While commuting on my 36 yesterday I thought about a “new device” but I wanted to share the idea with you, just to discuss about it.
The idea is the following: a “on the fly” tiltable rail adapter.
I’m not into touring but I wonder if it might not be a good idea to be able to tilt the saddle (or T7 handle + saddle, in my case) while riding.
I don’t know if it would be useful but when you know you’ll have some uphill km/miles to ride, you could move your seat to the most convenient/efficient position… Same for flat or downhill
What about the concept? is it stupid? usefull? ununderstandable?
Please discuss;)
I ride with my seat completely flat to the seatpost, so it wouldn’t help me one bit. I like the neutral position.
But other people ride with the saddle tilted in all sorts of funny positions so I’m sure it’s a feasible idea. I don’t know if they change positions when they climb and descend though.
I’ve got 2 different angles on my coker and my schlumpf, and I don’t think tilt makes anywhere near as much difference as people think. I only have the tilty adaptor on the schlumpf because it’s part of the handle. I reckon where we want to go is to limit the complexity and weight of seat attachments rather than adding even more complex things to it.
I once tried an experimental T7 handlebar and inverted it meaning it was facing upside down and it was a complete failure as it proved to be of no use. So i turned the way it was meant to be and slightly angled it.
Mostly because at that time they can’t do it on the fly, I guess. I wondered if anyone feels unconfortable with their saddles depending on the road profile. So, as a (famous:p ) tour rider, you’d say you don’t need such a device? that’s interesting, thanks!
I was also wondering about this: does the (supposed) add in confort outpast the increase in weight?
Thank you guys;)
[edit]GizmoDuck, can you “ping” your fellow Hardcore tourers (Hoover family, Rodger and many others) on this? though I raced with most of them during last unicon’s 10km we didn’t have much time to introduce ourselves (maybe you remember the odd 36er with the “Air circus filled wheel”? )
I’d have to also say that despite having a rail adapter, I ride with my seat virtually flat too. I’ve not really experimented with tilting it forward or backwards, but on the basis that it’s comfortable enough I haven’t bothered.
On my RTL qualifying run, I spent around 20 hours in the saddle over 2 days. Towards the end of it I will admit that it became a bit uncomfortable, but I doubt that tilting it would have made things that much better. The discomfort was more widespread than that.
To extend on Joes point about simplicity, the key requirements would be simple, light, strong and reliable. I can’t imagine a design that would achieve all of these. UPD resistant would have to be an important factor, no matter how much of a good rider you are, and that will only add weight and bulk to it.
I think that having a seat that can tilt on the fly is unnecessary if you have a good handle. I put some Mountain Bike bar ends on my T7 as drop bars and it gives me another couple positions that I can ride in. If you get tired or sore you can change where you hold the handle, effectively changing the angle of your body in relation to the seat. It is the same concept that road bikers use.
I would not want one that moves while riding. I go to great lengths to try and remove any movement, and a device to change the angle is just making another possible weak point that could come loose. Like Ken, I ride with my seat angle pretty flat. I have the Thomson seatpost but when I installed it last time I noticed it would not tilt upwards much and it might have to go on backwards just to get any tilt at all. I’m happy if nothing moves but the wheel and pedals spinning.
is it only a tilt position or that the axle of the seat could change slightly (for instance bakwards from the post axle)?.
I have a tilted seat on my 29" and a normal one on other unis. with all I realise I feel more comfort while seating at the extreme back of my seat ( I have “curved” seats like the old KH seats).
I may be mistaking but moving the saddle forward or backward isn’t really usefull. As far as geometry is concerned, I think that the only things to care about are “height of the saddle” meaning distance from saddle/seatpost interface and the hub, and “saddle angle” meaning the angle between hub - saddle/seatpost interface - front handle. I’ll try and draw an example if this ain’t clear enough;)
On the other hand, sometimes the rail adapter is to big and gets in the way when riding => moving the seat forward is a solution.
I also thought about you (W.Bear) and your freemount troubles when the idea of the “on the fly saddle tilter” came to my mind:
With such a device you could be more consistant for freemounting your cocker. You’d just have to tilt the saddle horizontaly for the freemount and then tilt it backward for the ride (my 36 er freemount is also less consistent since I’ve been using the T7 because you can’t lean forward enough)
Thanks all of you for the feedback… that was just a (not so good) idea thrown in the air don’t bother too much about its landing;)
Unirene lost her password but she basically told me “gone on, give it a try and let me know how it rides”
I don’t know if I’ll try and design such a device, I’ll let you know if I do so;)
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