MTB seat height?

This is a tricky question.

A good starting point is to set the height using the same genera guidelines you would use to set your road bike seat height.

On race day, try to make some kind of effort to check out the course. If the course is very technical (lots of rocks, roots, drops, etc) you may want to lower the seat. You'll want your center of gravity a tad bit lower to keep you stable on those tricky technical downhills (take a peak at any of the major downhill pros - they have their seats stupid low). Additionally, the lower seat will allow you to use your legs as "natural suspension" and allow you to "float" over the bike on those tricky technical sections.

Roadies who make the jump from road bike to mountain bike tend to setup their bikes like their road bikes. Mountain bikes need to be more fluid; you'll use more body english steering the bike through tight single track or riding down a super steep off camber downhill


I have done a few off road tri's and du's and the courses tend to be relatively tame compared to some of the mountain bike race courses I have done. You'll more then likely be ok with your seat high.

thanks for the reply!

that's helpful, even though this is a road race on a pretty flat track, I'm just using my MTB because it's what I have and since this is my first attempt, I'm not going to go crazy buying a road bike just yet!

Thanks Matt! That's very helpful!