How To Install A Bike Seat: Tips for Beginners (Updated In 2022)

Accordingly, whether you get a bike for exercising, going for a relaxing ride, or taking bike racing

A comfortable bike seat will increase riders’ speed and give them more comfort when riding. Nevertheless, not all bicycles have suitable bicycle seats coming along with them. Some riders may have to replace another bike seat when getting a new bike. Some may install a new saddle because the old one is not their riding style.

Accordingly, learning how to install a bike seat is essential. Let’s go through this article to get some tips and advice on such an installation!

The Importance Of A Bike Seat While Riding

Suppose the bike seat is not convenient. In that case, it will pressure riders’ sit bones, badly affecting their public and perineal bones. That is very dangerous because many blood vessels and nerves are in those areas.

Moreover, the sitting posture will directly affect your pelvic area. It will hurt more. The spine will not develop appropriately for older children and the elderly when exercising with a bicycle.

Accordingly, whether you get a bike for exercising, going for a relaxing ride, or taking bike racing, a comfort bike with a suitable bicycle seat is always essential. You will be comfortable every time you ride. More importantly, you won’t get injured due to a lousy bike seat!

Bike Seat Adjustment: The Signs

Properly adjusting the bicycle seats is essential.

When sitting on a bicycle, your right leg should be straight in combination with the flat foot at the pedal rotation’s lowest point. Remember not to put your foot in a position that reaches the pedal so that the knee will stretch appropriately. Do not let your leg too tight or too slack.

When you sit on your bike and start riding, pay attention to how much your knees raise from your hips. Or you can adjust the bike seat by measuring the seat height to the hip bone. It is fast, but the accuracy is not as effective as sitting and feeling the bike’s saddle with your hips and back.

Another way is to ask other people to help you pay close attention to your knees. When they are at the top position, they had better be lower than your hips. It is crucial that you feel comfortable sitting on your chosen bike’s saddle. The saddle height is very important. If you have an inappropriate saddle height, your comfort would be bad.

To better understand how to get the right saddle height, you can refer to this video:

Tools Needed To Install A New Bike Seat

To successfully install a bike seat, you should prepare these tools, including a new bike saddle, an Allen wrench (or hex wrench), a plumb bob, tape measure, hex bolt and a spanner.

New bike saddle

It is essential to choose the right bike saddle. You can get it in your local bike shop or online shop. But remember that when selecting a new one, you should pay attention to these factors: the saddle’s width, types of bike seats, saddle curvature, bike saddle pad, and rail height.

Modern bikes have high-quality saddles. Most people can easily install, but they should take note of some things and following steps such as height measurement, inseam measurement, frame size, metal ring, and more.

Besides, you will need to carefully read the bike seat description to check whether it fits your bike or not.

Allen wrench (hex wrench)

An Allen wrench (or a hex wrench) a simple tool used to control clamp bolts and screws with hexagonal plugs. Also, it is convenient to save force, easy to use in small spaces, providing greater torque force.

One notable thing is that you can only use the Allen wrench for hex clamp bolts. It cannot work in other types of screws.

Plumb bob

3D measurement application – Plumb bob is a tape measure laser level and protractor grouped in the same application. Thanks to the 3D measurement app – Plumb bob, you can verify vertical and horizontal arrangements by measuring distances and measuring angles.

In some cases, if you do not have a plumb bob available, you can use other measurement tools to replace it. You can even use your eyes to observe, but it will not be accurate, of course.

Spanner

This tool has two other names: cone spanner and cone wrench. It is a type of open-end twists, but not as heavy as others. A spanner is unnecessary for the installation process, but prepare it as you may need it sometime.

How To Choose A Suitable Bike Seat

Choosing a saddle for your bike doesn’t seem like an easy task. It appears that you will always be looking for a saddle that fits your body shape and riding style. Here are some tips when choosing a bicycle saddle:

The saddle’s width

The standard saddle sizes are 130mm (narrow size), 143mm (medium size), and 155mm (wide size). The saddle’s width should fit that of your ischium bones. To measure your ischium bones’ width, you can do as follows:

First, sit on a piece of carton paper or a portion of mousse in 20-30 minutes. Make sure you are sitting tall and leaning forward slightly so that your seat hits the carton paper or the mousse.

Then, stand up and use a pen to trace the shape that remained on the carton paper or the mousse. After that, use a tape measure to determine your ischium bones’ width.

You should put the saddle straight forward for more comfort in a bike ride. For sure, many factors influence the comfort during a bike ride, but mostly from the saddle position.

Types of bike seats

There are three types of bicycle saddles: no cut-out, cut-out, and full cut-out. In general, women will always ask for a cut with a broader and more comfortable groove than men. However, sometimes men can also use women’s bike saddles and vice versa.

If your saddle has a groove cut, make sure you can choose the seat with the correct width. Using the additional 20mm and 30mm is just a starting point. You may have to use a wider one, especially for those sitting up taller. If you lean forward and sit in a worse cabin, you may need a narrower one.

Saddle curvature

A bike seat can be flat, curved, or very curved. If you choose a curved or very curved saddle, it will be more comfortable for your pelvic. These two types of harnesses can support your body weight on the saddle and prevent you from sliding forward or having too much weight in your handlebar.

Bike saddle pad

It is better to choose a saddle with less cushion and quite hard. It will keep you in the correct position better than others. If you are worried such a saddle may hurt you, you can buy a pair of biking shorts with a thick cushion.

Rail height

Before removing the old saddle, measure the distance from its center to the rails. That way is to choose a new saddle with a suitable rail height. Many types of rails are needed to consider such as thin metal rails and more.

Bike Seat Installation: The Critical Steps

Installing or replacing new bicycle seats is not very difficult. However, it may make you a little confused when you do it for the first time. When more and more channels instruct how to install bike seats, riders tend to be more confused. Below are some steps for your reference.

Step 1: Remove the accessories

Before removing the accessories, you should fix your bike by leaning it against the wall or using its kickstand. Then draw some accessories like fender, tail-light, or reflected light. You can move them to another site (if possible) instead of removing them from the bike. That will save time when you install them again.

Step 2: Remove the saddle

To remove the bike seat, you should find where the saddle clamp is. Usually, a saddle clamp is at the bottom of the bicycle saddle. After you have found the saddle clamp, use the Allen wrench (or hex wrench) to loosen the setscrew and get the seat out of the bike.

Step 3: Insert the new saddle

Insert the new bike seat you selected into the seat post and seat post clamp. Then, lightly squeeze the setscrew. Remember not to press too tightly because you will need to adjust the saddle to the correct position. After that, change the saddle parallel to the ground using the plumb bob to balance the saddle. Try to adjust the bike seat post a little. Make sure the bike seat post fit your need.

Step 4: Test the bike after replacing the new saddle

Sit on the new bike seat and check if it is comfortable or not. This step is significant because once you tighten the screws and are not perfect as expected, you will have to remove them again. It will waste a lot of time! You should feel the bike frame as bike frame is one of the most important parts of bikes. Also, answering the question of whether the bike and bike frame are appropriate or not.

When you feel satisfied, tighten the setscrew, and everything is done now. Your new saddle is ready!

To get a clearer image of the steps mentioned above, let’s watch this video:

How To Install A New Child Seat On A Bike?

There are two ways of attaching a baby seat to a bicycle: front mount saddle and rear-mounted saddle.

Install a front mount seat for baby

It is the most common way of child seat installation. This baby seat installation style will make it easy to talk to your baby, pay attention to him or her, and protect them from the dangers on the road. Nevertheless, it may tire your arms if you cycle for a long road.

Before making an installation, you have to determine your bike’s types of handlebars. That is to select suitable brackets, the standard mount or the A-head bracket.

Insert the baby seat on the mount. Then, you must align the bracket, the wheel, and the handlebar appropriately so that your baby can see the front. After that, sit on the bike to test if your arms feel comfortable when riding. If yes, you can tighten the setscrew, and the installation is done now!

Now you can watch this video to learn more about this installation:

Install a rear-mounted seat for your baby

You will install the baby seat into the seat post clamp or the seat-stay for this installation. This method is easier to install than the other. Besides, you will feel more comfortable riding, and your baby will be safer. Nevertheless, it will be more difficult for you to observe what your baby is doing and protect him or her from dangerous things.

Here are the steps:

First, you need to install the bracket into your bicycle frame. The bicycle frame should be well-fitted. You may have to remove the clamp bolt (metal clamp) on the shelf before installing. Then, slide the seat on the rail (saddle rails) to the correct position.

After that, slightly tighten the setscrew, and check if everything is correct. After you feel everything is okay, you can pull the set screw completely. Your baby seat is now ready!

To learn more about how to install a rear-mounted seat for your baby, you should not miss this video:

FAQs

How long does it take to install a new bike seat?

It depends on the types of bike seats. The time of installation will be around ten to thirty minutes. Most bicycle seats will not take a longer time.

Is installing a mountain bike seat more difficult than installing a road bike seat?

Actually no. The first-time installation will be more difficult. But when you get used to it, other times, it will be accessible no matter if you are installing a mountain bike seat or a road bike seat.

How do I know that my new bike sit fits my bike?

You can read the new bike seat’s description. It will show you what types of bikes it can fit. Also, you can check the size of the saddle rail.