Opinions/Bias: Cyclocross Seat Height

[DRietz]

Hey all - I'm giving cyclocross a try this year. It's going to be interesting, and I look forward to it.

Being the poor teenager that I am, I found some old narrow 'cross tires that fit on my road bike and fork (narrowly clearing the Edge 2.0, btw).

I've been mounting and dismounting fine with my seat height in its ideal road position (very precise fitting done by a coworker), but now I'm curious if most 'cross riders lower their seat a bit relative to the road.

All opinions, bias, suggestions, etc are welcome!

[Dave B]

Yes, up to a cm would be good. Check out cyclesmart an their set up tips. Adam Meyerson runs it and is very knowledgable!

Best of luck!

[crossjunkee]

My cross bike is set up identical to my road bike, only difference is slightly higher bars.

[Ramjm_2000]

+1

[DRietz]

Cheers, guys, thanks!

[chromopromo]

Keeping your seat down 1 cm helps you float over the rough terrain in cross. I have to go even lower because I can't remount well -- to old an inflexible. I would be most worried about your skinny cross tires. Its really hard to overcome bad tire traction and the wider tires really help.

[6mt]

i've heard that CX bikes have higher bar position. as to whether lower the seat height for mount/dismounting, i think that's base on personal preference.

BTW, you can't possibly be that poor if your roadie has an EDGE fork; just saying... ;)

[djg]

You say you found cross tires that are "narrowly clearing" your carbon fork. How narrow is the clearance? Here's the thing: if you found some ultra-narrow cross tire, say a 28c, that just barely clears (fork, brakes, rear triangle) when everything is clean and dry -- and I'm assuming that you are testing the tire's clearance with suitable pressure and with the bike weighted -- then what happens if there's mud or grit or grass clippings or what have you thrown into the mix? Anything might get gummed up under the right conditions, but certain setups are asking for trouble. There's a fine history of cobbling together some sort of cross rig from a road setup, but that history works off longer wheelbase road frames with longer reach brakes and bigger clearances all around than you find on contemporary road bikes. Most contemporary factory road bikes are poor starting platforms for any sort of cyclocross racing. If that's what you have, and you just want to give cross a whirl, you'd be better off borrowing some beater mtb and removing the bar ends -- they'll let you race that in Cat 4 races and you'll have a better shot at staying upright. If you get the cross bug you can look for a proper cross rig that's used and affordable.

As for the saddle, I'd start with just slightly low, as in the Myerson blog, and go from there.

[DRietz]

Dreams.

Crushed.

:p

There's obviously not enough clearance for a dedicated 'cross machine. It's been doing fine on the hard pack and grass thus far, which is very much like our local circuit when it rolls around (we often don't get huge rains until Spring).

There's obviously going to be some issue bound to happen, but I just want to try 'cross out, and felt that this would be a good way to do it.

I have an Interloc Mosaic fork that fits the 30c Michelin I have with narrow clearance, and that 30c also fits on the rear.

The 28's I picked up can be run at ~40-psi tubeless. Might give that a go this afternoon...

PS: The Edge made me poor.

[mattsbeers]

Same height as your roadbike, you have to pedal for 99.9% of the race, the remount is a fraction of a second in a 45+ minute race. People who say lower your seat are usually daft at remounts and have pads on the toptubes :(

[wongmic75]

I like to run it just a tad lower for some stability and easier mounting... maybe 1/2 cm...

[Villgaxx]

old skool: 1 cm lower saddle & 1 cm shorter stem when compared to your road racing bike. the 1 cm thing always seemed a bit cute and a-little-too-simple to me, but that's what i went with cuz it seemed reasonable and some high-mileage folks have a real phobia about changing stuff too much for fear of injury & i figured they would know.

in addition, i went with -2cm on my xcountry mountain bike.

[Der_Kruscher]

With 'cross I always figure that it's always best to just try it and see if it feels good re: fit or equipment. I will say that my fitter moved me a little forward of my usual road fit to get me over the pedals a bit more for power. His point being that the longest race is an hour and more likely than not only 40-45 minutes. Overall my saddle is probably a smidge lower than my road fit too. Whatever, it works OK for me and I did notice an improvement over my old fit. Like anything cycling related, you'll find a lot of opinions on what's right but the only important thing is if it works for you. Hopefully you can get your set-up to work for you...let us know how things go!