Setting up your road bike position

Your road bike position comes together in a fixed order: saddle height first, then the saddle forwards and back, then its tilt, then the handlebar — height and distance. Start with the handlebar and you end up setting everything twice, because each step moves the next.

The order

  1. Saddle height. It decides how far the leg is extended at the bottom. The target is a knee angle of 145 to 155° at bottom dead centre. Saddle height calculator
  2. Saddle setback. How far the saddle sits ahead of or behind the bottom bracket. Starting point on a road bike: the saddle nose 40 to 80 mm behind the centre of the bottom bracket, measured horizontally. If you slide the saddle on its rails, check the height again afterwards.
  3. Saddle tilt. Start level, with a spirit level on the saddle, and change the tilt only in small steps.
  4. Handlebar height. It sets the saddle-to-bar drop: the vertical distance from the top of the saddle to the top of the handlebar. Spacers under the stem adjust it. The guide values are in the table below.
  5. Reach and stem. How far ahead of you the handlebar sits. Reach belongs to your body — torso and arms — and is set through frame size and stem length. Frame size calculator
  6. Look at the back angle. It is the result of height and reach, not a value you set. If it does not suit your riding style, you go back to handlebar height and stem.

Guide values by riding style

Back angle against the horizontal, drop in millimetres from the top of the saddle to the top of the handlebar. Target bands, not rules.
How you want to sit Back angle Drop
Racer / sporty 35–43° 80–130 mm
Enthusiast / keen 38–47° 45–85 mm
Relaxed / leisure 44–54° 5–45 mm

Neighbouring bands touch or overlap, and that is deliberate: a riding style is a wish, not a drawer. If you sit on the border, you can orient yourself on both rows.

One thing at a time

Change one thing per step, by a few millimetres, and ride afterwards. If you adjust height, setback and stem in one evening, you will not know afterwards what made the difference.

And now for your bike

The calculator takes your measurements and your frame's and shows your position as a 3D model: knee angle, drop and back angle at a glance.

To the bike fit with your road bike Check your bike fit

These are guide values and experience, not rules. If you want it exact, have someone look at you on the bike. This page stores nothing.