Mijn zadel staat te laag, dus ik zet het iets hoger.

In Dutch, staan is often used for the position or set position of an object.

So Mijn zadel staat te laag means the saddle is positioned too low.

That is more idiomatic than is te laag here. Dutch often prefers verbs like:

• staan = stand / be standing / be set
• liggen = lie / be lying
• zitten = sit / be located / be attached
• hangen = hang

With things like a bike saddle, chair, screen, mirror, etc., Dutch often talks about how they are set rather than simply what they are.

Here te means too.

So:

• laag = low
• te laag = too low

This is a very common pattern in Dutch:

• te hoog = too high
• te duur = too expensive
• te snel = too fast

Do not confuse this with the other te, the one used before an infinitive, as in te doen.

Zetten literally means to put or to set, but it is also very commonly used for adjusting something to a position.

So ik zet het iets hoger means:

• I set it a little higher
• I raise it a bit
• I adjust it upward slightly

Dutch uses zetten in lots of similar cases:

• de stoel lager zetten = lower the chair
• de verwarming hoger zetten = turn the heating up
• de radio zachter zetten = turn the radio down

So this is a very natural verb here.

Because the sentence is about changing the height compared with how it is now.

• hoog = high
• hoger = higher

If the saddle is too low, you make it higher than before, so Dutch uses the comparative:

• ik zet het hoger = I set it higher

If you said ik zet het hoog, that would mean something more like I set it high, focusing on the final height, not on the comparison with the previous position.

Here iets means a bit, somewhat, or slightly.

So:

• iets hoger = a little higher

This is a very common use of iets in Dutch. It does not mean something here.

Compare:

• iets beter = a little better
• iets kleiner = a bit smaller
• iets sneller = slightly faster

You could also say een beetje hoger, but iets hoger is compact and very natural.

Het refers back to mijn zadel.

The noun is het zadel, so when you replace it with a pronoun, you use het.

• het zadel → het

Even though the sentence says mijn zadel, the noun still belongs to the het-word group. The possessive mijn replaces the article, so you do not see het in the first clause.

So:

• mijn zadel = my saddle
• ik zet het = I adjust it

Because dus here links two main clauses, and the second clause keeps normal main-clause word order:

• ik zet = subject + verb

So the pattern is:

• Mijn zadel staat te laag
• dus ik zet het iets hoger

This is similar to English so I set it a little higher.

A useful thing to know: Dutch word order can change if dus is placed as the first element inside the clause itself, but in a sentence like this, dus ik zet... is completely normal and very common.

In Dutch, an object pronoun like het usually comes before expressions like iets hoger.

So the natural order is:

• ik zet het iets hoger

Here:

• ik = subject
• zet = finite verb
• het = direct object pronoun
• iets hoger = result/description of the new position

Dutch strongly prefers this order.
Ik zet iets hoger het is not natural Dutch.

It can mean both, but in everyday Dutch it very often means a bicycle saddle/seat.

So in a sentence like this, most people will immediately understand it as a bike saddle unless the context suggests a horse or something else.

That is why the sentence sounds very natural in an everyday cycling context.

Yes, people would understand it, and it is not impossible Dutch. But staat te laag sounds more idiomatic when talking about the set position of something adjustable like a bike saddle.

So:

• is te laag = understandable
• staat te laag = more natural here

That difference is worth noticing, because Dutch often uses these position verbs in places where English just uses is.