rbrides

Feeling great about my saddle height + fore/aft. I want to dial-in the saddle tilt. I’m a committed road & gravel rider/group rider but not a racer. I do 3-5 rides a week for around 200 mile with lots of climbing on a specialized Diverge comp with their Power saddle.

what is the prevailing wisdom on setting saddle tilt?

aggiegrads

Depends on anatomy, but I prefer very slightly nose up. That has also been the advice of two different fitters, including a PT.

79pmooney

Find the tilt that works for you. This will depend a good part on the seat. Many who ride traditional all leather seats like the nose up. But it also depends on you handlebar location and how much forward bend you have. I am long and shinny without a lot of power, Low bars and a good aero position make life a lot more bearable going upwind. But seats that are not nose down make my life miserable.

I consider the exact tilt probably the most critical setting on the bike. I hate seatposts with click-stops and by far favor seatposts with 2-bolt clamps where you can back off one bolt, tweak the other a tiny bit, re-tighten the first and do little tilt changes that are just as easy to undo. When setting up a bike, I set the height exactly to that of another bike with similar seat. Then get the seat close by eye and go for a ride, wrenches to adjust height and tilt in my pocket.

Ben (Edit for a funny typo)

Carbonfiberboy 

Yeah, there's no right answer except that it's what works for you. Fiddle with it for a while, see if you can find your magic tilt. Then measure it with a level so you can duplicate it if you need to. I like very slightly nose down on the saddles I'm using now.

A good tilt can sometimes be found by setting the saddle level, using a level. Very few saddles are totally flat. If you have one, that's simple. If you don't, look and see where your sit bones live. Try to make it level just from that point forward. While riding along normally on the flat, it's regarded as a good thing if your can, while pedaling, briefly lift your hands off the bars without sliding forward, though balance has a lot to do with that too.

rbrides

Thank you

rbrides

Thanks for. Your input

rbrides

Thanks

IamNed

I've been messing with saddle tilt a lot this year. It's been fun, in a way. What I've ended up doing is putting the similar shaped saddles I have on my three main bikes as level as I can get the front part of the saddle. It's taken some time, but this seems to be working best for me...after messing with slightly up, major up, slightly down, major down, and now level lol. Having the forward part of the saddle level I suppose gives it a look of tilted down. The three saddles are Fizik Argo Vento (main road bike), Fizik Argo Tempo (fixed gear), and Fizik Arione L (bike on trainer).

ofajen

I couldn’t agree more on the value of setting tilt carefully, particularly with drop bars, and the value of two bolt seat posts. I put a new Campy one on my old road frame way back when and I’ve now had both for over forty years, so I had the skewed impression that two-bolt posts were the norm.

These days I’m using a cheaper Schwinn road frame with a higher BB to avoid pedal strike with platform pedals, so I snagged a cheap XLC two-bolt post in the appropriate size.

Otto

berner

My observation based on my own bike and personal geometry revolves around the heigth of the handle bar compared with the saddle. If the bar is above the saddle a bit, then I find the bar more comfortable if it is tilted up and back a bit. During times when I'm very fit, say around mid summer. I like being stretched out bit with the bar a bit below the saddle. In this case, I like the bar tilted down a bit as this provides a better angle at the wrist.

fietsbob

I'm of the opinion I should not slide forward on my saddle , weighting my hands on the bars more,

so it is level to slightly nose up. especially with my leather Brooks ,Team Pro ,, saddle.