I happened to have my road and Tri bikes side by side today and noticed something disturbing. I pulled out the tape measure to verify, and sure enough - my tribike saddle is over 1.5 inches higher than my road saddle!
I know that many people ride with their tri/tt saddle a tad higher, but over an inch and a half?! I hesitate to make any changes as I’m so close to the race(I’ll be using both bikes) and I’ve been riding well on both lately.
So, how abnormal is this? How do you guys’ saddle heights compare?
I keep the length from the seat top to the center of the BB the same on all my bikes. My inseam doesn’t change just because I climb on a different style of bike.
78.2cm always… until I start to shrink form old age.
Dude, I’ve seen how high your TT bike seat is. What surprises me is that you have your nuts still attached.
Have a great race this weekend. The worse part of Gates Pass is near the top. Just after the parking lot on the L, the road flattens for maybe 75m, then pitches up…steeply.
Is this measured bottom bracket to saddle, or ground to saddle? (i.e. are the bottom brackets the same height?) Make sure you’re emasuring bottom bracket to saddle, just to standardize the emasurement.
Do you have the same length of cranks on both bikes? A longer crank will mean a shorter saddle height.
Saddle tilt on the tri bike - is it the same as a road bike? If you have your saddle tilted down, this measurement may be misleading.
Same pedals and cleats? Different shoes, cleats or pedals may explain part of this difference.
Remember that tri saddles should be a bit higher…you’re really spending more time on the front portion of the tri saddle, whereas on a road bike you’re pretty much centered or near the rear.
I keep the length from the seat top to the center of the BB the same on all my bikes.
Ok, I wasn’t really thinking. I ride at very different seat angles on the two bikes. I just measured the length from the bottom bracket to where I sit on the saddle and the difference is much smaller, maybe 1/4 inch, if that. I feel better now.
Dude, I’ve seen how high your TT bike seat is. What surprises me is that you have your nuts still attached. I actually lowered my seat about a cm or so back in April.
Have a great race this weekend. The worse part of Gates Pass is near the top. Just after the parking lot on the L, the road flattens for maybe 75m, then pitches up…steeply. I’m looking forward to it. Looks like they had so many 5’s they raised the limit to 100 and will split the field in half according to TT times. With any luck, I’ll close out my cat 5 career with a win, or at least a podium.
Good luck, the final day is pretty tough. The climb up ANklma really begins about Speedway/Silverbell turn, it rolls uphill to the right turn onto Anklam then just climbs for a good bit on you get past the entrance to start pass.
When I lived in Tucson, thats the loop I used for all my interval work.
Do you still need a ladder to get on your TT bike? ;-)))