Positioning and fit. People are often confused, but what you really need to focus on is not fitting the bike, but being positioned correctly for comfort, aerodynamics, power transfer, etc. This has nothing to do with the bike, it just has to do with where the saddle and the bars are relative to the bb.
The phrase "get the bike that fits" is getting more and more popular, but although it originally was a good idea (used alongthe lines of what Tom does), it is now starting to be used as a nexcuse that has the opposite effect (not by Tom), and serves more to ensure that the one that fits is the one the shop wants to sell.
When I hear people say they bought a Felt instead of a QR because it fit better, that is nonsense. All that matters for your position is where your bb, saddle and bars are, and I can connect those points with a Felt or a QR frame without a problem, they are similar enough. I couldn't do it with a Felt road bike and a Felt tri bike probably, those geometries are too different. But with two bikes that differ a degree here or there and a few mm in the toptube, this is not a problem.
To the extreme, I can fit on a 48cm P3 and a 61cm P3. On both I will need ridiculously looking seatposts and stems, but I can get my saddle and bars in the same position. Of course the bikes won't handle very well due to the weight distribution, but in a less extreme form I can ride both the 55cm and 58cm with full confidence, a 58cm with a 105 stem and a 55cm with a 120 stem are both completely acceptable.
So when you are looking for a fit, concentrate on having somebody determine the correct position of the saddle and bars to get you in the right position. Putting the frame together with the correct stem to reach those points can be done by any well-trained monkey, and can usually be done with any number of frames, but finding the "points in space" is what requires the sort of expertise true triathlon shops excel in.
Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
OPEN cycle
The phrase "get the bike that fits" is getting more and more popular, but although it originally was a good idea (used alongthe lines of what Tom does), it is now starting to be used as a nexcuse that has the opposite effect (not by Tom), and serves more to ensure that the one that fits is the one the shop wants to sell.
When I hear people say they bought a Felt instead of a QR because it fit better, that is nonsense. All that matters for your position is where your bb, saddle and bars are, and I can connect those points with a Felt or a QR frame without a problem, they are similar enough. I couldn't do it with a Felt road bike and a Felt tri bike probably, those geometries are too different. But with two bikes that differ a degree here or there and a few mm in the toptube, this is not a problem.
To the extreme, I can fit on a 48cm P3 and a 61cm P3. On both I will need ridiculously looking seatposts and stems, but I can get my saddle and bars in the same position. Of course the bikes won't handle very well due to the weight distribution, but in a less extreme form I can ride both the 55cm and 58cm with full confidence, a 58cm with a 105 stem and a 55cm with a 120 stem are both completely acceptable.
So when you are looking for a fit, concentrate on having somebody determine the correct position of the saddle and bars to get you in the right position. Putting the frame together with the correct stem to reach those points can be done by any well-trained monkey, and can usually be done with any number of frames, but finding the "points in space" is what requires the sort of expertise true triathlon shops excel in.
Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
OPEN cycle