The Bike Fitting Mega-Thread

Changed to Assiomas today, they have a -4.3mm stack compared to the pedals I was fitted with.

Drop the saddle and call it good until spring fitting tune-up?

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Yup, 4-5mm down and see how it feels. Likely all you need to do.

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Just to answer my question - I spoke to my fitter, and he said for 'cross I should keep it fairly close, but go slightly higher and shorter (on stack and reach). I ended up with a bike with a similar height and shorter thanks to a tiny stem (previous owner had shorter arms than me!). Now all I’ve got to do is get better at riding it!

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Followed this thread some and after reading I think I might be too high on my seat. My cranks are 165. If I go much lower will my aero position be less ideal?
I did experience a little lower back pain but I thought that was just due to lack of outdoor experience. Feedback much appreciated.https://youtu.be/zcDf6RYxFGE

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Aero is so hard (nearly impossible really) to judge from pure looks. I am of the opinion that small adjustments for better comfort and power trump aero in most cases.

From that small clip, if you drop your saddle and are worried about the change in position (which honestly should be minor, unless you are talking about a HUGE change in height), I think you are fine. If you want, dropping the bars via stem flip and re-stacking spacers under it, you can lower the bars about the same amount of your planned saddle drop.

If you want to go down that road, I highly recommend taking full measurements of the bar position relative to the bike and saddle. Then you can reproduce them after dropping the saddle.

This article you might find helpful: https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bikefit/2011/04/the-right-side-bias/

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I wanted to chime in with my recent experiences trying to get a bike fit, specifically with crank lengths.

At the time I was suffering from genital numbness, knee pain, and hip pain. I went to three bike fitters that ultimately sold me saddles, they didn’t help my issues. I started doing my own research and learned that shorter crank lengths may help with my issues. Seasoned cyclists told me that 165mm cranks are for shorter women and not 180cm men and, like a fool, I just went along with that sentiment.

A month ago I bit the bullet and purchased a 165mm crankset, guess what, my fit issues have been resolved. A bonus is that I’m now able to get into a more aero position too. The bottom line is: crank lengths can be very important so don’t discount that. I stress that this may not solve your unique issue, but crank length should not be discounted.

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This is an extremely informative article. I’ll have to try that and see. I know that every time I’ve had saddle sores, they have been on the inside right. There could be definitely something there also. Thank you!

Some kind of stem-needed calculator?

I am wanting to match a 2018 Diverge to my current fit of a 2018 Roubaix. I don’t use the stock stem on the Roubaix and the geo of the bikes are super similar but vary here and there slightly. Is there some kind of geometry site that can calculate which stem I’d need to replicate the fit of the Roubaix?

If you have accurate geometry specs for both (and for Specialized bikes that’ll be easy), I’ve used this before. It’s a bit crude in UI, but very useful I think:

Stack and reach calculator on bikegeo.net

You can play with different stem lengths, angles and spacer combos until you find a near match between the resulting Reach (Stem) and Stack (Stem) for both bikes.

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I don’t have a huge fit issue, but curious if I should tweak my saddle height a little lower. I’ve noticed my bibs have wear in the same spot of the chamois stitching, with the stitching coming undone on the right side (I guess the right side of the perineum). I’m a bit more toe down with pedaling on my right leg. Oddly enough, when on the trainer my right quad gets more fatigued (I’d normally expect it to be my stronger side) but that would indicate a too low saddle? I did a fitting a couple of years ago and the fitter actually put my saddle higher, even with the toe down on my right leg (I really didn’t like it in practice and lowered it). Just thought I’d throw this out there, not sure I want to mess with anything too much, but curious to hear some fitter(s) opinions.

Experimenting with saddle height makes sense and can be done easily in 3-5mm increments. Make sure to measure and/or mark your seatpost so you can return to the original setting if you dislike the change.

There are some rules of thumb, but fitting is more art than pure science, so some willingness to play and evaluate is worthwhile.

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Did I do this right?

I have an ā€œoutdoorā€ all-road bike and an old aluminum frame road bike I use as my ā€œindoorā€ trainer bike. Today I swapped the saddle on the indoor bike to the same model I have on the outdoor bike, and wanted to measure to get it in the same position as the outdoor bike: 1. Saddle height, 2. Saddle setback, 3. Saddle angle.

But, because I use different pedals and shoes on each I figure I have to first account for pedal/shoe stack height differences. So I put each pedal/shoe combo on the outdoor bike and measured from the shoe insole to the seatpost clamp with each. The result was the indoor pedal/shoe combo was 6mm closer to the seatpost clamp - meaning it’s 6mm more stack height than the outdoor pedal/shoe combo, right?

And that should equate to a BB-to-Saddle top distance of +6mm (same length cranks on both bikes) on the indoor bike to get the same leg extension, right?

I’m pretty sure I’ve got the math right, but it sure looks higher than I’m used to. Haven’t tried riding it yet. @mcneese.chad I know you’re going to have some helpful thoughts here :blush:

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That all sounds great to me. Well done. :smiley:

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Has anyone played around with a more ā€œforward positionā€ on his roadbike? Perhaps not as extreme as Adam Hansen does (Adam Hansen Bike), but something away from the standart? For Hansen it looks like he rides his saddle with almost zero setback in relation to his bottom bracket. More like a TT bike.

I tried for myself and find a more forward position to be really nice so far. It gives me the feeling of being more ā€œon top of the pedal strokeā€ and I definitely feel more powerful. My hip angle is more open, which is also really nice. Only drawback I can see so far is that there is a bit more weight on my hands on the bars. Nothing extreme, but I cannot take my hands of the hoods without falling forward. Handling is not really affected in a negative way. So far, I really like it!

Just to put my position into context: I am 185cm tall and ride a short-nose saddle (like Spec Power) with about 7-7,5cm setback, which would be around 5-6cm with a longer saddle. This puts the middle of my knee a few centimeters in front of my pedal spindle in a horizontal crank position. Cleat position stayed the same as before.
Does anyone ride in a similar way and may want to share his (long term) experiences?

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I don’t have any pain on the bike, but I’ve rubbed all of the paint off the side of my toptube because my knees track inwards…

I feel like I should go get a fit, but for my bike more than me.

I also heard this might be glute weakness? I’ve started doing resistance band exercises just in case that’s a factor.

Hard to say without a physical assessment. It could well be your natural alignment is ā€œvalgusā€ which means inward position of your knees relative to your hips and ankles. You can sure check it out, but the wear may be a consequence of your body and not in need of ā€œcorrectionā€.

A fit with proper review will look at that and other related aspects to see if any changes may be helpful. The lack of pain may well mean you are ā€œfineā€ and might need to consider adding protective tape to the frame instead.

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Interesting, thanks. You might be right. I’ll go find someone with experience to chat with.

I have duck feet if that has anything to do with it.

I also run a bit like a duck

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That’s how I do it, rotate forward until hands/arms/shoulders/neck hurt too much. The lighter and more powerful you are, the more you can rotate forward until you start hurting since you unweight your body with each pedal stroke. I don’t see a reason why anyone should do it differently. There is also a limit where you can’t rotate forward anymore because you won’t be able to see the road in front of you while your head is tucked.
And of course, rotating around bottom bracket means that a saddle going forward/up means the handlebars must go forward/down. Otherwise both aerodynamics and power output because of too open hip angle gets screwed.

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Okay, jumping in with my own issue, and hoping people can help.

I’ve been experiencing some persistent and growing forearm pain in my right arm. If you hold your hand extended, like you were on the hoods, it’s on top of the forearm, just off of top-dead-center (about 1 o’clock).

It’s only on the right arm, which is interesting, but I’ve had problems with ā€œgolfer’s elbowā€ last year, and actually had to go to physical therapy for it. I just made an appointment for the forearm pain, but that’s just going to resolve the pain, not the underlying issue.

I’ve also had a full bike fit (cameras, slow-motion, DartFish data analysis, etc) with my ideal riding position, and all of my bikes have been adjusted to this.

My golfer’s elbow went away over the course of the summer, when I was riding outside, and this new pain has only appeared now that I’m 4-5 weeks into SSB MV2, so it’s clearly something with riding on the trainer that’s doing it.

If I had to guess, I a) have a weakness in my right arm that just makes it more susceptible to overuse and injury, and b) I’m positioned so that I’m putting too much weight on my arms. There’s also a possiblity that my arms are too straight or are at the wrong angle, or something, putting too much pressure on my elbow, but it’s just a guess.

I’m also getting pretty serious junk numbness on the trainer that I never get on the road. I have to get off the bike every 20 minutes or so, during rest intervals, to let bloodflow back :frowning:

There may be some correlation between the two but I don’t know. I’m probably going to have to go back to my bike fitter, but they’re about 45 minutes away and cost a pretty penny.

I’m just at the start of my training season, so I can’t be putting up with this for long, otherwise I might injure myself, seriously. Any tips for adjustment would be incredibly helpful!