Dfrost 

Any post that has two bolts, arrayed front-to-back, clamping the rails will have every fine tilt adjustment, There are quite a few out there meeting that description, but they typically have zero to very small rear setback. I need lots of saddle clamp setback so these are what I’ve appreciated:

I love my early-version of the VO Long Setback post (can’t see the bolts here but they’re both behind the post tube, straddling the rail camp pivot)


Before that, I appreciated American Classic posts that use a large clamping bolt, ahead of a smaller tilt limiter set screw. That set screw is clear in this shot:
P

Bad Lag

Be careful about that. There are a lot but not all qualify. If you want them to be older C&V, they are even fewer: as in, one - Campagnolo. Well, maybe,... didn't Simplex make one with clamping "wings" toward the rear?

I have seen two-bolt seat posts that had hidden indexing teeth which render it no better than a cheap steel seat clamp.

rgvg

Thanks! At least now I have an idea what to look for, even if it's a choice between pricey and pricier... After the sticker shock subsides I'll have to look for one.

rgvg

What about this seatpost? Anybody know if this is any good?
Used raceface xy0

squirtdad

it seem to me is that with the grips on modern brakes and shifters people spend less time in the drops so so there is more drop to get to a similar position when on the brakes

or there are just way more flexible

squirtdad

not to forget, riding position will make a difference

on my bike where I sit up straight the B17 is tilted up ever so ever so slightly

in my bikes with drop bars the Swift is level and the Berthoud tilts down a smidge

smd4

Level. Bike saddles should always be level.

Always.

abdon 

I don't race nor modern anything so I exist in a different world than racer oriented magazines with their equipment fatwas.

My touring bike setup has a looooong geometry, with the saddle way back conductive to my preferred lower cadence/harder pedaling. When in town I may spend a lot of my time on the top side of the handlebars, it is not likely I can go fast enough to take advantage to an aero position. When on the open road I would be on the drops for efficiency in fighting the wind. The Brooks saddle (not the choice of most racers) is either level or slightly up. I don't need a magazine to tell me what's best, it got there after doing many 70-mile rides and adjusting until it was perfect.

One last bit; you know you have your drops dialed in when you can let go of them and don't feel like you are falling down; the position should not be such that you are propping your weight up while on them. That's an invitation for some nasty shoulder blade pain around mile 50.

Road Fan

Mine are all a little nose up. I start with it level and pedal it sitting with my back straight. At this moment I'm lookig for my hips to pedal smoothly without rocking side to side, and for my hips not to slide forward or back wards. If I need to raise the nose to prevent sliding forward, or to lower it to prevent sliding backwards, there will usually need to a small vertical height adjustment as well to restore correct pressure on the sitbones and perineum.

For me those are the basics of saddle position adjustment. That sequence has worked well for me for Brooks Pro, B17, Swallow, Ideale 90, 92, and 80, Specialized Alias, and Toupe.

Try it, but don't let any of the trials go long enough to cause significant pain, especially due to abrasion. If you have abrasion, you will have to tay off th bike and let that heal before you can go back to incrementally adjusting you saddle position. You may find there is such a thing as "easy discomfort" and "very hard discomfort." That could be another learning experience.

Road Fan

Campagnolo two-bolt, Nitto S-83 and S-84 two-bolt, Thomson Elite, bent, or Masterpiece, and most other two-bolt saddles. Several others can be good with a smaller rang of motion, such as the American Classic post. There are others, in a variety of different designs. In general I reject toothed adjustment seat posts and those with one adjuster bolt.

79pmooney

No, I am not trying a level or tipped back seat because I know exactly what it will do. Yes, take weight off my hands and stop the (minor) tendency to slide forward. It will also have me tipping my pelvis back to take pressure of my soft parts or pay the price; both during the ride and after. That tipped pelvis means I cannot abdominal breath as effectively. Now I could then bring ,my bars up and/or back and solve both the weight on hands and reduced oxygen uptake, but at the cost of this lightweight, totally non-aero and low powered leaf laboring harder to go fast or upwind. In my book, totally not OK.

So I adjust my seats to get the position I want in comfort, then address seriously my hand comfort. End result? I can ride all day in comfort and if I have to spend real time upwind; well it's as good as I can make it.

79pmooney

I managed to get a Laprade set between clicks many years ago on my Mooney (after my two bolt Avocet broke). Didn't touch it for many years knowing I had achieved the unobtainable. (The dark ages when one-bolt posts ruled, the famous Campy NR was discontinued and out of my budget anyway and the internet was yet to be useful.)

Road Fan

Well, if you accomplished that, you are Da Man! I was always thinking about filing out a tooth into being a notch.

Road Fan

I've also been in this long enough to know that I can't solve all the problems individually or immediately - the best riding position I can find pretty much eliminates perineal abrasion and lower back pain, and keeps my body weight balanced above the BB axis - those are the priorities. I don't just "tilt up (or down) the saddle." I edge the nose up or down just a little bit at a time until it feels right, then I ride a bit to see if it needs a height adjustment, then double check the tilt again, iterating as necessary. Once these points are set I can adjust bar tilt and stem height, and sometimes bar reach if I have enough spare stems in The Box. I usually can't feel bar reach errors until I've been back on the bike for an hour or so, anyway. So, I was trying to convey a little of the techniques combined with a sort of orderly iteration I use to achieve my balance. I find the same process works for a wide range of different saddles I've used.

While I phrased my advice as a universal, I know it is not that way for all of us, at least not my statements about saddle position. I just wanted to communicate some of the basics of height versus angle, because there was a lot of talk about just getting the tilt, or just the height, and not talking about how two variables (and additional variables) might affect each other. You are clearly the expert on your own fit. As I come back from Covid I'll again become the expert on my fitting, but meanwhile I have my methodology for setting up, and I can share that with others.

55murray

Some of mine at a glance look nose up a bit, but where my sit bones actually end up is dead level.

pwert

Leave it flat and get up on you feet. The saddle is just there to keep the seat post clean when you go over a bump.

philbob57

Some saddles are designed to be tilted down, Selle SMP, for example, specifies setting the saddle level initially but states a rider might prefer a tilt in the range of +10/-25 degrees. 'Always flat' is not a universally valid rule.

WRT 2 bolt micro-adjustable seatposts, there used to be a range of copies of the Campi post. Zeus comes to mind. Mine is the 'Arius' brand. It's no work of art, but it has worked since I installed it in 1981. Probably Spanish. The brand has got to be a reference to the Arius who lost out to Athanasius at Nicea 2000 years ago, although the battle raged on for a while. I wonder what the branding gurus think of that.