your bottom bracket, this means that any adjustment to saddle height will also change your fore aft position, and vice versa.

Though it may seem as though your saddle moves up and down along one axis (your seat tube), the presence of the saddle fore-aft adjustment means that you have a range of effective seat tube angles you can achieve. The result of this is that you can achieve the same saddle height, in multiple different saddle positions.

The relationship between the two adjustments can be understood as follows:

Saddle up = Saddle aft (rearward)

Saddle down = Saddle fore

Conveniently, these relationships work both ways: moving your saddle up also moves it back (aft), and moving your saddle back has the effect (on your body) of moving it up. The same applies for the down/fore relationship.

To put this into numbers, the 3:1 rule of thumb is a great place to start. This means that for every 3mm you move a saddle up, it moves back (approximately) 1mm. Similarly, for every 3mm you move it back, it has the effect of increasing your saddle height 1mm. To learn more about how we recommend measuring your saddle height and fore-aft (setback) check out our post The Four Measurements Every Rider Needs.

Saddle Fore-aft in Practice

To better illustrate why understanding the relationship between height and fore-aft is so important we’ve created two different saddle positions that have exactly the same saddle height. To do so we’ve used the Redshift Sports Dual Position Seatpost which is designed to change your fore-aft position by 50mm while maintaining the same saddle height. Everything else on the bike has remained exactly the same.

For more on why you might want to do this in practice check out our post How to Set Up a Road Bike for Triathlon.

Two positions with identical saddle heights but 50mm different fore-aft

While at first glance the image on the right might look to have a significantly higher saddle height, this isn’t the case. As mentioned, this seatpost has moved the saddle forward 50mm and compensated by raising the seat vertically by ~17mm. So while these two saddle positions (and overall riding position) are drastically different, measuring the saddle height alone would lead you to believe they are the same.

How saddle tilt impacts saddle position

Though saddle tilt may not have the same level of relationship as height and fore-aft, tilt can have a considerable impact on your saddle position in two ways:

Saddle tilt often impacts the rotation of your pelvis and resultantly your overall position on the bike.
Saddle height is generally measured at the SRP (Saddle Reference Point) which is generally close to the middle of the saddle’s length and therefore close to the axis of tilt. This means that tilt has a minimal impact on the measured height of a saddle, but can have a much greater impact on the points where you’re contacting the saddle (which is saddle dependent).

What this means in terms of your saddle position is that two bikes set up with the same saddle and fore-aft position but different tilt can have a relatively dramatic impact on your body’s overall position and comfort. While not often the case, significant changes in tilt can require a different saddle height to compensate (and vice versa).

For more details on how we recommend setting saddle tilt, check out our post Saddle Tilt 101.

How your cycling equipment impacts saddle position

Fundamentally what your saddle position achieves is placing your body in a position that lets you pedal comfortably, efficiently, and injury free. More specifically, this position is defined by the relationship between our hips and our feet. If we break down what helps us achieve that position, our equipment makes up many of the variables that determine the placement of our hips and feet. Changing any one of the following pieces of equipment can impact that relationship to varying degrees.

Saddle Design

The shape, width and padding of your saddle impacts how you interact with it and therefore your overall position. Though it may seem as though setting two different saddles to the same height, setback, and tilt should put your body in the same position this often isn’t the case. The specific saddle you use is a critical part of your position.

Crank Length

Saddle height and setback are typically measured with reference to the centre of the bottom bracket. While this is a practical way to take these measurements, it leaves out a fundamental component that impacts how you pedal, your cranks. Your crank length has a significant impact on several elements of your pedaling dynamics and can make a big impact on your overall fit.

Shoes and Pedals

Similar to crank length, but to a lesser degree, your shoes and pedals play a role in establishing your riding position. There are two key ways in which they impact saddle position:

Stack Height

Both your shoes and your pedals contribute to what is referred to as stack height. This is essentially the distance between the bottom of your foot and the centre of the pedal axle. Different shoe and pedal systems differ in stack height, which means the specific gear you are using when establishing your saddle position play an important role. This is not necessarily a reason to choose one system over another, but to simply be aware of changes that may result when changing between systems.

Cleat Position

Similar to how saddle fore-aft is related to saddle height, so is cleat position. How far forward or rearward your foot is relative to the pedal axle will have an impact when establishing your saddle position. In general you can understand the relationship as follows:
- Move cleats forward = effective saddle height reduction
- Move cleats rearward = effective saddle height increase

This same relationship exists with flat pedals, however there is less constraint on foot placement on the pedal, so it is often noticed less.

How to measure your saddle position

It’s very common for riders to know their saddle height as the measurement between the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of their saddle. While this is a practical measurement to know, it really only captures a part of the equation when it comes to your saddle position. As outlined in this post, your saddle position is impacted and composed of a variety of adjustments and the equipment you’re using. So in order to properly measure your saddle position, we recommend doing the following:

Document your gear

As your gear will impact how your bike needs to be adjusted, before taking any measurements of the bike itself, make a list of all the gear you were using when you arrived at that position. This includes:

Crank length
Pedal model
Shoe model
Cleat position (Full blog on cleat positioning here)
Saddle model and width

Measure your saddle height (Full Post Here)

Saddle height as measured from centre of BB to top of saddle at SRP

2. Measure your saddle setback (Full Post Here)

Saddle setback measured as the horizontal distance between centre of BB and SRP

3. Measure your saddle tilt (Full Post Here)

The specifics of measuring saddle tilt is dependent on the shape of your saddle. What is important is using a consistent method when using the same saddle.

Measuring saddle tilt can be tricky, but a consistent approach is key.

What does it all mean?

Ok, so you’ve got a whole bunch of stuff written down, now what? Well, hopefully nothing. But, what it can be useful for is a starting point for replicating your position on other bikes or a reference for when you want or need to make changes to your gear. Imagine a situation where you get a new gravel bike, but you established your saddle height on your road bike. At first it may seem as though they should be the same, but the likelihood of needing a different saddle height due to different shoes and pedals is highly likely.

At the core, understanding your saddle position and the many elements that make it up is another straw in your hat in terms of understanding your bike fit in general. The more you know, the easier making changes and finding that next improvement becomes.

Justin Goulding

+ posts

Justin is a lifelong cyclist that has spent the past 15 years in the bike industry across a variety of roles. His diverse work in sales, procurement, fitting, instructing, and planning cycling infrastructure is all driven by a desire to help more people experience the wonder of cycling. He brings this breadth of experience to building MyVeloFit into a company and service that not only provides bike fits, but one that enables more people to get the most out of cycling.

Topics

Tags: Bike Fitting, Saddle Postition

Justin Goulding

+ posts

Justin is a lifelong cyclist that has spent the past 15 years in the bike industry across a variety of roles. His diverse work in sales, procurement, fitting, instructing, and planning cycling infrastructure is all driven by a desire to help more people experience the wonder of cycling. He brings this breadth of experience to building MyVeloFit into a company and service that not only provides bike fits, but one that enables more people to get the most out of cycling.

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Beyond Saddle Height: The Crucial Roles Of Fore-aft, Tilt, And Equipment Choice In Your Saddle Position

Saddle Fore-aft in Practice

How saddle tilt impacts saddle position