Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
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- Xplora
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Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby Xplora » Fri Jun 24, 2011 3:33 pm
- sogood
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby sogood » Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:02 pm
A side on photo of you on the bike with pedal at the lowest point can be quite useful for fellow members to comment.
One question though, how did you determine the "correct" saddle height?
RK wrote:And that is Wikipedia - I can write my own definition.
- trailgumby
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby trailgumby » Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:40 pm
Pedalling is a dynamic thing, and how you pedal under load can be very different to when you're soft-pedalling, and with due respect to sogood, just sitting on the bike won't tell us a whole lot about what's going on with your action.
I know it is the case for me, and I'm still a work in progress with getting myself and my assymetric action (tend to drop the left hip) sorted out.
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby nayfen » Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:56 pm
Assuming the bike is correct size and you have the seat position set to the right height. This can be determined with something like bike fit calculator try these couple of points.
Fore & aft seat position
Adjusting position: Loosen seat bolt to slide seat back on its rails as far as it will go. Re-tighten seat bolt. Make a plumb bob – tie a key or squeeze a glob of "Blu-tak" to the end of a 1.5m long piece of string. On a level surface, lean the bike against the wall and sit in your normal riding position with feet at the 3 o'clock- 9 o'clock position (i.e. cranks parallel to the ground). Have someone drop the plumb bob down from the tibial tuberosity on the forward knee (this is the small bump just below the knee-cap) to the floor in between the cranks and frame. Position the foot parallel to the floor. Adjust saddle position forward until plumb line falls directly through or just slightly (1-2 cm) behind the centre of the pedal axle. Re-tighten the seat bolt. Check to see that the saddle is perfectly level. Check this with a spirit level or lean bike against a brick wall and check against the brick lines (make sure floor is level).
Feet position
If no improvements are made with seat adjustments look at feet position on pedal. Observe if toes point in or out. This can cause aggravation to the knees. Adjustments will need to be made to the Qfactor. Easiest way is moving the cleat position on the base of shoe. The fore/aft position of the foot can manipulate the muscle bias between calf and quad sometimes eliminating knee pain. You could try a cleat with larger degree of float. This will provide a greater range of movement and give the knee some extra scope. Also try loosening the cleat tension so that it easier to release from pedals. This may help a little.
As far as riding in the hoods & feeling stretched out. Loosen the handle bar at the stem. Rotate the bar towards the seat a few degrees at a time. Each time hopping on and going for quick spin. If it feels more comfortable with the hoods closer, you have three options leave bars in new position problem solved. 2. Put bars back in original position slide brifters up bars and redo bar tape. 3 buy shorter stem.
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby Xplora » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:03 pm
I'll probably have to invest in a fitting at some point, I'm commuting too far to just let it go. If you can a few bucks though...
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby trailgumby » Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:16 pm
Initially the lower seat felt quite uncomfortable when I first tried it, so I put it back straight away. However, but after my bad crash and an experience with a gradually slipping replacement carbon seatpost when I returned to commuting a couple of months later, I found myself with a lower seat height and no loss of power on the climbs. So that demonstrated to me that a lower seat could work.
Once I fixed the slipping with some Ritchey Liquid Torque I left it just below the middle of the range, and no more sore back. Ended up being about 1.7cm lower than where i used to run it.
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby Xplora » Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:07 am
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby sogood » Sat Jun 25, 2011 5:47 pm
RK wrote:And that is Wikipedia - I can write my own definition.
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby Xplora » Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:05 pm
Random aside, I've lost 10% of my peak weight since starting to ride 12 months ago. I only weigh 155 lbs or so, but damn!
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby BigLexi » Fri Jul 08, 2011 3:17 pm
Agree...my hips tend to drop a little after 5-10 minutes of pedalling and what felt a little too high all of a sudden feels perfect (like I almost need to slide the seat up again...just a little).trailgumby wrote:Pedalling is a dynamic thing, and how you pedal under load can be very different to when you're soft-pedalling, and with due respect to sogood, just sitting on the bike won't tell us a whole lot about what's going on with your action.
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby Xplora » Thu Jul 14, 2011 6:07 pm
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Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby Redbull » Thu Jul 14, 2011 8:14 pm
59cm frame is fairly big and if you are 155lbs then you should be a tall thin streak .
I'm 193cm and I ride a large compact frame and a 60cm standard.
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby Xplora » Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:25 am
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby Gerardthekiwi » Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:22 pm
Craig also identified that - being knock-kneed - I needed a longer pedal axle on the LHS.
My advice would be to get a fit like this done, by someone with lots of experience who uses technology to the max (laser tracking, videoing etc).
I wish I'd had it done sooner and would recommend it to new and old cyclists alike.
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Re: Bike fit impacts on comfort and health?
Postby Xplora » Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:12 pm
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