With
the right crank in the 5 o'clock position (approximately in
line with the seat tube of the frame) raise the saddle until
the heel of your foot just reaches the pedal (without rocking
your hip towards that side). Now check the left side. You may
notice that one side seems shorter than the other. That's perfectly
normal because everyone is asymmetrical in one way or another.
Generally we size to the shorter limb so as to avoid over extending
a joint.
Place
your feet in the proper position on the pedals and begin pedalling
at a moderate cadence with moderate resistance. Ideally the
saddle should be as high as possible without overextending the
joint.
The easiest way to establish the correct height is to raise
the saddle until it is too high, then lower it slightly. When
you are close, a difference of only a couple of millimetres
can be felt, so raise and then lower the saddle in very small
increments.
What's too high?
You will be watching or feeling for two symptoms:
a) Smoothness of the stroke - When the saddle is too high your
hips will start to rock slightly side to side trying to compensate
for the added length, or you may start pedalling with your toe
down more than normal.
b) You will feel the flesh (all the internal stuff) in the back
of your knee start to tighten.
Either of these indicates that the saddle is slightly too high,
so then you can lower the saddle a few millimetres at a time
until these symptoms disappear. From the side view, your knee
should have a slight amount of flexure in the lowest position
of the pedal stroke. At this point in the sizing procedure,
don't go neurotic trying to get the saddle height perfect, because
you may need to change it again after the next step, saddle
fore and aft location.
A
Serotta Size-Cycle and appropriately trained technician is available
in the form of James Huggins, of Rock 'n' Road Cycles. If you
like what you hear in this section please drop
us and e-mail with your details and we will be happy to
pass them on to James. James also imports the complete range
of Serotta bikes from the USA so again if you are interested
in further details drop us
a note and we'll do the necessary.
