After several minutes looking over your photos, I think you could start with fixing your saddle height. It appears too high. I thought at first that may be just from the camera angle, or the fact that you only have one shoe on, but the extreme about of flexion in your foot at the bottom of your stroke compared with the relatively straight knee angle make me think saddle height. How did you position your saddle? How different is your current saddle height from any of the popular formulas (Hinault, Lemond, etc.)

Start there. The higher the saddle height, the more uncomfortable the saddle nose becomes in the aero pos, especially if you are rotating your hips properly. Incidently, rotating the hips forward causes most athlete's hip joint to raise slightly, necessitating a slightly shorter saddle height. Its hard to tell how you are sitting with the baggy shorts.

Although the pictures are dark in the pedal/shoe contact area, your cleats look like they could stand to come forward on the shoe a bit. But that may be just from the photo.

You are too high up in general. Your saddle height looks to be a centimetre or two too high, and your stem is too high. I would lose the drop bars, unless you are going to "slam" it. You appear to be rocking on the saddle.Your handlebar height would not be too high if you were to use shorty bars. Also, your hip and back do not appear to be at a right angle.

Do you have back problems? What about your neck? What necessitates you having your bars so high?

Do you have a qualified fitter in your area? If you have one within driving distance, I would have them do your fitting.

Is it possible your seat is lower in the legbent photo than the other one? Or is that just trick photography? (Which goes to show how misleading a picture can be, and how helpful it is to be there live.)

Wear both shoes and get some decent shorts, sheesh!!

Sorry nothing really constructive to add...

Richard

The head tube is very long and I think this is compromising your ability to get lower and take more weight through your arms to shoulders. I would change the stem for an adjustable one so you can experiment lowering the bars by a 1, 2 or 3cm's, then slide maybe a little further forward on the tri bars (4-5cm). Saddle height looks about right, maybe a little high, but not far off. Changing the stem will let you get lower, spread more of the the weight onto your shoulders, take it off your saddle contact area and get your back flatter.

In addition to what the other folks said, check your cleat position. It looks to me like your cleats are set way too far back.

Saddle rub, try playing around with the angle of your seat to correct that. Looks like your saddle is level? tilting the nose down slightly may help, not so much that you need to continually do pushups to stay on the saddle though. Make that adjustment after you get your seat height correct.

J.

Disclaimer: I have no experience in bike fitting, but...

IMHO, its hard to get a feel for the right fit when your heels are so high at the top and the bottom of your stroke. The cleats seem way too far back on your shoes. On a positive note, the frame size looks right.

I'll start out by saying I don't know much about bike fitting, but my advise is free. (You pretty much get what you pay for with me)

The first thing I notice is it looks like your aero bars are too small. At first I thought it looked like your stem was too short, since it looks like your elbows are behind your ears. But then I looked at your aero bars and it looks like if you had ones with a little longer extension, it would bring your arms forward, and your elbow pads would be closer to where they should be on your arm.

Having said that, I would definitely find a good fitter since it looks like you could benefit alot from their expertise.

Good luck.

Jeff

I missed that earlier, but a few have mentioned it now, and it does seem that your seat is a little on the high side as you seem to be overreaching with the pedal bottom dead centre and having to angle your foot down. Cleat does seem to be a little far back under the arch of your foot instead of at the ball of your foot.

Contrary to what one poster said, I personally think the frame is too big. You can't have much seat post showing at the moment, even though the saddle is higher than optimum, and when you move the seat post down you'll have less. I think maybe the problems you're having setting this bike up are all stemming from the height of the tri-bars. Since you're overreaching when pedalling I guess you've tried to raise the seat as much as possible to correct this and get a flat back, but it isn't working as you still are too upright and have too much weight on the saddle. With the long head tube, high top tube, saddle moved down a 2cm you will really need that adjustable stem to drop the tri bar height down to get a flat back and avoid sitting up into the wind.

Let us know how you get on with the changes.

i would agree with jimmi. frame looks too big. i think the best thing you could do is lower the seat a bit and get either an adjustable stem or one that could go -degrees. to help compensate for the enormous head tube. as soon as you drop your front end you'll feel more comfortable and faster...just my opinion. and maybe wear both shoes when you ride, that will help even more!...hehe

luke

Three questions to start:
How tall are you?
What's your inseam?
What size is your frame?

Your elbows are a bit over 90 degrees, so, for the angle of your back, they are about in the right spot. I have to agree with some others on the pedal note. Your frame does appear to be on the verge of being a bit big (long top and head tubes). Moving your cleats forward on your shoes may actually help you feet reach the pedals better. I would have to concur with the negative angled stem, too. Kind of hard to tell from the below and in front angle of the photos, but it looks like you've got a 90 degree stem. A standard -17 degree road stem, a centimeter or two shorter will do wonders.

Another question just popped into my head: Are those 700c or 650c wheels? They look tiny to me...

are you clicked in? could you click in both feet and give us a picture of the cranks horizontal? i know that is a pain but i think the problem is how your on the bike for the photos. get a buddy to hold you up. what type of bike is that?

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

You may also be able to go for substantially longer cranks.

please see checkout this bike fitting 2

Firstly, thanks all for your help. All advice taken on board. Now I think the set up looks worse, but feels a little better. Still not right though.

The saddle height looks a lot better. I am guess you lowered it by an inch or so.

If this were me, I would want to move the seat forward and drop the handlebars to get a lower, more aero position. You may not be able to do this easily or without problems on this bike. You will probably need a longer stem if you move the seat forward since I don't think you would want to be any more cramped than you are. The longer stem and body weight more forward might give you handling problems I would also lose the road bars in this process since the drops would become so low as to be unusable.

This is not me however. You are slimmer and may be more flexible. You are probably a more powerful rider than me and may not need to get as aerodynamic as possible to conserve power. You might well be better off in this position, which I think is a more relaxed, maybe 74 to 75 degree seat angle position. I might be wrong on that guess since all I have is the photo.

Add 20 pounds and 20 years and I will be able to advise you much better since you will be more like me.

Shoe cleat positions look better Simon. That change might take a little while to adjust to, and maybe why the position feels a little strange at the moment.

Seat height looks better, although maybe a tad low (0.5cm?). How far did you move it down? You could maybe put it up 0.5cm to straighten out your leg at bottom dead centre of the pedal stroke.

Finally, you're still going to need that adjustable stem to drop the handlebars down relative to the seat height. Your reach looks fine since your knee clears your elbow (on the last photo). If you've lowered the seat, without changing the bar height, then you'll have more weight on your butt and that's going to be uncomfortable for longer distance. If you can drop the bars with an adjustable stem you'll take more weight on your arms/shoulders, relieve your butt, and the bike and position will feel much more comfortable and the bike more stable.

PS: The shorts are a vast improvements :-)

not sure what type of stem you have. maybe you could just flip it upside down and see how you feel while riding lower in front. if you like it, but find yourself riding on the nose of the saddle, then you might want to think about moving the saddle forward.

btw - what is it that you think "looks worse" about your new position?

Mainly it is the posture. The back seems very rounded.

I have turned over the handlebar stem. I will have a ride later and see what happens. The seat can not come any more forward.

Thanks once again.

Simon

Another pic just for the heck of it. I dont use this setup it was just an experiment.

litespeed ultimate road frame

Profile forward seatpost

ITM aerobar (not clipon type, has quill)

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I was, now I will tri again!
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Any time is a good time.
God Bless you my friend.

There's nothing wrong with having a rounded back. It's just the way some people are built. Ever seen Lance Armstrong's aero position? His back is very rounded. John Cobb categorizes backs into 2 categories: "A" types have flat backs in the aero position, "B" types have rounded backs. You can achieve a good position with either type.

As far a saddle position, if you decide you need the saddle further forward, you can switch to a zero set back post (like a Thompson) if you don't already have one. There are a couple of seat posts (can't remember the brand names now) that can be reversed in order to get the saddle further forward. I'd be carefull with a forward seat post (like Profile) because it's easy to get your weight too far forward over the front wheel and then the bike's handling ability will be compromised.

GOODTIME


After everyone was so good to me ref my set up, I feel I should add some constructive comments. The only problem is that I don't know what I am taking about, which is somewhat of a barrier.

Looks good to me though and comfortable. I can see nothing wrong. You may want to post this separately in another thread as not many people will page down to this.

Simon