Joe_Mo

Worried about knee problems when riding my mountain bike. I was fit with the seat height about the same as my custom road bike. but I feel that mounting and dismounting is incredibly difficult with how high my seat is supposed to be. Is there any kind of middle ground I can try to find? My bike is the 2011 specialized evo 1x10 using spd pedals.

pablosnazzy

um....adjust your seat until it's comfortable for you. your feet shouldn't be able to touch the ground when you are sitting on the seat. when your foot is at the bottom of the pedal stroke, you should have a slight bend in your knee.

commo_soulja

What he said ^^^

Proper leg extension on either road or mtn unless you like pedaling your mtb like you did with your bmx (assuming you ever rode a bmx bike). If you're concerned about the saddle height when mounting/dismounting carry a small step stool to help you.

mrgrunt99

For it depends on what type of trail and style of riding I do, on my hardtail or dual squishy. If I'm at a bike park/ski lift trails, I'm definitely not going to have my saddle height the same as I would on standard trail ride. I have had knee problems in the past and surgery....I find that I have to do a better pre and post ride stretch with MTB than other activities.

Zephyr11

Right, it depends on your riding. But if you do a lot of pedaling, you want it as high as or close to as high as your road bike's saddle. It may be higher off the ground because of the higher BB though. What kind of mounting and dismounting problems are you having though? That should still feel the same, unless you're trying to remount on a rocky uphill or something.

samburger

Does your bike actually fit you? If you're frame is too large, you'll never be able to find a comfortable seat height for both pedaling & dismounting.

Joe_Mo

thats exactly it. I'm still pretty new to mountain biking and its a problem if I feel like I'm about to crash or don't have enough momentum to get through a rocky uphill.

3speed

IMO, mounting on the uphill of a steep section is probably one of the trickiest things to learn. You don't need to be sitting up on the seat, though, and in fact I would say shouldn't be sitting when you do it, so seat height shouldn't be too much concern once you get the technique down. Maybe youtube would have a video on it that would help you get some ideas on how to improve your technique.

EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGjHu...feature=relmfu

This guy sits on the seat more than I do even, and I'd guess he's probably a lot better than me, so maybe that's a good route to go. Just experiment and do whatever works for you.

scyclops

This ^ - nothing will wreck your knees quicker than sustained hard pedaling with insufficient leg extension.

ShimmerFade

Dismounting should be simply done by hopping off your saddle (hopefully your top tube isn't too high to prevent this =O). I find how I get on the bike depends on what gear it is in. If I have been sitting and spinning up a long hill then I always put more weight on my arms at first until my feet are in the right position. It is sort of one fluid movement spinning the pedals a little and settling back into the saddle. If I am in a higher gear then I can usually use my legs more. You still don't want to put too much pressure on the pedals at first until you can get into a smoother motion.

This takes quite a bit of practice, good rear wheel placement, planning for where you can go that won't kill your momentum, and a decent rear tire. How can you feel like you are going to crash while going uphill lol? Be ready to use your upper body strength to hold your body back over the bike if you run into something you can't get over (kind of like doing a push up). Don't kill yourself trying to get up a steep rocky slope ..sometimes it is better just to walk up a little bit until your conditioning/skills are more built up.

Also, I personally find clipless a pain in the ass on anything technical where there is a lot of stop and go. You may be better off developing your mounting/dismounting skills with normal shoes, and then once you get the feel of the bike down better go back to clipless.

LesterOfPuppets

If I can help it, I NEVER bail by straddling my top tube. I really can't remember the last time it's happened. I love this video of mild toptube ballsmack, though!

ShimmerFade

I very, very rarely dismount going downhill like that (only by accident). What I was writing was referring to going uphill (I misread the "if I'm about to crash" part). I only meant while going uphill. Hopefully the OP isn't already on the trail rolling on the ground in pain ;P.