12/28/14 10:02 PM

Riding just after my pinched femoral nerve recovery, sorta during really... Anyway, I had saddle heights lower than usual and bars raised so I could ride at all.

1000 miles later I got the bars back down and started raising the saddle. In the end, and at the end of this season I had the saddle heights about an 1" higher than originally riding. 2" higher than early recovery riding with nerve healing.

I just kept raising it slowly and started to feel a bit snappier response, especially climbing seated. No discomfort, so last few thousand miles, higher than I realized. And more toes down than ever previously in all my riding.

That was fine for riding 5-6 days a week and staying on the bike. As it has got cold and wet and holiday travels etc., I maybe got out twice a week for 12-15 mile cold wet rides. I started having pretty bad lower back pain and triple checking everything realizing the saddle heights were pretty darn high.

So unlike the slow raising 2-3mm at a time, I dropped 15mm, and back pain gone.

Should I raise back up slowly as 2015 riding/miles progress I find I am wondering.

12/28/14 11:18 PM

Chasing tenths-of-watts while risking injury at our age is unwise.

Fwiw...after settling into retirement, andy hampsten has dropped his saddle height 1-2in.

Find a solid, sporting, pain-free position that works for the entire season for the mileage you'll really log, and stick with it.

Last edited by walter on 12/29/14 9:04 AM; edited 2 times in total

12/29/14 6:43 AM

There's nothing to be gained by pushing the limits fit-wise. The more you change things, the more likely you are to injure something. Find a position that works and stick with it, and you'll be much happier in the end.

12/29/14 12:55 PM

"Find a position that works and stick with it,"

Well, that is kind of the point. Riding post femoral pinch started the saddle height change by necessity if I was to ride at all.

It was the ride on the IMP Scott before I trimmed it where I liked the higher saddle initially. I may cut that a little more, it is at the upper limit where I left off prior to this back pain onset. Can't un-cut the IMP longer. ;)

I will sure re-think raising up to that pushed limit as the miles pile on in 2015. I will avoid the toes down at the bottom of the stroke and stick with a more horizontal foot bottom stroke.

12/30/14 6:17 PM

Man, I can't imagine riding with more than perhaps a half-inch of variation in saddle height, at least when not accounting for a 20-year loss of appreciable body height.

The saddle height that works for me racing is identical to my saddle height for riding to the store, save for the loss of height afforded by the padding in the shorts when I'm in "street clothes".

A too-low saddle always tips me off when I find myself sliding off the rear corner of the saddle while using max leg extension for seated climbing. I can't think of anything that would make me want to raise the saddle any further than that.

12/30/14 8:21 PM

I find that varying my saddle height by more than about 1/4" from where I normally have it eventually causes me problems, particularly on long rides. Too high and I start getting irritation of the achilles tendon sheath on long (Audax 200km+) rides from having my feet pointing down excessively. Too low and the tendons around my knee start complaining on similar rides. At the normal height neither of those problems happen.

I remember that Bernard Hinault was out of cycling for a year or more with a knee injury caused by his mechanic setting his saddle height incorrectly for a stage of the 1983 Vuelta - he still won the race but his knee was knackered afterwards.

12/31/14 6:19 AM

The most common saddle position error I see among casual cyclists is saddle too low, often with knees splayed out.

The most common with avid cyclists is saddle too high with toes pointed way down and hips rocking on the saddle. This seems to be especially common with petite women, which makes me wonder if it's related to wearing heels when they're off the bike.

12/31/14 11:25 AM

I've noticed, as I've aged, that the actual "event" of kneecap-area tendon irritation would sometimes occur at the moment when I rose out of the saddle for a steep climb, usually at a lower pedaling cadence. Recovery could then take several days before the irritation ceased to be noticed.

And I've noticed that as I've moved toward a more-forward saddle position that the stress on the knee joints is reduced during this same out-of-saddle shift.
Result is less-frequent kneecap irritation and more-frequent shifts to the "standing" position, where I keep the handlebar positioning optimized for comfort while out of the saddle.

It was actually while testing a more-comfortable out-of-saddle handlebar position that I, out of necessity, also moved the saddle forward in order to maintain a comfortable reach to the bars, which had me un-knowingly following the "Keith Bontrager method" of bike setup.
It has also helped that I have built and tested a wide variety and good number of bikes/frames, so that I can return to and compare fit with previous builds. In this way, even slight variations from my "ideal" fit range are immediately noticeable, and fit parameters can more readily evolve.

1/1/15 12:02 PM

It seems to me that if there is a specific moment that this type of injury is occurring, it may be due to strength issues in the joint.

I've had knee pain at times, but it's always related either an increase in mileage or an increase in stress, such as bouncing around on a 'cross bike or hardtail MTB after spending most of my time on the road. The latter is definitely a strength issue.

1/2/15 11:52 AM

Strength of the muscles and tendons is often found to be marginal for the occasional longer and harder ride, as often results from the colder months' irregular training schedule.

I suspect there is a systemic effect as well, from the familiar increase in the body's inflammatory response when the diet/exercise balance also becomes irregular at this time of year. I say this because long, slow rides have often allowed me to work past the occasional bout of knee pain, within a short time frame that wouldn't seem to incur much if any increase in strength.
I suffered for several years with knee-joint tendonitis during the late 1980's while living in White Plains, NY. It was enough to have caused me to change over to motorcycle racing, since I could not bicycle ride further than ten miles.
But when I moved to the San Fernando Valley and started riding a flat 14mi/day as a commuter, my knee came back to it's former robust self within six weeks or so, and has been normal ever since, with only the occasional transient irritability that typically responds to a few days of longer, gentler riding much better than to time off the bike.

1/5/15 6:25 AM

...when riding? A long time ago, I was taught by an old Belgian racer to always keep my knees covered until the temp is 70 degrees or higher. Whether there is any science to support this or not, I don't know, but it's worked for my for 40 years.

1/5/15 12:12 PM

Agree covering the knees, 65^ for me, and I am pretty strict about it actually.

1/5/15 2:37 PM

quote:

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...when riding? A long time ago, I was taught by an old Belgian racer to always keep my knees covered until the temp is 70 degrees or higher. Whether there is any science to support this or not, I don't know, but it's worked for my for 40 years.

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1/8/15 8:28 AM

I was told tights always if its less than 70 as a junior. The only exception is when racing and then it was a combo of heavy vaseline over a product called atomic balm.

1/9/15 6:49 AM

The character I was referring to was Gus Van Cauwenberghe of Gus' Bike shop. I remember seeing him once out training on 101a in tights on an 80 degree day!