I have an old set of clip-ons that I want to throw on my gravel bike. I know the saddle may need to be tweaked, but I’m not sure how or what. I don’t want to mess up my professional fit too much, but could really use another riding position for some of these long rides/races.
Thanks.
Probably just move the saddle forward a bit and possibly lower the seatpost a wee bit. I have some clip-ons on a cross bike and there isn’t much different that needs to be done. It is nice to have another couple positions to go to on longer rides.
I have an old set of clip-ons that I want to throw on my gravel bike. I know the saddle may need to be tweaked, but I’m not sure how or what. I don’t want to mess up my professional fit too much, but could really use another riding position for some of these long rides/races.
Thanks.
I’ve considered this. I have a pretty long and non technical paved greenway ride to get to the gravel I ride and have thought “huh, extra TT practice”. Not to mention time saved riding the part of the ride that isn’t as enjoyable as the gravel fun.
Thing is, the position I’m normally in on my cross bike would mean a big difference in saddle fore/aft (as you’ve noticed).
I think it depends on how often you plan to be in “aero”. For a tri/TT bike, your saddle is up because you are meant to spend all your time in aero. But gravel, I could see it being a 50/50 mix.
If I really really wanted to do this, I’d probably say try out a really long split nose saddle meant for TT like an ISM. I find on my TT bike I can ride “comfy” endurance miles sat back and then “hard” miles like a TT sim up on the nose. Same idea maybe for an aero gravel setup.
Unless you invent a saddle rail mount you can slide and click into two distinct positions.
I don’t tweak my seat position at all when i add or remove my aerobars.
I might be slightly unique in my saddle tilt… IDK. I have a relatively flat saddle (Fizik Antares) and i have it tilted so that the nose is up a few degrees. I don’t feel any discomfort at all with it that way (in fact, I prefer it) and it also has the benefit of giving me a couple mm of saddle height when i scoot forward when I’m on the rivet or in a TT position. I leave it tilted this way whether i have aerobars mounted or not, and i have the same saddle and same tilt on my road bike.
I don’t think I would change my saddle position at all.
I would be more inclined to mess with pad height, distance, etc… to make them rideable.
I don’t touch my saddle with clip-ons.
Some guy on this forum has a different opinion. What does he know?
You folks know how persnickety I am about bike position, and if there’s one rule that sits up there with Thou Shalt Not Kill (or Steal or Covet), it’s that the aero position and the road position are two discrete positions. Two saddle positions. And this is the problem with putting a clip-on onto a road bike. I knew in advance how I wanted to handle that, because our man Ian Murray (Ianpeace on our Reader Forum) turned me onto this particular Redshift seat post in his writeup of Wilderman a few years ago. Below is a pic of Ian on his Wilderman bike with his Redshift seat post.
So maybe listen to him and try something similar? Or listen to some no name dude on the forum and don’t touch it.
Better yet, try both and see what works for you.
I don’t touch my saddle with clip-ons.
I’m with ^THIS^.
Although I must say it depends on what you are going for. Will this be a gravel bike with aerobars or a triathlon/TT bike that can ride on rough surfaces? I think there is a difference between the two. The former I would say make the clip ons fit your drop bar position and the later make the saddle fit the clip-ons. There is a benefit to clip-ons as they are very easy to make them fit your current position.
I use the Redshift Dual Position seatpost for my ultra endurance rides, which allows you to push the saddle up and forward on the fly, and return it to the “road” position with just a squeeze of the legs. I found the unadjusted saddle position just too cramped up for extended periods.
Makes switching between the TT and road positions (and back) as you hit climbs, descents and flats very easy.
I don’t touch my saddle with clip-ons.
Some guy on this forum has a different opinion. What does he know?
You folks know how persnickety I am about bike position, and if there’s one rule that sits up there with Thou Shalt Not Kill (or Steal or Covet), it’s that the aero position and the road position are two discrete positions. Two saddle positions. And this is the problem with putting a clip-on onto a road bike. I knew in advance how I wanted to handle that, because our man Ian Murray (Ianpeace on our Reader Forum) turned me onto this particular Redshift seat post in his writeup of Wilderman a few years ago. Below is a pic of Ian on his Wilderman bike with his Redshift seat post.
So maybe listen to him and try something similar? Or listen to some no name dude on the forum and don’t touch it.
Better yet, try both and see what works for you.
I think there is a big difference between attempting turning your road bike into a TT bike and looking for an extra position while on an ultra endurance ride.
In the former you are spending 95%+ of your time on the aero bars. In the latter you are spending say 25% of the time on the clip ons to provide you relief from other hand positions.
here is a big difference between attempting turning your road bike into a TT bike and looking for an extra position while on an ultra endurance ride. This.
Yes, I’m slowly beginning to come to that realization as well.
Slapped a Selle SMP curved nose saddle & Vision Tech shortie aero bars on the Caledonia 105.
When set up in gravel-model, all I can handle on the aerobars is maybe 10 minutes (so far).
But a tweak of the seat and I can do much, much, longer, in comfort.
Spending 30 seconds to make the adjustment is a small price to pay for having a bike that can capably handle such a variety of riding situations.
It depends on whether you are going for a slightly forward position like the ‘phantom aerobars’ the pros had outlawed or a real aero position.
I did a couple of things. First, the Redshift sports seatpost already mentioned is a great piece of gear. It gives you about 4 degrees of seatpost adjustment and that is perfect for swapping back and forth. When the post is in the rear, that is the normal riding position, and for descending. Flip it forward and now I can achieve a pretty good aero position when combined with
2) riser bars and a negative stem. With the negative stem and riser bars you can drop the stem 3-5 cm and have the hand positions where they were. I zip-tied some high density foam across the stem and upcurve of the bars and now i have de facto elbow rests that work fine.
I would not say my gravel aero position would pass the sniff test of a fast tri position, but it is more aero than 3/4 of the recreational triathletes I see riding around. I have tested it off-road against just riding in the drops and it cut off significant time while being more sustainable.
Good Info. I noticed i like my clip-ons wider apart on gravel vs Tri bike.