Or something may happen.You never know what.

My mother was an incessant reader and she made sure that our house with seven kids was filled with books. One book that I recall reading to my younger siblings was A Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer.

Palmer was the wife of Dr. Seuss. A Fish was based on a Dr. Seuss short story. The illustrations are by P. D. Eastman.

The book tells the tale a boy who buys a goldfish at a pet store. Mr. Carp, the shop owner, warns him: “Never feed him a lot…never more than a spot. Or something may happen. You never know what.”

The boy disobeys the instructions and overfeeds the fish. The fish starts to grow and grow uncontrollably until he’s so big, he gets transferred to s swimming pool. Mr. Carp is summoned and dives into the pool to save the day.

What goes for goldfish normally goes for adjustments to a bicycle. When raising or tilting or lengthening or shortening things on a bike, the wise bike owner thinks in tiny increments, millimeters not inches. Anymore and something may happen, you never know what.

I’ve always followed this advice…until recently, that is.

A while back, Ryan, a mechanic at my local bike store, installed a higher rise stem on The Tank, my Surly CrossCheck bicycle. This shortened the reach to the handlebars and allowed me to ride in a very slightly more upright position, sparing my neck considerable discomfort.

When I dismounted, however, my lower back ached for hours. I was once again ready to throw in the towel on this bike but I decided to try one more adjustment.

Using a tape measure and a three-foot level I compared the dimensions of The Tank and The Mule, my comfortable Specialized Sequoia touring bike. The saddle height was the same but tip of the saddle on the Tank was higher than the handlebars. On The Mule, the saddle was level with the handlebars.

I pulled out my allen keys and went to work to change the tilt on The Tank’s saddle. For some reason the saddle tilt adjustment simply wouldn’t work. I spent an hour fiddling with it until I gave up.

Just to see if it would feel any better, I impulsively raised the saddle by nearly and inch and a half so that the tip of The Tank’s saddle matched the orientation on The Mule. I went for a ride.

It took some doing to get used to the higher center of gravity my adjustment caused but after 15 miles I could tell that my lower back was decompressed and my legs were transferring much more power to the pedals.

For the next several days I rode The Tank, expecting something to go haywire in my neck or back. It never did. The bike rides like a charm and my back and neck are much happier.

On a whim, I made a similar mega adjustment to the saddle height on Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist. This bike is a folding travel bike with small wheels which, in concert with its big monobeam design, transmit unpleasant road shock to my back. Lo and behold, the adjustment worked almost as well on Little Nellie.