Seat adjustment

[rprough]

During my rides I find myself scooting back often into the comfort zone of my seat. Is my seat too far forward or backwards or what? Hight adjustment is good as my knees are only slightly bent at the bottom of my stroke while on the balls of my feet.

[cyclerUK]

Initial height adjustment is done with the heel of the foot on the pedal. The leg should be nearly straight but not stretched at this point.
If you do it without shoes first then add the thickness of the soles after.
This is only the start. You may find you want to alter the height slightly but only by a small amount.
Too low will hurt the knees and too high will play havoc with your hips.

Initial back/forward seat setting is so that the knee cap is over the pedal axle when the crank is pointing forward. (9 o' clock position).

You may find that you slide forward when exerting a lot of force on the pedals (climbing or racing).
Tilting the saddle fractionally may help but I tend to set mine horizontal.

You may also have to think about your bars affecting your riding position.
If the bars are too far away then this may give rise to you sliding forward.

[rprough]

I did not think of the bars being a factor. Right now with seat position as it stands, my knee is just slightly ahead of the pedal axle, just a little. If I slide the seat back to correct this position then wont it make my sliding condition worse? Im using a Cloud 9 seat, reduced my male anatomy seat problems quite a bit, but have thought of a nose-less saddle. I spend most of the time sitting down in the saddle because I ride mainly bike trails so this is why seat comfort is very important. I am riding a 2009 Cannondale Comfort bike.


Thanks

[cyclerUK]

Seat position is a personal thing.
No harm in having the saddle forward a bit. Apparently the seating position can effect the amount of power that can be put through the pedals but I doubt if that really matters. Comfort is generally more important.
Besides the bars setting there is also the possibility of the frame size not being quite right.
(ie too long a top tube). You could try a shorter or higher bar stem if possible, but then this may cost unless you can borrow one.

Do a bit of research, through "Google" and Sheldon Brown's site etc, about saddle positioning and see if there is anything there to help.

[DaveM]

You might actually try tilting the nose of the saddle up slightly. Depending on the seat's shape and your anatomy, perfectly horizontal is not always the best angle.