saddle angle in pro peloton?

[MattTuck]

I am reading a book on bike fit, and the author says UCI does not allow saddle tilt. Is this true? I understand it for track, but for road??

Is this true? I would think some riders would need the ability to adjust angle to survive 5+ hours in the saddle.

[Louis]

I am reading a book on bike fit, and the author says UCI does not allow saddle tilt.

Maybe I'm ignorant, but that's nuts. Like saying everyone has to use the same shape handlebars or 73* stems.

[LJohnny]

isn't it the limit 3.5 degrees?

[Dead Man]

isn't it the limit 3.5 degrees?

There was some controversy about UCI finally enforcing the rule after decades of ignoring it, a couple years ago. As of back then, the rule was "horizontal."

Edit - seems I misquoted the rule number... will edit again with it when I find it

[Dead Man]

Here it is.... 1.3.014

"The plane passing through the highest points at the front and rear of the saddle shall
be horizontal.
The length of the saddle shall be 24 cm minimum and 30 cm maximum."

[believe]

Article 1.3.014. Saddle tilt, measured from a plane passing through the highest part on the front and rear of the saddle, may be 2.5° +/- 0.5° error. So you have a total of 3° up or down from horizontal.

Ref: U CI clarification guide 04/14

[Dead Man]

Article 1.3.014. Saddle tilt, measured from a plane passing through the highest part on the front and rear of the saddle, may be 2.5° +/- 0.5° error. So you have a total of 3° up or down from horizontal.

Where are you getting that?

[Dead Man]

The reg itself doesn't say anything about 2.5 degrees: http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/Rulesandregulation/16/80/73/1-GEN-20150101-E_English.pdf

And the clarification guide doesn't either, except that as a clarification, it says you'll fail the check if your saddle is more than 3 degrees tilt: http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/Rulesandregulation/16/51/61/Clarificationguideofrules2012-ENG_English.PDF

So it looks like they're interpreting their own rule of "horizontal" to allow up to 2.5 degrees of tilt with a .5 degree margin.

[believe]

That is correct. An arbitrary interpretation of the rule by the UCI. They say if fails at 3, so I phrase it as an allowance up to 3. I apologize for the confusion due to re-framing the negative into a positive.

[1centaur]

That is pretty funny, specifying exactly that it has to be horizontal and then saying not really. One wonders why the horizontal rule in the first place. The two justifications I can imagine are more effective muscle engagement (a cousin of anti-Obree thinking) and safety/injury prevention, and neither seems credible. Could it be as pathetic as a bureaucrat's opinion on aesthetics?

[SlowPokePete]

One wonders why the horizontal rule in the first place.

^^This^^

SPP

[e-RICHIE]

All the rules regarding position allow for a morphological exception. You simply
have to inform the race commissar before, or on the day of, the event atmo.

ps

arrange disorder

;);):p
;):p:p
:):):cool:

[pinoymamba]

adam hansen and his saddle position!

[cderalow]

who ever said 'horizontal' is the same as level?

essentially what they're saying is 'horizontal' is anything up to 3° from level, which odds are you'd have a difficult time telling without a level or straight reference plane.

[MattTuck]

One wonders why the horizontal rule in the first place. The two justifications I can imagine are more effective muscle engagement (a cousin of anti-Obree thinking)

Apologies for the laconic post, I was only able to access forum via my phone, so it was a bit short.

Yes, the rule, according to the bike fit book, came about as a result of the extreme positions adopted by Obree and others. The positions that certain seat angles allowed were deemed unseemly or something, and so the rule came about to counter act that.

Thanks Rich for the bit about morphological exceptions. That makes sense.

[LegendRider]

I wonder if the rule stems from Thierry Marie's saddle from way back.

[wallymann]

the saddle part of marie's setup looks pretty level, but the UCI does ban any fairing of any sort of fairing on the saddle as a result of marie's shenanigans. he took the TdF prologue and yellow-jersey using this very setup before it was banned. he was already a prologue honch, so i dont know how much the fairing really helped.

I wonder if the rule stems from Thierry Marie's saddle from way back.

[CunegoFan]

The original saddle on Steve Bauer's Paris-Roubaix "chopper" bike was upturned at the back. I think the fairing on Marie's bike was just a convenient by-product. The real purpose was another point of contact to allow more power to be applied to the pedals.

Pics of Bauer's bike:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=137478

[thirdgenbird]

As I understand it, that's exacly where the rule comes from. The saddle isn't level per the rule. The rule calls out the highest portion of the front and rear. The way I read that, it means any surface.

[Louis]

And, there are these:

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/4/578/2849/38943924056_large.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0HxGVLZqfuY/U0wjxSSiDdI/AAAAAAAACME/sjIZqR6ab9k/w896-h672-no/aero5.jpg