One of the things I've noticed on all my bikes, both conventional road and my tri bikes, is I always feel like I can't adjust the seat far enough forward. This has always bothered me because I feel like I'm pushing the pedals forward at the top of the stroke rather than pushing down. This, in turn, pushes me back on the seat. So I always feel like I'm pushing back, scooching forward, push back, scooch forward, back, forward, back forward. It has gotten very aggravating.
Now, I'm a nurse by profession but I have some engineering background thanks to my military service, and I have always just kind of had a solution oriented thought process.
So if I can't find what I want to fix my issue, I'll make it. Without going into all the details (which I can do if anybody is curious), I bought a cheap straight seat post and made a bracket that allows me to locate the seat as much as 2 inches farther forward than the forward most position I could get with even a "zero offset" seat post.
Here's the original configuration with an off-the-shelf zero offset seat post. I have a red line drawn through so you can see the most forward position I am able to adjust with this geometry.
This is the bracket I made in an attempt to test my theory.
And finally, the bracket as mounted with the seat. As you can tell, the seat is now around 2 inches (5cm) farther forward than the previous forward-most adjustment, and I still have another inch or more I could go if I really want.
When I first put it together, I had it moved all the way forward but that really wasn't comfortable. I moved it back to the position it's in now and that feels pretty good, although I've only ridden once with the new bracket. But that only attempt was a 30 mile route where my previous best was just under 1 hour, 48 minutes. Even on tired legs (5 mile run the day prior) I crushed that previous best by almost three minutes.
I still have some fine tuning to make. And I need to figure out how to secure my bottle cage holder better, but as of right now, I'm very happy with the way this has turned out.
Now, I'm a nurse by profession but I have some engineering background thanks to my military service, and I have always just kind of had a solution oriented thought process.
So if I can't find what I want to fix my issue, I'll make it. Without going into all the details (which I can do if anybody is curious), I bought a cheap straight seat post and made a bracket that allows me to locate the seat as much as 2 inches farther forward than the forward most position I could get with even a "zero offset" seat post.
Here's the original configuration with an off-the-shelf zero offset seat post. I have a red line drawn through so you can see the most forward position I am able to adjust with this geometry.
This is the bracket I made in an attempt to test my theory.
And finally, the bracket as mounted with the seat. As you can tell, the seat is now around 2 inches (5cm) farther forward than the previous forward-most adjustment, and I still have another inch or more I could go if I really want.
When I first put it together, I had it moved all the way forward but that really wasn't comfortable. I moved it back to the position it's in now and that feels pretty good, although I've only ridden once with the new bracket. But that only attempt was a 30 mile route where my previous best was just under 1 hour, 48 minutes. Even on tired legs (5 mile run the day prior) I crushed that previous best by almost three minutes.
I still have some fine tuning to make. And I need to figure out how to secure my bottle cage holder better, but as of right now, I'm very happy with the way this has turned out.