ow! my bloody achillies is killing me!

[Melonfish]

felt a bit of a twinge in the left achillies recently.
fathers day i changed my seat from the dawes regular huge monster seat to a nice slim charge spoon.
my bottom was very grateful.
however, i had to raise it several times to get it to hight and since my knee's are sore and my left achillies is giving me gyp which i've never had an issue before?
any ideas what might be causing this? i haven't changed my SPD setup or anything.
pete

 

[Baggy]

however, i had to raise it several times to get it to hight and since my knee's are sore and my left achillies is giving me gyp which i've never had an issue before?

Did you also move the saddle backwards or forwards? If the spoon is a different length to the old saddle you might be sitting further back.

 

[Melonfish]

tbh i have had to shift the saddle about a fair bit, can this issue be caused by my saddle being too far back?

 

[cyberknight]

When i changed saddle i had to raise the seat as the charge had a bigger height from rail to top of the saddle, set back can be different with every saddle dependant on shape.
Do you know how you had the saddle set up on the old saddle? i would be tempted to stick it back on and measure saddle height from the centre of the BB ans tip of saddle to centre of stem then put the charge back on and adjust the height so its the same and then look at set back , you might find this is a bit different if you sit slightly different on the new seat.
I have a bit of a paranoia about this and have seat height,set back from stem and set back from BB + reach to hoods all written down.
Are your knees sore front or back?
If its the back its genreally a sign the seats to high and if its the front then its too low
sheldon brown says that achilles pain can be caused by the saddle being to high that causes you to "ankle" the pedal stroke.
A general rule of thumb is the heel on pedal atthe bottom of the stroke with the leg straight should give you a good start position for seat height, check both legs as one might be longer than the other.

 

[Melonfish]

i think in that case my seat may still be a little too low.
i'll raise it later and fit it so with heel on pedal my leg is straight and i'll go from there.
knee's are a little sore in the front not back.

 

[lulubel]

I find having the saddle too high causes me achilles pain.

 

[fossyant]

Put the bike back as it was, should be ok as you will have marks on the original kit. Measure it all. Include rail to saddle height.

Fit new and measure again. Note fore aft to bars, top of saddle to bb, rails to bb

A brookes to a modern saddle will be a big difference in rail and saddle surface, sit bone height.

 

[Melonfish]

Before i left work last night i raised my saddle. massive difference straight away, i think the issue was indeed that i had it a bit low and i was sort of heeling into the pedal stroke. did my 7.5 mile route home without issue. tis odd but it now feels like my legs stretch properly when i cycle now.
pete

 

[Melonfish]

just to update and thank all for their advice, i'm now achillies pain free and learning to hurt myself in different ways. it was indeed that my seat was too short!
thanks again!
Pete