pepperbelly

I have changed saddles back and forth and I think I know the answer to this but generally if the seat is too far forward can it cause me to put too much weight on my arms?
My triceps got sore about halfway into a 12 mile ride.
One problem I have is that I am new enough to cycling that I may not be sitting correctly- I scoot forward and back on my saddle.
Is my arm aching probably due to saddle position? Is there something else I should look at?
I was on a concrete paved trail that goes around a small local lake- 6 miles per lap. It has a lot of twisty curves and some uphill climbs spread out through the path.

Iride01 

Are you handlebars too wide for you? For my size bike, 56cm, it came with a 42cm wide bar. My previous bike I built out, I also put 42cm bars on it as that is what matches the width of my acromion process. Which is how some say to size bars. I never was completely comfortable with that width and eventually got a feeling like shin splints in the back of my upper arm just a little above my elbow. I changed the bars out to 38cm which is the bar width of two of my other bikes. One that I'd rode for over 35 years. The annoyance went away.

If you are keeping your arms too straight, then that might also play a part. If your fit is stretched out, you can usually have straighter arms and not have the bumps and jolts to the bike shared too much by just your arms. But if you have a more normal fit, you really need to keep a good bend in the elbow to allow those bumps and jolts to be shared more fairly by the rest of your body parts and muscle groups.

Also, when you go over bumps, it's helpful to unweight your butt from the saddle a tad. As well, if your position is balanced as you unweight the saddle, then you should also be able to unweight your hands to also keep from having to absorb all the bumps and jolts. If you aren't doing this, it'll take some practice. After a while, it just becomes natural and hopefully you will find yourself doing it without even having to think about it.

pepperbelly

I watched a couple of videos about saddle position. It seems like I do have mine too far forward and a little low.
My arms were bent at the elbows but I had a lot of weight on them. I had some quad soreness also.

79pmooney

A few observations from a guy who's been riding a long time on what works for him. I'm a long, lean, skinny person. Not strong. But I have always liked going fast. (That "fast" has changed over the years. I raced my 20s. Fast at 70 is a LOT slower.)

I learned long ago that I have to have a near flat back if I am to go either fast or upwind. That has never changed. The day I cannot will be the day when I have to settle for biking being substantially less fun. So, I set up all my bikes to be comfortable with a big forward lean. And, for me, the best is with a very long reach to the handlebars, my arms with enough bend to be good shock absorbers when I want to ride relatively upright but less than a 90 degree bend brings my back to near horizontal. Now, this means real weight on my hands all the time. Yes, I could slide my seat back and take weight off my hands but that either closes up my abdomen/thigh angle or has me riding more upright. Keeping the angle open has always felt like better oxygen flow.

So I am content with my position BUT, it does mean that getting off the bike for a long period means there is a shock when I get back on. My arms and hands! They have to do real work! And it means that I need to pay real attention to details around handlebar bend, rotation, brake lever shape and location. (New setups - I go for rides without handlebar tape, just enough electrical to keep the cable housings in place, and bring all the wrenches to adjust that stuff. No tape means a) the work is easy while on the road and b) since the is no either grip or padding, any errors are magnified. Once the locations are close, I tape with cloth tape wrapped from the bottom so I can further fine tune only unwrapping half and cloth tape re-wraps and sticks nicely.)

All this said - seat height always comes first. Get that and your quads, etc, right before putting in "cockpit" effort beyond making the bike test-rideable.

pepperbelly

I am not long or lean. I am losing weight but at 5’10” and 227# I am still a clyde. But I am working on it. I’m 65.
I am losing weight by eating very low carb, which robs me of energy for riding. I am riding to get back in shape and like it but there are so many variables it gets confusing. The fact that I like changing things around without knowing what I am doing is making it an adventure.

jon c. 

You shouldn't. Your body position should largely be maintained by your core muscles rather than by your arms.

Iride01 

The idea that those videos give you of having little weight on your hands is having you move your saddle to a position that isn't realistic for the other more important aspects of your fit to the bike. Maybe like a lot of other popularized methods that single out just one of the many considerations for fit, it works for some but not all.

In my case, if I had my saddle far enough back to relieve weight on my hands, then the cranks would be too far in front of me and I'd have poor power transfer into the cranks. That'd result in me being slow or I'd have sore quads from having to exert too much muscle power to get enough into the cranks to keep up with everyone else or my own idea of what me speed should be when solo.

Set your saddle position to the correct height first and then it's fore and aft to where your body feels balanced over the crank when you pedal with some effort. You'll probably still have quite a bit of weight on your hands, but you mitigate that by the adjusting the reach to the bars via stem length or new bars with a different reach. And learning to hold on to the hoods or drops without putting weight on the back half of your palm.

For me, I keep a saddle height that is 109% of my inseam when measured from the top of the pedal furthest away from where I sit on the saddle. It also tends to match the quick method of finding saddle height by putting your heal on the pedal and straightening your leg all the way. But maybe that is also something that works for some but not all.

As mentioned by another, saddle height is one of the primary if not the most important thing to get right. Particularly on a road bike that will be used to ride at anything more than a leisurely pace.

And again, for me, fore and aft of saddle is more about balancing your pedaling power over the crank. Not reducing weight off the hands and wrists. With your saddle level, if you slide forward or the other way when you are putting out some power, then your pedaling power is not balanced over the crank. And it's trying to tell you where it wants your butt to be.

You do move forward on the saddle when you pedal harder. But that is in conjunction with getting into that more aero position than you previously were and rolling your hips forward that gets you on the narrower part of the saddle. Not so much that you slide to that position.

pepperbelly

Thank you. That explanation really helps. I will check later when I go ride.

Kontact 

Special cases aside, you probably are too far back and too low. Try one of the methods to reach both numbers before you start worrying about power transfer.

Uncomfortable is the slowest bike position.

Turnin_Wrenches

pepperbelly : Since you admittedly are new at this and do not have a lot of fit knowledge, I'd start with the saddle in a neutral position. Position the saddle (fore / aft) in the middle of the rails and level to the ground. If your frame size / stem length are correct for your physical dimensions and your range of motion, then your "center of mass" should land (roughly) in the correct location when the saddle is mounted in the center of the rails. And although many people prefer the saddle slightly nose-up or slightly nose-down, level is usually a good starting position for most people. From there, adjust the saddle height to a point where it feels slightly too low with a noticeable bend in your knee at full extension. You still want to be able to extend your leg comfortably at the bottom of the pedal stroke, but you want the saddle low enough so you can really feel your foot fully engage with the bottom of the pedal stroke. The lower saddle height should promote hip stability and a flat(er) foot at the bottom of the stroke.

Go for a ride at low intensity and see how the position feels after 10-15 minutes. What feels "low" at first might start to feel pretty normal after you ride a little bit. If after 10-15 minutes the saddle height still feels too low, raise the seat height a few millimeters and ride another 10-15 minutes. When the saddle height is too low you will feel stress on the knees and/or it will feel like a struggle to get over the top of the pedal stroke due to a closed hip angle. Repeat until you reach a seat height that feels slightly too high. When the saddle is too high you will feel like you're losing engagement at the bottom of the pedal stroke and/or your hips might start to rock to the left and right as you pedal. You might also start to feel too much weight on your hands, as the taller seat height can push you forward onto your hands. It's important to develop an awareness of how your body responds as the saddle height changes. Once you identify what's "too low" and what's "too high" you can start to experiment within that range to find what's "most comfortable".

Why start with the saddle height at the low end of the range? Because the consequences of a saddle height that is too low are much less compared to a saddle height that is too high. It's simply a "safer" starting point.

If you're not finding any comfort at any height when the saddle is level and positioned in the center of the rails, then you have other things going on with your fit that need investigation.

pepperbelly

I will get it right. I screwed up and put my original saddle back on to try- I have lost 75 pounds and thought it might feel better. It did but I think it’s too narrow. It was a Specialized Body Geometry Toupe. I bought a Cobb Randee and it felt much better but I wanted to try the Toupe again.
I will be putting the Cobb back on and get it dialed in.
I really don’t know what I did wrong but my arm finally stopped hurting. I had a lit of my weight on my hands and with my elbows bent it was like being in a pushup position with bent elbows.

cyclezen

With some understanding of 'where' you're coming from - your 'position' (how your body is distributed on the bike) is greatly determined by your morphology. Carrying weight in the torso is a large consideration when it comes to forward lean on any bike, especially a road-ish kind. Some of that is a consideration for 'fitness'/strength in the core, shoulders, back and arms.
Then there's flexibility...
You've lost a good amount of weight. Augment that with strength work for all the areas mentioned, At the same time work on 'Flexibility'. Flexibility is key to comfortable cycling, key to comfortable Everything!
As you continue to approach a 'balanced' self, you'll also find your bike position changing. There is a 'Balance' to aero and upright for everyone, and Endurance...
Riding a bike is a journey of discovering and knowing yourself... A journey of Truth and Acceptance; and through those, of Appreciation.
Riding the bike is both physical and metaphysical (as is everything we are and do).

Too much jarring 'weight' on the hands, try to mitigate (bending elbows). Shorter and higher angle stem before screwing with the seat. Seat should be set for the most optimized position for leg power and pedaling flexibility - then its bar position.... An adjustable stem helps with bar height and has some effect on 'reach', even a cm up or down or back and forward makes a discernible difference... Adjustable stems are cheap... and will help later, as you search to be more forward and aero...
Ride On
Yuri