I know that obviously wheel size and your height come into account along with the discipline you ride but I’ve noticed from looking at peoples uni pics on here that there’s quite a variation in seat heights.
So, what setup do you run? I’m looking at something like the following:
Wheel size: 19/20/24/26/29/36
Discipline: Trials/muni/road
Height: Er, your height?! (pref in feet and inches)
Seat height: From top of clamp to top centre of saddle
I’m gonna check mine when I’m home and get it posted, was trying to be smart as I know the marking on the seatpost is set at 155 though I don’t actually know what that measurement relates to so I don’t want to put it down if it’s completely wrong!
And if you would be so kind as to convert the measurements to the metric system too? Maybe those using metric can convert to inches and feet?
No need for hand or finger or ell (cubit) though i think.
Maybe it would be better to ask how straight is your leg when the pedal is at the bottom? That way we don’t have to bother with measurements. It’s easier for us lazy people
Well, generally speaking yes, but i know some of the members here like to take things more technical and scientific.
Normally i have the knee slightly bent when in the lowset pedal position and sitting on the seat with all my weight.
While the seat was too low on my 24" i was sitting, or at least had the feeling leaning to the left side.
After dismantling and boiling my seats i have them a little bit lower then normal but i fell ookay with this. It might help by learning some riding seat out front etc. Maybe hoping.
Yup. And for all you nerds with the micrometers out there, specific measurements are virtually meaningless because the key variable is your legs, which might not even be the same length as each other.
Going by leg length (translated to amount of knee bend) takes into account any frame size, seat padding thickness, wheel size and crank length. It’s all you need, most of the time.
By discipline:
Freestyle and basic riding: Highest; just a slight bend with your heel on the bottom pedal
Road: still pretty high, starting from the Freestyle height and possibly going a bit lower based on the roughness of your riding surface. What you want to avoid is bumps that are big enough to bounce you off the seat and make your bottom foot lose contact with the pedal.
MUni: Lower; again it depends on the extreme-ness of the terrain, but you need more room for the uni to bounce up and down underneath you, without your feet getting bounced off the pedals. I often use a high seat for climbing, then lower it (sometimes a lot) for the descent.
Trials/Street/today's type of Flatland: Lowest; You want lots of room to pull the uni up under you when jumping, and room to compress before those jumps.
That’s great thanks. I keep reading about people chopping their seatposts down and see 29’s with quite low seats whilst mine is right up and I still feel it could go a bit higher!
i ride a impact gravity longneck with 125 cranks with the seat (a chopped up, thin kh street seat) as low as it can go. i cut my seatpost down to around 80 mm- 3 inches to minimize the weight. im about 5 8 (170 cm) and i ride street mostly wiht some flat. i think that whatever people say about seatpost hight only matters when you learn to ride and htat everything pas that is personal preferance. some ride high, some ride low, the only way you will ever now is to go out with a allen wrench and ride for 10 minutes at a time wiht each seathight
your a wrong. most people prefer a higher seat for flat then they do for trials or street and in general they ride seats that are high, almost freestyle hights for rolls and wraps. street and trials are ridden with a super low saddle, but flat tends to be much higher
OK, here’s how I measured my seat height today. I have a 30" pants inseam; when I measure my inseam with shoes on it’s about 33". I measured for the lowest point of the seat surface to the top of pedal at the bottom of it’s stroke, as that is what my legs care about the most:
19" (trials), 137 cranks: 32.5"
I still have room to stand up on this, but it’s probably a bit high for real trials.
26" Oracle (muni), 165 cranks: 32.75"
29" Nimbus 2 (80% road), 135 cranks: 32.75"
Coker V2, 155 cranks: 32".
I just bought this uni; this was my first ballpark seat setting. It has felt too low, but not so low that I’ve changed it. I was planning on raising it a half inch or so next time I was near the right wrench.
I’m surprised how close they are, given that I’ve arrived at these through trial and error; it would appear that my seat height comfort zone is within 1/4"!
I generally prefer a lower saddle than normal. I’m 6’8" (over 2 meters!) but my freestyle saddle height I use for hockey is low enough for people around 6’2" to manage comfortably-ish. At the same time I like my saddles with a bit of extra padding so my lower saddle height is largely down to comfort and ‘freedom of movement’.
Also, I don’t really see much benefit to an uneccissarily high saddle anyway. Those precious few extra cm’s raised to make your leg straighter at the bottom of the revolution hardly do anything at the expense of discomfort.
True - comfort is most important. For me it’s most comfortable riding when I’m able to nearly fully extend my knee while sitting. When I stand on the balls of my feet I still feel like have a couple of inches of clearance. As I get better riding rough terrain I may have to drop my seat, but right now seat clearance isn’t holding me back.
I tried lowering my seat a couple of inches more than normal when I first got my new MUni, but found I was spending very little time on the saddle as the lower seat height meant I was hitting the wrong parts of my thigh muscles and just making myself ache so it is gradually creeping back up.
It really is down to comfort. I have it exactly right on my 20" and still fiddling with the 29 Road and the 24 Muni.
