Accurately Set Your Saddle Height with the 109% Method 

Great, now I have to buy a book

Interesting. I've paid for 3 bike fits. One an ex pro, a 'certified' Retul fitter and a physical therapist. All had my saddle height higher than what I thought was comfortable. Over the years I've experimented by feel and settled on a measurement, like yours from the pedal face, and your 109% comes within 1 millimetre. If you had this video a few years ago I could have saved heaps and given you commission. Thank you Clint. I like your simple no nonsense approach to cycling.

Shout out to your son. His cameo made the video!

Thanks Clint. As always your information is thorough without being repetitive and monotonous. When wanting too fine tune one of my rides i look forward to learning form you. Happy holidays.

That was awesome, I have been riding for 30yrs. And never have I seen or heard of this. I always went with slight bend in the knee at the bottom stroke of the pedal. Never wanted to pay for a professional fitting. Thanks for such a great job and all the great content🤙🏽👍🏽🤘🏽. Live-Life-Loud

Awesome video! I have been pondering 🤔 over this issue for a while now, but you have made it much easier to fix. I have two different bikes with different crank lengths. I been using the other formula to figure it out, but it was not putting me in my optimum position on my TT bike with longer crank arms. However, your 109 formula put right where I needed to be. Thanks for the insight!

I never understood how to adjust the seat and always had problems with the ride. 109 method worked and now the bike is so much easier to ride. Thanks Clint, now I know what to do when my new bike comes in.

Great!!! I always used the "slight bent knee at extension" and pain pain pain, numb numb numb!!! I couldn't figure it out. Then I heard about lowering to the point where the hips stop rocking, well, it got better but always have to eyeball it. But this 109% is just great! Thank you!

I've been constantly rising my saddle height over the last year to find my optimal pedaling position. I think i've got it right in the last few weeks (casual rider). Now i've seen your video and it's spot on 109%! Thank you! Kind regards from Romania!

Another victory for the metric system! 😀 Thanks for the video Clint.

Info that saved me a lot of money! I always thought it was more complicated than this; But, I have a history of making things more difficult than they should be! Thanks. Love the Niner! I’ve owned a Rip9 & Jet9 Carbon...

Very clear explanation!! Thanks and pass kudos to your son! He had the most significant role in the video!

Today i did the 109 method and reduced my normal lap time by 4:37 on a 20km cross country ride. Thanx dude. Awesome Cameo btw.

I’m new to cycling, and have been tweaking saddle height with .883 and other methods on my new canyon grail several times and still can’t get it right .... saw your video & your method nails it! Thank you

I rarely comment on videos but this was an amazing help. I’ve been fighting with seat height for a while now. So much I was ready to pay for a professional bike fit I’ve been so annoyed with getting my seat right. This worked perfectly the first try. The seat and ride has never felt better. Thank you!

Per Usual, your stuff is very informative.. Have used many a vids to help with all kinds of stuff.. 🤘👍 Thanx Clint!

Thank you my MAN! After three years of various knee and pelvis pain a sat down today on my bike and it felt proper. I had my saddle set 10 cm higher than it should be and every cyclist in my area told me it's okay I should just tweak it couple of cm. Thanks again. My knees are straight and I don't hit the top tube anymore upper body feels relaxed and pedal stroke is smooth.. SMOOTH AS HELL. Recommended to everyone

In the early 2000's I went through a fit system by wobble-naught - approach, and the results are pretty much similar to your results. Although the size of a shoe, its thickness, and the pedal system are taken into account with wobble-naught. This is a great video and a huge help for people who don't have access to a professional or personalized fit!

Great method, wasn't aware of it and thanks a lot for sharing it with us Clint. As for the mark on the wall, must admit it's easier when you have an assistant...! 😉👍😎

Very clear method, thanks. As it turns out was bang on so made me feel better having had the same height for years!

Wow, I've done few seat height adjustments by what I felt was best over the last few years of riding. After watching this video, I just checked it's height against what this formula calculates and it is dead-on. Nice!

Simple, explained neatly. Perfect. Going to try this immediately.

Thanks Clint, I’ve just been and drawn on my wall and fixed all my bikes . Life changing video thanks

Great vid Clint and really helpful! Just realised my dropper was too high and have saved the measurement to my phone so I won't forget it! Great job!

Before marking your wall with a marking device. Run a piece of blue masking tape up the wall for the area that is going to receive the mark. when done remove the tape.

I started riding 64 years ago on a Raleigh 3 speed. I was told to adjust your saddle height to the notch right below your hipbone. Which I've done since. Using the 1.09 method I find I'm .5 CM low.

Thank you. Just got a new saddle and set this up perfectly. Great method - very accurate.

Thanks Clint, I had done myself out of an inch and you know how important that extra inch is to a man! Now my seat is set for the max power and best stride :). Oh and using a stick tip from Roger was useful

thanks for the video clint! very helpful

Holy cow! just measured my road and gravel bikes and ive naturally set them up to this height, fantastic advice and good to know the simple formula

I had not adjusted the saddle on my bike since perhaps 1975-ish. I set it by another method then but I was advised to set it another way last year. I had not used the bike for many decades and it is a very lite to peddle bike and has always felt as if it helps me along. The method recommended last year to me probably gave the same result. - Adjust the saddle with one foot on the ground and the other seated and at almost maximum stretch the ball of my big toe pushing the peddle set the saddle so that at maximum length my leg is almost straight. This has given me some more power and made cycling even easier. I start off by slightly jumping to launch myself off, as was explained to me.

Great video. Many riders I see on the bike paths have their seats very low which makes them unstable and prone to sore legs and knees. When appropriate I recommend this video to them with the following proviso; “If you are uncomfortable at 109% start at 102% and ride for a while, then move to 105%, then 109% when you can”. Also, I ride on flat pedals on my MTB and path bikes so I measure the inseam with my shoes on because they have fairly thick soles. I find the 109% rule still works fine.

lol "get back in there son, we aren't ready for you"

Great vid! 👍 Love your useful assistant. 🤣

I finally get it - this was the best explaination so far - thanks - been wondering for so long.

Thank you. Really nice to find a method that takes crank length into the equation. !!!

I think this is a great place to start! For me, this method yielded a result that was too high as my whole pelvis would shift on either side on the downstrokes, but from there I just started lowering the saddle height by 5mm and after a couple of tests the height was perfect.

When you are 5, your father says: "Do not draw on the wall!" You come 15 and he goes: "Take the pencil and mark my crotch level on the wall!" :-D

I follow everything that is over 100%. Thank you! Now I'll get the problem of transferring this to my recumbent trike. Maybe you'll create a video where you calculate the optimal angle between the sitting position and the drive wheel?

Wow, this is great tip. Don't know if it's scientific or clinical but I will buy it. Thanks, Clint. Happy biking.

I find it useful to be open about moving the height often. Sometimes changing it a quarter inch or so allows relief in some muscles. Plus there are variables, like saddle softness, shoes, and possibly small changes in your body. As you work out, muscles swell, etc, etc.

Credits to the assistant ahahja best part of the video

This was a very interesting video. I had no idea there was so many ways to adjust saddle height.

You are the one stop shop for bike info!

Just got my new Canyon Ultimate in and installed the seat at a level that “looked” right. After doing the 109% method I realized that I NAILED the height just by eyeing it. I’ll probably never do that again lol

It really depends on shoes type. When riding with clip shoes, seat feels lower while on normal shoes seat is too high

Can't wait to give this a shot and give feedback. Thank you for the video.

Thanks for this video ! Helped me properly adjust my saddle height.

Thanks for no ads. I'll give it a try.

Hi Clint - thanks for this. I adjusted the saddle height earlier today as soon as I finished watching the video. Long story short, the saddle was set at a hair higher than 96cm (my inseam is 86cm!) -- needless to say, too high (the original LBS where I bought the bike a couple of years ago fitted me for the frame and I hadn't touched it until this morning). I lowered the saddle to 94cm (86 x 1.09 = 93.74cm) and I can't believe the difference! The comfort is through the roof! No more numb "undercarriage" or hands - or foot/feet for that matter! How is this possible?! Anyway, I thought the fit was OK because my hips never rocked and I never struggled to transfer power to the pedals although I couldn't understand why I was experiencing such discomfort all the time. And all it took was lowering the saddle by 2 bloody centimetres! THANK YOU!

I've been using this method to set saddle for some years on mine and customers bikes. I've found it to be the most accurate and reliable method. It does often need a fine adjustment but is a very good starting point. As you say it takes into account crank length.

Quick, easy and accurate. Very good video.

A very good method to check if ur Position is correct is to check the pain in ur legs. If u have some spots with pain and others without u need to correct it until u feel all ur muscles back,front leg, arse.

I think this is the best way to set your own saddle height ever :)) But i think i can make it better though. After you take the 109% result, you should minus the length of the crank. That will eliminate the chance of you getting your crank at the wrong angle, which also make it easier to measure the seat height. Good video as usual (y)

I always wondered why some people had their seat high and some low. Found this information useful. Will use this method to adjust my seat height.

Thanks so much for posting this I now realise I have spent the last 30 years riding around on bikes with the seat way to low👍

As it is often said, in comedy and instructional videos timing is everything :-)

2:12 when the monster under your bed think your sleep but you’re actually awake

Mine was exactly right using this method. Surprised me. Thanks for this.

Thank you! I have been having so much trouble trying to do much more complicated techniques, but this was simple, and I hope it will be effective.

This came up on my recommended , I was only THINKING about this earlier .

A quick method I use when renting bikes is to just set the height to perfect when my leg is straight with my heel on the pedal all the way out. fine tune from there

I just followed your method, then checked my bikes, they are already at the measurement determined by your method so whatever method I used it worked, I now have noted my measurement

Another great explanation😀 A nice easy to understand way to get you somewhere like. The thing with people is we are not static or rigid and here we are trying make our saddle height ‘fixed’ using mathematics. Inseam ( 109% ) or Lemond Method (0.8) or Knee Over Pedal Spindle (KOPS) are all good ways to get you in the good enough area of saddle height. Here’s a curve ball… Suppose you have a comfort saddle that compresses when you sit on it? How much saddle height do you lose? Do your cycle shorts have padding? Does that padding compress over the length of a ride? A lot of people adjusting saddle height to mm perfection. There’s no need. The first video with the heel on the pedal is good enough.

I am been cycling since the 1980's and went in for a bike fit. I am so glad that I went and it was an interesting experience. The fit wasn't based on any rigid formula even though the bike fitter did say that Lemond's formula (inseam x .883 = saddle height) was only a starting point. I have one leg shorter than the other which he says is common since most humans are not evenly proportional. His challenge was to get my seat height at where I was cycling efficiently with both legs. After an hour and a half and a dozen seat changes and using both a Goniometer, plumb bob, and putting on a wide flat saddle to stabilize my hips because for a man I have wide sit bones. He got me where he was happy with my pedaling, he finally got to where adjustments was within a milimeter, extremely thorough man and meticulous. Taking out my bike for a ride was a whole new experience, efficiency on my bike was off the charts and my hand numbness was gone. The guy was awesome, I came home feeling like I rode my bike, but not tired at all and barely broke a sweat. I was fortunate that my frame size was perfect for me, but I actually recommend that you go in and get fitted first before purchasing a bicycle.

Clint, I found it interesting how much it varied from setting the seat height with the heel method. I had just reset my seat height that way and then tried the 109% method, and it was 21mm or 7/8" lower at 109%. I didn't expect the two approaches to vary that much. Which one do you prefer? So my seat was definitely too high. I should have checked it when I bought a new pair of 5 10's a year and a half ago, they were a lower profile shoe than I was wearing.

Most helpful information. Thanks

Thanks Clint , I will try this.

I thought “mark” was my que....it isn’t...oh, it is.. 😂

I can't believe that this is so complicated. Sit on the saddle with the crank at the bottom and your knee slightly bent and there is your height. I have done this with so many people , works every time.

This worked awesome. Thank you a million.

Great video Clint . I'd just like to put my take on what I've found using a selle smp saddle. Because it tilts upwards from the centre of the saddle to the back , if you have it all the way back in the rail clamp then the 109% will be too high by 10mm because your measuring through the seat tube and clamp area but your sitting further back on the saddle not where you measure , hope this makes sense . On a flat type saddle the 109% is almost always accurate.

Add instructions and logic on setting seat angle up, down, level please?

So I use the heel method with a bit of fine tuning and that's good enough for me.

Thank you Clint for yr simple and clear making this saddle height measurements. I'm 5.5 guy and I will use yr method on my MTB. TQ 😊

A vital subject explained easily, with great tip using the book to get the correct inseam length, more accurate than getting a tailor when making trousers.

Measuring the length of my crank is always fun.

I'm pretty confident in my guestimated saddle height so I did the measurement and then measured the height of my saddle and it was within just about 1.1 cm of what the rule would suggest. I'll chalk it up to a win for team close enough.

This 3 year old vid is still the most effective method i've learned and still using

Thanks man I was wondering the same thing, you solved it👍

the 0.883 was developed when Greg Lemond was using 80's style cycling shoes and pedals with toe clips. and no matter what, don't ever EVER use a cactus to measure your inseam... DO NOT DO THIS

Cut a stick of the appropriate length and use this to adjust saddle height, easier than a bendy tape measure.

Great video I’m going to try this

Sounds like a great idea. Going to try it out and let you know. Thanks for the tip

Your videos are awesome. You, Seth, BKXC, Bobo, and Single Track are my guys. However, "heighth", as you pronounce it, is not a word. Length, width, height.

Raise the seat till it hurts then down just a smidge- been working for me since the 60s

My knee pain is gone! Thank you very much for this video! Its impressive how big difference it is with this adjustment. I owe you one

Excellent info...most appreciated brother

How hard am I suppose to push up when measuring? It can vary lile 3-4 cm...? Up until you barely touch the crotch or push it up like you are sitting on the bike? And isn't this measurement different depending on the shoes used?

Okay, but what about handlebar height?

3 yrs and 15k miles to dial my saddle height in. Just checked it against your method Clint. Result: to the millimeter! You da man...that could have saved me some time the past few years. :-)

It is very good method, that helps set up very good starting point. From this point heigh might change only by milimiters. There is also fore/aft sadle possition that can affect height, type of shoes, cleat possition, mobility, personal pedaling technic, or back pain problems. Personaly after I set up possition by this method, I prefer to do some power test, and see how I feel, if it is comfortable. Right now I am so used to my own saddle height, that I feel right away if saddle post slip, even by 2mm.

I don't understand the reason behind NOT wearing your cycling shoes. Does that means the 109% calculation would had taken care of the thickness of the shoes? Wouldn't it be straight forward just to measure inseam with shoes ON and set the seat post right? Some may wear flat soles, some will have thicker SPDs, just my thoughts on this.

this might be my ignorance showing but don't you need your mtn bike saddle to be lower than your road bike saddle so you have room to absorb more impacts?

After checking my inseam length and going through the calculations my seat height on both my bikes are spot on. I typically use the heel method.

Best video on saddle height adjustment.

According to calculation, I have to sit 55mm lower than before But it is a Screw in the Way so I try it first with 40mm deeper, before I shorten the Seatpost

You should push the book up hard so the spine of the book is firm against the perinium. Thats what a fitter told me for a diy fit.

This is good. I would add that whenever you change your saddle height if you have to change it more than a few millimeters, especially if you are raising the saddle, you should do it slowly over the course of several days. Allow your muscles to adapt to the new position. This is particularly necessary if you are making a large change in saddle height.

The measuring with a book against the wall is a good idea - thank you