Adjust your saddle angle as you ride with SwitchGrade multi-position rail clamp

Written by Jessie-May Morgan Jan 14, 2021 10:07 a.m. ET

switchgrade saddle clamp angle adjustment lever under saddle

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Ever wish you could adjust the angle of your saddle while riding along? Perhaps you’re about to drop into a steep descent and want to maximize clearance, or you need to stop part of your saddle from catching on your shorts. Now, saddle angle adjustments are within arms’ reach… With the new SwitchGrade saddle clamp adapter, you don’t even need to dismount.

SwitchGrade Saddle Clamp Adapter

Aenomaly Constructs are set to launch their first product in February 2021; the SwitchGrade saddle clamp adapter. Designed by founder Noel Dolotallas in BC, the SwitchGrade is the World’s first multi-position saddle rail clamp that is adjustable on the fly (feel free to correct us in the comments).

When we first saw the SwitchGrade, we thought it would be possible to dial saddle tilt to an infinite number of increments. However, that’s not what we have here (a feature for v2 maybe?). The SwitchGrade features just three lockable positions separated by 10° each.

Run the saddle flat for flat or undulating terrain, tilt it down for climbing steep hills, or tilt it up like the downhill pros for maximum clearance..

The SwitchGrade features positive engagement. This means, when the clamp indexes into the correct slot, it makes a noise giving the rider confidence that their saddle has locked into the correct position.

A key challenge when designing the SwitchGrade was making it small enough to fit underneath a typical bike saddle. Developing a lever-actuated assembly in the tiny allowable space proved difficult, resulting in countless iterations.

What saddles does it fit?

The finished SwitchGrade mechanism is said to fit a wide range of saddles including those with deep cut-out channels such as the Ergon SM Enduro saddle, and those with an extremely low profile such as the RaceFace Atlas.

switchgrade seat clamp angle adjustment title 170g — The SwitchGrade is not a lightweight component, weighing a claimed 170g

Mindful of how cumbersome it can be to install fiddly rail clamps, Aenomaly set out to make sure the SwitchGrade would be easy to install. It is a three-piece design; the mechanism piece itself cradles the bottom of the rails while two much smaller pieces bolt on either-side to clamp the upper part of the rails. Aenomaly claim installation takes just 90 seconds.

Pricing & Availability

No price on the SwitchGrade just yet. Aenomaly Constructs are still finalizing the design for an expected launch date in Spring 2021. Stay tuned.

AenomalyConstructs.com

Jessie-May Morgan

1,362 articles

Jessie-May Morgan is the UK & Ireland Tech Editor of Bikerumor. She has been writing about Mountain Bike Riding and Racing, and all its weird and wonderful technology for 4 years. Prior to that, she was an Intern at the Mountain Bike Center of Scotland, and a Mountain Bike Coach and Leader in the Tweed Valley.

Based in Innerleithen, Scotland, Jessie-May can often be seen riding the Glentress Trail Center, and its neighboring Enduro and Downhill Tracks. She regularly competes in Enduro at a national level, and has recently competed on the World Stage at a handful of Enduro World Series events.

For Bikerumor, Jessie-May is testing the latest mountain bikes, equipment and kit, letting readers know what’s hot and what’s not.

For context, she weighs 60kg and stands at 5ft 4″ tall (163cm).

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19 Comments

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nooner

3 years ago

“Ever wish you could adjust the angle of your saddle while riding along?”

NO.

-3

Sean

3 years ago

Slick! I love seeing machined bits like this. And a cool concept too.

Dan Lind

3 years ago

Sadly, this seems like a solution looking for a problem. I love seeing new cycling product innovation and shiny machined parts, but I can’t ever recall having a desire to tilt my saddle while riding any my road, gravel, cyclocross, mountain, fixed gear or fat bikes. Invest in a decent dropper post and all of your clearance needs off road will be met.

-2

phlizz

3 years ago

Reply to Dan Lind

Depends where you ride I’d like to say. Where I live it is always a decent amount of ascending to get to the trails. I often find myself struggling between a forward tilted saddle position to comfortably spin that full sus all the way up and a neutral position for the time on the actual trails. Something like the SwitchGrade would be ideal for that. The third DH position would not be crucial but welcome as sometimes the nose of the saddle catches my shorts when pressing into corners with my thighs.

Paniagua

3 years ago

I guess I might want to adjust my seat angle while riding along next time I “jump the shark”

Mark

3 years ago

One more piece of metal with little to no use to make your bike heavier. Come on engineers you gotta be more creative than this

-3

Major

3 years ago

Campy seat post quick release…? Anyone?

StephenM

3 years ago

I think this is a great idea. Specialized had something similar built into their Command WU dropper post, and it did the angle change automatically, but it was discontinued. That’s the trick. Combine the angle adjust with the dropper. A linear relationship between height and angle.

3 years ago

What is needed is a dropper that adjusts setback. Lots of people complain about how the steep seat angle bikes don’t suit them as well on flat and rolling terrain (pressure on hands and wrist pain are most commonly cited), but it works well on climbs. If more setback could be added for flat terrain it would effectively reduce the seat angle and transfer some of the weight off of the hands.

Greg

3 years ago

Reply to ap

Check the Power Post from back in the day.

Involuntary Soul

3 years ago

Reply to ap

redshift dual position seatpost kinda does that

pm732

3 years ago

small addressable market, but very cool. basically folks on big travel bikes that have to climb them for 1+ hrs and want the saddle as far out of the way as possible for really steep steeps.

phlizz

3 years ago

Reply to pm732

Actually everyone whose riding is split in a lengthy climbing part and one big technical trail decent would happily use a gadget like this. Unless weight is a major concern…

David

3 years ago

Reply to phlizz

If you are on a frame that limits the length of dropper post you can use, I can see it. I roll a 200mm dropper, and my saddle is so far out of the way when bottomed that it might as well be off the bike. My wife’s bike is limited to 125mm of drop, so maybe this could work for her.

blahblah1233445

3 years ago

I can see it being useful for bikefitting on the go (eg. local shop has 2-3 of those for rent so the client can check what saddle angle is best for him). But for normal use – no. Just no.

David

3 years ago

Reply to blahblah1233445

Bike fitters adjust saddle angle by fractions of a degree, not 10-degree increments like this does. Until this device has that level of fine adjustment, it’s not practical for bike fitting.

Mick

3 years ago

I collect all types of fitting products for our shop needs, & at first I thought this could be used in that application… but with only 3 levels, separated by 10 degrees…it really isn’t of much use for bike fitting…I certainly wouldn’t buy one for my shop

Miclaroc

3 years ago

These 3 positions seem quite pointless. Micro adjustment would be wonderful but as is, pass.

Stefan Roussev

3 years ago

The device is a great solution for climbing mostly for me. When climbing you can neutralize the tilt on the seat. Nose is up and it is not as comfortable as a whole so pointing down the nose and level it in those situations helps and is much more comfortable. After all the chairs at home are level for a reason right? So I’ve tested steep climbs with normal seat level and when the nose is down and it is a better place to be hands down. So I too started looking into building some kind of device to change the seat angle so I build this device 5 years ago:

https://www.pinkbike.com/video/525107

The angles are exaggerated a bit on that video, they look to steep but you get the idea. I’ve been riding my first prototype for about 5 years now and is still working fine. I don’t use a dropper but i don’t go riding without this device on my bike installed. I makes so much more sense. I remember a lot of pushback back when droppers were introduced at the beginning and now most riders are using them. I think that this is just another example of something new being introduced and people are not used to it but it takes some actual time spent on a bike with this device and you probably will change your perspective too. Peace.