Originally Posted by
Helderberg
Could you explain what the issue is that the seatpost caused?
It was simply impossible to get the saddle into a position where I could fully engage the larger leg muscles (quads & glutes) during the power portion of the pedalstroke. I was too "on top of" the cranks. Getting a seatpost with ~25mm of offset resolved the issue nicely, allowing me to feel more comfortable during hard efforts and generate more perceived power (though I don't have any objective data to back up that last assertion).
fwiw nowadays all my bikes are set up with about 8cm of saddle setback [nose of saddle behind center of bottom bracket] but back then with a Thomson straight 0-offset seatpost, a Selle Italia SLR saddle, and this old (circa 1986) Bridgestone frame, I simply could not achieve that much setback.