Andrew Coggan wrote:
Monastero wrote:
...a saddle position that is (way) too high.
+1
/endthread
I think around 12 years ago on a thread on this forum, where I had posted a pic from racing, and I said, "I know, I know, my saddle is way low" to which you replied something like, "even if you are 1 inch low it won't affect your power". At that point, I had no power meter and was only going on "feel" and the higher positions had less quad and glute burn so they "felt better" but once I got a power meter, I saw that the only reason my higher positions felt better was I was producing less power....it's like swimming easier feels better than swimming hard! In any case, I had gotten frustrated with saddle sores and was going lower and lower until they all went away. I felt that I was "slower lower" because it felt worse, but my race results were showing great times....but it felt worse, but I figured, that if it was the only way to rid myself of saddle sores, then it what the heck. The misery of burning quads was better than the misery of saddle sores. As it turns out the burning quads were from generating more power which I found out a year or so later when I got a power meter and could see the outcome of different positions.
Subsequently I did a bunch of testing in computrainer erg mode with a road bike where hip angle was not a concern and tested 1 inch lower and as you said, no loss of power. On the tri bike I then ended up going in the lowest saddle position where hip angle at top of the pedal stroke did not become an issue for power generation.
Hopefully this is a 12 year old use case of what you refer it in "end of thread" as I lived through it through trial and error. Thanks for your guidance!
Dev