Seat Fore/Aft?

I had a issue come up during a bike fit last week and I'm looking for some advice on how to resolve it in the future, or not? Seat Fore/Aft is an area of bike fitting that has been the center of debate. Depending on what you read, varying answers are presented. Knowingly, I ask the question anyhow in the hopes of getting some opinions from other bike fitters.

Typical procedure would have a bike fitter set the shoe/cleats/wedges, and then move up the body to set the knee angle and KOPS. I had a client that seemed to have abnormally short thighs relative to his lower leg. At least this is my guess to what was happening. The knee(s) were set at about 30 degrees of flexion. I then moved the seat all the way forward (while maintaining the knee angle along the way by raising the seat) with a non-setback seat post and still had the knee about 1 1/2" behind the pedal spindle (procedure was per the BFS Manual). The bike was a 2005 Lemond Tete De Course, nothing unusual accept the typical long top tube on a Lemond, seemed to fit him very well except for this seat fore/aft concern. I left him in this seat position because once we set the reach to the handlebars he was reporting good comfort, good balance of contact points, and his pedaling looked very economical without hip rock. Would you have done anything different/more, and why if yes?

Get to know your customer!

While I was commuting yesterday I was thinking back at some of the past fittings and the challenges they each presented. The most interesting thought was that would I have not interviewed the customer being fitted a lot of the small nuances and issues encountered during the fit would not have made any sense.

On my last fit I started the interview asking about injuries and out it came that the right collar bone /clavicule had been broken previously in crashes and as the costumer was warming up on a trainer even before this fact came out I noticed that the right reach was a little shorter than the left but about 1-1.5cm. While sometimes there might be a perfect solution to address a specific problem, the interview process will prepare us for things we might see and experience during the fit. Most interesting is when the customers do not recall accidents until the fit is in progress.

So the tip of today is ... ask questions, a lot of questions about injuries, training and anything else that could have influenced how the rider is fitting on the bike. The answers you will get will most likely shed light on some findings during the fitting process.

Stance width and using a 20 mm pedal spacer

Knee alignment is outside of the toe line

Installing 20mm pedal spacer

Much improved knee over toe alignment

Thanks to Garen of Barr Bike and Fitness on commentary
and
Gordon from Bike Country (Trek Dealer) on installation

Look out Iowa!

Who it teaching who?

Actually two shops, Barr Bike & Fitness along with Bike Country Bike Shop in Iowa are working together during a bike fit today in Des Moines.

Garen is adjusting the laser while the others help assess the important front view.



A little trivia for you - Barr Bike has been in business since 1899....WOW!

Here is a little talk about alignment - enjoy.

Sonia :-)

Is that a BikeFit.com I see on her jersey?

Here is a PEZ Daily Distraction photo. Bilko in our office hooked up this cyclist from Portugal.

Who is that?

On my way to Des Moines Iowa for some bike fit education training I had a very brief layover in Denver. I was able to get in a quick hello to long time friend and former competitor Nelson Vails. Nelson and I go way back. He walked me on the plane and talked the flight attendant into offering me a first class seat....about time I might add :-)

Here is a photo just prior to boarding.

Here is one of Nelson in the day – 1984 Olympic Silver Medalist

Organic Bike Fit Anyone?

While out riding yesterday I couldn't help but laugh when recalling a recent event that took place. When Paul was visiting the Bay Area in November 2008, we had the opportunity to visit some dealers that have purchased BFS products. When entering a dealer that shall remain anonymous in a town on the Peninsula in a city that if very well known for its University and venture funding which will also remain anonymous, we asked to speak to their bike fitter.

After the introductions Paul asked the fitter who will remain anonymous how the BFS products are used and the answer was: "Our approach to bike fitting is organic and we do not use The Wedges unless necessary!" Paul and I scratched our heads, look at each other, prompt the fitter with a few more questions and left the store.

What is organic about fitting a cyclist to the bike on a manner that does not mirror his/her natural foot position, whether being flat, varus or valgus? Now you can just guess what the inside joke is when we want to laugh! Until the end of March 2009, we will offer free parcel post shipping on your order if you can tell us the joke.

Bike Handling - Truth or Myth?

One objection/question we always get when doing a training seminar is the following: "changing the stem length will change the way the bike handles!" At our last training Paul demonstrated this by taking a bike by the saddle and walking around the conference room. There was no rider on it and no weight; Paul successfully walked the bike around the room. Would having a longer or shorter stem change the way the bike would have otherwise handled?

The rider on the bike and their position may change how they may handle the bike! If the rider cannot comfortably reach the hoods and the road is full of twisties you can be assured that the rider will not have good control/handling of the bike vs. a rider that comfortably reaches the hoods and is properly fitted to the bike. There have been some discussions on weight distribution on the bike and how that affects the handling but almost without exception we have not found any evidence that this changes the handling characteristics of a bike.

What ultimately changes the the handling of a bike? One place you might look is at your fork and it's rake for the answer to that ...

Fitting Specialized BG Shoes

I recently visited Jake Mestre, a friend and racer on the University of Nevada Reno Cycling Team for a bike fit. Jake just got a new replacement Cervelo and wanted to have his position dialed in for max power; I told him that our fits are dialed in for max comfort which leads to max power. Jake rides Specialized BG shoes and when I saw him riding I noticed that his knees where way in close to the top tube. The handy FFMD gave the the indication that Jake could benefit from having 1 or 2 wedges placed under his shoes. When he took off his shoes what did I find? A 1.5mm valgus wedge in there, but wait the FFMD indicated he was a varus!!! Was the Specialized valgus wedge placed in there to offset the 1.5mm of varus that the shoes have? Was the previous fitter's idea to bring back the foot to a 0 degree tilt without even measuring the actual fore foot tilt?

Once the wedges were placed under his soles, he got back on the bike and voila`, the knee was tracking pretty much perfectly. Unfortunately due to Jake's size 47 shoe, going for a shorter Speedplay spindle length is not an option as the width of his shoes offer no clearance between the inside of the shoe and the crank arm. We were able to fine-tune the tracking by moving the cleat outwards to allow the foot to come further in and get even a better alignment.

Furthermore this adjustment changed his fore/aft position on the saddle - he moved backwards, which allowed us to move his saddle forward on the rails and made his reach even better. Before the bike fit Jake was contemplating moving to a 120 stem, but now he did not have to. With this slight move forward his arm/shoulder/back angle was a nice 90 degrees vs 92-94 before hand.

While placing 2 wedges is a drastic adjustment for someone that pedals in a completely different fashion, a short adaptation time will be key to make sure that his body gets used to the new foot/pedal position. Keep you eyes open if you are going to be competing against Jake in any of the collegiate races out West or during the 24 Ore di Feltre in Italy this summer.

Winter Training and Position

I just took a few days off to spend sometime in the mountains with my family. Of course the bike had to go along with us, even tough it was primarily a skiing vacation. Upon our arrival at Donner Summit, CA I asked my wife to take me down the mountain in so I could do a few hill repeats on the Donner Summit Pass before dinner. Once out of the warm van and into the below freezing temps I got on the bike and ... found out I needed to do an adjustment!



Winter riding gear is much thicker and denser than the clothing we use in spring/summer. This was really noticeable for me when I got on the bike and I felt that my legs were just a tad a little more extended than usual. I proceeded to lower my seat about 1.5-2mm to compensate for the thicker tights and layers I was wearing. Also, my reached had changed as well due to the thicker thermal gloves so I was not as extended, but just that 1 to 2mm of extra padding did make a noticeable difference, and sitting just a little more upright was much welcomed for the hill climb ahead.



Remember, when changing clothing and shoes make sure that your current position has not changed! Small changes can damped your ability to ride comfortably and risk a possible injury.

What? A a side view from BikeFit at F.I.S.T.

Checking rotation on Speedplay Zeros at the SlowTwitch compound....and not a single dog in the photo.

Since I went to Auburn I was just excited to post this one with Matt wearing his Auburn sweatshirt, WAR EAGLE!