Mountain Bike Setup Tips – Saddle-Brakes – Part 1
Mountain Bike Setup Series
It’s waiting for you in the garage…your horse that will take you up the mountain trails. You’ve ridden her a few times, and she’s bucked you off on a couple, kicked you and hollered at you. The vertical summersault over the reins was not a pleasant experience! But you can call her your own.
What if you can adjust the saddle a bit to make your horse and you ride as one, not as two separate imbalanced entities, but one fast, efficient machine? Like a horse rider, to become one with your mountain bike takes some work, some observations to your MTB’s reaction on the trail, and an eye to your own body’s movements.As no physical body is the same, and ride styles vary, it’s impossible for mountain bike manufactures to produce an out-of-the-box MTB that is molded to your frame that will maximize comfort, efficiency and rider preference. As such, it’s a good idea to understand some of the adjustments you or your local MTB bike shop can make, and how they will affect your mountain bike ride.
MTB Saddle: There are those that will tell you that this or that MTB saddle is the best one out there, but if you walk in the house after a 20 mile ride looking bull legged, you may want to take another look at your saddle and see if it’s an adjustment problem, or the saddle model itself.
Even the best saddles and adjustments can’t take away all discomfort, but MTB saddle designs have improved over the last few years.
Adjust the saddle so there is a slight bend in your knees. Test out small increments of change to find your perfect mountain bike seat height, and then mark the saddle post at that point. For downhill or hilly MTB terrains, you may like the seat height adjusted differently, so mark these points as well.
If you plan to do lots of climbing, consider pointing the saddle nose down. Going vertical, this gives your body more of a level plain, and keeps your weight centered on the saddle with your MTB pointing upward.
When going downhill or jumping for long periods of time, consider pointing the nose up to keep the saddle level. This allows you to keep the rear of the saddle out of the way so you can move backwards on your mountain bike, and gives you more control of the MTB with the nose of your seat.
Brake Controls: With good brakes, you should be able to use one finger for all your stopping power the majority of the time. This gives you four fingers to grip your handlebars for better control. Most riders use their index finger to stop their MTB. As you get greater leverage and sometimes double the stopping power if you brake with the ends of the lever, adjust your brake levers so you can grab the ends with your index fingers.
As a general rule, when you reach for your brake levers, tilt the levers so your finger, hand, wrist and forearm are inline. The angle of your wrist and brake lever should lie on the same plain, or angle to reduce fatigue and improve control.
As with most things, focus is the key to success. Take a look at these two adjustments on your MTB, and in Part 2, we’ll focus on your Mountain Bike Handlebars, Stem, and Tires, and in Part 3, your MTB Suspension adjustments to find other tweaks to maximize your power and comfort on your new, or not so new… horse.
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Filed under: Mountain Bike Tips
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Some great tips here. It’s good to learn about basic adjustments which will increase comfort and safety as well as minimise the physical wear on our bodies. I’m going to adjust my brake levers as soon as I can, more control for such little effort is a winning idea.
I learned a lot from this article. I knew about the importance of finding the right seat, but I hadn’t thought of some of the adjustments mentioned that now seem like they are common sense.
Adjusting the brake lever as described in the article is something I would never have thought of, especially the part about keeping your finger, hand, wrist, and forearm in line.
Great article!
Cool! There are a few pointers that I have learned in here so far, especially the seat and saddle adjustment – they are just what I needed to fix on my bike, since my right knee cap is in pain. This article indeed is very helpful!