Also, I can tolerate most saddles as long as the saddle height/setback is good for me and the saddle isn’t too wide, every saddle that’s been comfortable for me has been no wider than about 5 1/2” or 140mm, pretty narrow. At 5’12” and 185lbs I’m not skinny but I’m narrow from the hips down. (I once heard someone describe it as “spider disease” - as one approaches middle age they find the belly getting plumper and the limbs getting skinnier).
I never consider standover. I ride 58cm or 23”
frames and always have clearance. I had minimal but sufficient clearance on some 25” frame bikes I used to have. I agree with others who have said if you can’t stand over the bike, the frame is too big. Also if your saddle is slammed, the frame is too big. I don’t know about others’ experiences but I can tell the difference in feel between two different size frames set up to fit the same. It’s a big reason I got rid of the 25” frames I had, they just didn’t feel right, even after adjusting stem and bars to match overall position of one of my 23” frame bikes. An expert could probably explain but an expert I am not. I am, however a daily bike commuter and I place a high value on a similar overall experience between the bikes that I’m commuting on. For me a 1/4” difference in saddle position feels like having to learn a new bike. I don’t want to have to think about how this bike feels different than that one. I just want to get to work every day comfortably and as efficiently as possible. It’s routine. Utilitarian. I don’t need every ride to be an adventure. I don’t like surprises on my way to work (like why does my knee hurt all of a sudden?).
In summary, I guess - in my own personal experience saddle position relative to crank has been the biggest single factor in overall comfort on AND off the bike. So although I have tended to overthink, it was only because I didn’t want to pay someone else to do the thinking for me.
When you do it every day for long periods of time, if something or the other is off very far with your fit, your body will inform you. So I’d say it also depends on how much and how often you ride whether or not any particular dimension of bike fit is at all worth thinking about very much. Seeing what other people look like while they’re riding their own bikes is a really poor indicator of what to expect from your own experience. When I see other people on bikes I’m focused on not hitting them, I don’t really understand how people find the time to think about how someone else’s bike seems to fit them, or how far their knees stick out, etc. Like who is actually looking at that.
I hope this info has been helpful to OP.
Last edited by Phamilton; 11-03-19 at 05:59 PM.