I dropped my bike off at the local bike shop today for their Winter Bike Maintenance Special. Before doing so, I took photos of my seat post and aero bars to mark the current configuration. I trust them to put my bike back together just right, but I figured it can’t hurt to have a record of it.
I taped a ruler next to my seat post to use as a point of reference. Then snapped a few photos. Then I did the same for my aero bars. Below are the photos I took. You can click to see an enlarged version. I don’t have the high resolution copies on this site, but in those copies, I can zoom in and see the markings on the ruler very clearly.
BTW, I took these photos with a Nikon D40 SLR digital camera.
I’m not sure, but I think the rules are a bit different for tri bikes, or in my case, a road bike fit with aerobars. I had a custom bike fit about a year ago, optimizied with me down in the aerobars. I can’t remember if the bike fitter put that much tilt on the saddle, or if I tweaked it that way myself later, but it’s comfortable. I ride 95% of the time down in my aero bars. When I’m
riding upright like a roadie, I do slide forward and it’s not so great. One reason I ride mostly down in my bars.
Actually, I just realized that the picture is misleading. I snapped the shot with the camera at an angle relative to the seat post. Look at the window frame in the background. The nose of my saddle is just pointed down a little bit.
I noticed that your saddle horn is pointing downward at a pretty sharp angle. What is the purpose of that?
All the bike pros I know tell me that the saddle should be level across the top (sometimes even with the horn up a click) so that the horn can be used for balance, to control the bike, and prevent you from sliding forward. With the horn pointed down as on your bike, not only will you be losing a control factor, but it seems like you will be constantly sliding forward and putting your weight on your arms. Just curious.