Can't level seat - ideas?

My seat won’t stay level, its driving me crazy!

Came back after a month off the bike and noticed something wasn’t right, so I checked with a level and the seat is higher on right side:

First off I made sure the floor was level, and the Kickr was level. Then loosened the seat, briefly inspected, and retightened the seat so it was level. Get on the bike and train / ride outside, and seat goes back to listing like a small boat when everybody sits on the left. :rage:

“Fixed” the seat 4 times last week, and after every ride/workout it goes back to playing the leaning tower of Pisa. Did a long outside ride on Sunday morning and in the evening my right backside started cramping.

The only thought I have - about 4 months ago I went down at 14mph on the right side. My next step is to check if seat rails are out of alignment. I’ve got a Trek Domane with seat mast, and I’ll also swap seats to determine if its the mast mounting hardware.

Any other ideas?

Sounds like you checked the basics. It looks like rail twist to me. Adding in the possibly related fall and I think they are bent.

I would remove the saddle bag and anything else in the area. Give the saddle a hard look from front, rear and both sides to see if you can identify the bend. Might even help to remove it from the seatmast for closer inspection.

If the rails are bent, a crescent wrench can sometimes help with re-bending. I’ve done a few in the post mount and a few loose. I’ve also done some aggressive man-handling with the seat mounted and twisted the heck out of it to get it back to straight.

Like anything in this realm, it might be tough to get it “perfect” again, but it’s worth a look.

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yeah, no surprise if going down on the right side caused the seat rails to twist/bend into a new position. I can push the right side down, and get it level again. And it goes back to leaning after I jump on the bike and pedal for a few seconds.

If you’ve bent the rails then personally I would replace the saddle rather than trying to bend them back. I’ve had a saddle bolt snap while cornering and it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. I imagine that any kind of sudden saddle failure is going to put your safety at risk, and bending rails that have already been crashed seems likely to increase the chances of failure. Saddles aren’t that expensive in the greater scheme of things!

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@cartsman Yes I would replace rather than bend the alloy rails. For now I’ve got two backup seats, but prefer the SMP Drakkon’s dropped nose as it eliminates all pressure ‘down there’ when in an aggressive aero position.

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I had this problem once before on a Redshift seatpost. Was convinced it was the mount. Even went to far as to contact Redshift support (who were very gracious and helpful)

Turned out it was indeed the saddle itself that was torqued/weakened somehow. When I put a new saddle on I got it level.

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