Looks like your saddle is about 2cm high.

Don't listen to me, just recording my thoughts for posteriority.
Seat looks high.
Need more reach. Need pads further forward and likely longer extensions.
Looks like you could lower the height of the front end as well.

Ok - based on the feedback, lowered the saddle 19mm and posted an updated new side shot video. Seem better from a pedaling perspective. Wonder if I could go a touch lower at the back.

Any more feedback on what I should do (apart from losing the fat gut), let me know. Will look to order the new stem soon that will give me 3cm more reach and lower front end as well. FYI. I'll probably go and get another bike fit, but want to have a play around first and any parts like a fixed stem or new cranks are not something the fitter could change easily anyway hence asking here if its a good idea.

---

Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Toss the saddle, it's not helping you. Get 165mm cranks.


Yes to new stem, absolutely positively yes to ski bend extensions, yes to having proprietary aero risers on hand for adjustment, and yes yes yes to 165mm cranks.

Finally, your seat is probably still too high in 2nd video. Tilt saddle downward to compensate.

E

---

Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

What do you see or want to see that explains this choice ?

Thanks for the feedback. For the saddle, this is literally the first time I've sat on the bike with it installed so moving around a bit and not used to it (also havent been on a tt bike in 4 years). Are you suggesting ditching it for something like an ISM?

For the ski bends, the main reason I'm thinking they'd be good is they raise my hands a bit more in front of me and I can angle them in a bit so my hands are closer. Will try bringing in the armrests a bit closer but will try that once I have the new stem.

I'll try tilting the saddle and post again tomorrow.

Thanks again.

I see slow people...

---

Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

I'd try all of the ISM saddles, the Fizik Mistica, etc. and find the optimal one. These types of saddles are meant to be tilted slightly down. This is rails level for most of them.

Eric

---

Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Bear in mind switching the cranks to 165mm will require you to raise your saddle half way back up again and this will have a knock on effect on the cockpit height. You could go smaller again with the cranks if you liked. I'm the same height as you, longer inseam (~835mm). I switched my cranks from the stock 172.5mm to 160mm over 2 years ago and have never regretted it. It took all of 2 rides to get used to it. My knees and hips definitely prefer the shorter cranks and I never perceived an impact on performance, either positive or negative. I'm more powerful now than before I changed but that's due to more consistent training. It could be partly due to the cranks I suppose since I train more when I enjoy it more, and I enjoy it more when I'm more comfortable.
My road bike is still 172.5mm and I've considered changing that too but less certain since I do like to grind away on steep climbs and throw in the occasional sprint. Uncertain if the shorter cranks will help or hinder in these cases.

His head is up so high, front end definitely seems like it could come down. Gonna take some practice to really get that shrug nailed and keep the head out of the wind

100% agree on ski bends, look at that bent wrist position. Definitely not comfortable.

Shorter cranks should help free up some room and less interference from the so-called "fat guy gut" lol

He can lower the head without lowering the front end... the opposite really. Once done that's like 75% of the battle though.

Ski bends have nothing to do with wrist position for me, but do probably make wrists more comfortable if that's what you're into.

---

Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

thank you, Eric, you made me laugh today.

---

Anne Barnes
ABBikefit, Ltd
FIST/SICI/FIST DOWN DEEP
X/Y Coordinator
abbikefit@gmail.com

Ok - so I'm about to order parts, then update videos etc when I've got stem/crank etc installed. Will tilt saddle then but since I'll have to adjust back up anyway with a shorter crank, I'll post the video with all changes at the same time.

But.... I can find 160mm or 165mm cranks (trimax vision BB30 which fit the existing bottom bracket). They are compact at 34 and 50 but I figure I can negate this by running an 11 cog on the cassette (11 x 50), which for me should be fast enough. But before I order, any other thoughts on crank length? 160 or 165?

Rotor makes cranks in 150mm and 155mm.

160. IMO if you have two options, pick the shorter one

FYI, CeeGees now has a thinner pad material that you can order. Super comfortable with modern (i.e. not flat) cups without the bulk of the old design

Kinda depends on the two options surely!

Since you're on 172.5mm I'd go to 160 simply to make it a significant change. I debated the same thing myself back in early 2018 and went with 160 in the end. Never regretted it. Without an opportunity to try different lengths before buying, which most of us don't have, or some robust method of matching cranks to body dimensions, which doesn't exist; you just have to take a stab at it. In reality it's almost certain both will be fine but 165 may not be a big enough change to be worth the expense.

Ok - ordered 160s. Waiting to see if I can get a 2nd hand stem in classifieds. Unlikely, but worth a shot. If not, I’ll order from Felt. It may be a while before I repost as parts coming from overseas. Thanks again to all the advice so far.

Ok

So I've received and installed the new lower and longer stem. Material difference to position already and actually feels pretty comfortable. I have the new crankset, but going to get my bikeshop to fit it. So some assumptions based on stem change alone:

When the new crank is installed, I'm going to raise a saddle a tiny bit, but estimate my hip angle will materially open up (looks a little closed in photo, but feels ok). I'll play around with the saddle as well and may even try an ISM, but will re-post first once I have the new crankset installed first.

https://imgur.com/PGPUDGk

However I would still like to extend my arm pads around 1 to 2 cm. This is not really possible with the current pads as already moved as far forward as possible. Secondly, I am ok with existing stem. So I am thinking about 2 options:
a) get some larger pads. The speedshop 51 pads are around 1cm longer and it looks like I could get a touch more distance based on the bolt pattern.
b) I was wondering if its safe to move the j bracket in front of the u bracket. Moving from position a to position b in the photo below. Is this a dumb idea? See photo for an example:
c) any other ideas?

https://imgur.com/w9oby74






Lastly, when I get the crankset installed, swap out the extensions to ski bends and swap arm pads out, I'll do a few rides first to see how comfortable the position is before re-posting new videos.

See???



This is typical. You raise your saddle and slide it back for shorter cranks, and then adjust to find sweet spot. Make sure your saddle is tilted down.



Definitely add reach. Put your elbows in the middle of the pad, and use your future ski bend extensions to judge/meter out the distance and hold yourself locked into your cockpit.

Edit: Move the pad holder from behind the extension holder hardware to in front of the extension holder.



See comment above.

Eric

---

Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Thanks for the feedback

I'll take your recommendation on moving the the pads forward. Looking forward to getting the crank in next week.

ps
It's a mission to embed photos on this site. I'll sort it out with time, but added some links in.

---

Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

You're getting somewhere. I can't say too much without knowing what kind of events you're doing.

I'm within a mm or so of your height and seam measurements and own a much much older Felt DA. I'm setup for short TT's. I had to do some uhmmmm "stuff" to get my stack low enough for my liking.

Feel free to search for my username and you'll see the fit topics I went through. I will not hijack this with that.

Reason I ask about the event types.......if someone is doing shorter TT's, I'd be a lot less prone to criticize a saddle height choice if it gets them into a baller ass position they can suffer through for 20ish minutes up to a few minutes under an hour. I don't TT on my saddle like a triathlete would sit on one for 4+ hours of an full IM bike leg.

One thing irrelevant to either of those, while you don't want to reach with your shoulders to get more reach......that pic looks like you can reach more.

IMO, you may need more stem or something. Or new extensions, hardware, or base bar to achieve it. I'm on a 56cm Felt DA at 5' 10". I feel a 55cm would be "just so" for me, but instead of the classic "pro likes smaller bikes" kinda stuff I tend to like my 56cm size.

A 54cm size is on the small end for someone that's 5' 10", and I think we're seeing that in how you're having to tweak that bike to get your fit. IMO. I'm not classically educated on this topic. That's just what it "looks like" to me. Bike is on the small side overall.

Agreed!

PS. position looking much better! I'd raise aero extensions/hands higher.

---

Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube → Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub

Thanks for the feedback. Allot of good input so far from EricMPro and others.

Events wise, I am mainly going to focus on Olympics and 1 or 2 70.3s a year. So definitely interested to see what the final fit feels like over longer distances and if sustainable. However not looking at a full any time soon. Very short time on the bike yesterday, but feels really comfortable so fingers crossed.

I'll look up your old fit posts on 'work breaks' today. Funny you mention the frame etc as its what I was thinking already. I.e. I'm making do with a smaller frame but a 56 would be better. I'll see if I can get by with the movement forward of the arm pads and extensions etc and more importantly what the final fit looks like before I consider any more $. But almost think a new aero bar bar/extns etc rather than another stem would be where I'd go IF I don't like the final fit after crank etc. For the saddle height, I'll play around with that after the crank install and also get some videos from behind etc, but only after a few rides to get used to the fit.


Thanks again

Thanks - I was thinking of playing around with even more angle on the extensions, but will see what it looks like when I put in the new extensions next week. I think the current angle is approx 15 degrees. But I'm putting on aprofile design t4 extensions with a small ski bend so may get a bit more height by default without having to angle up any more. Open to changing these too as pretty cheap to update extensions, but will wait and see what it looks like when installed.

I'm getting back into the game myself after a 4 year layoff. I'm impressed with your fit change. Looks great. Good luck!

  
Update 3:

• Got the new 160mm crank installed. Definitely opens up my hips a bit and is very comfortable. When I had put in the lower stem, but still had the longer cranks, it felt ok, but definitely more closed off. Along with the new saddle, I think this feels super comfortable.
• Swapped out the Sitero or an Adamo Prologue. I think I raised the saddle slightly, but can’t really move it back. Specifically, the Sitero was slammed forward, whereas the Prologue is slammed back. Odd. Anyway, I maybe have 3 to 4mm left to move backwards if it’s a good idea.
• Changed the extensions which are easier on wrists. Also changed the arm cup pads to Cee Gees. The extensions and arm pads are about 17mm further from the end of saddle.
• I feel like I could extend the extensions further by 1-2cm. However with my Profile Design F19 extensions, I think the cups will rise in height if that makes sense as the extensions are angled. Also, the CeeGees pads are probably 8mm thicker than the old profile design ones. This raises me up a bit at the front, but I like the comfort. Also worth noting that I’m slightly pulling on the extensions as it helps me lower my head into a shrug. Also need to get an aero helmet before racing (and after shitloads of training) – thinking a Giro Airhead may suit me.

So looking for feedback on the new position. Some general thoughts and questions:

• Does the saddle height and fore/aft position look ok? Saddle is angled down. Feels comfortable.
• I’ve added a photo where I am trying to gauge the leg angle. I think its around 40 degree leg bend at bottom of pedal stroke.
• In the shot from behind the bike, I still look to drop my left hip a bit. But not as much. Also, my turbo trainer is pretty old and doesn’t hold the bike in a stable position, so it moves about a bit and looks like I am rocking more than if on the road (I think). I.e. I think I’m a bit more stable than the video suggests. I’m inclined to think the hip drop is something I’d need to get checked out in a bike fit as maybe something else going on, but let me know if the saddle looks too high.
• I’d love to move the pads closer together, and extend the extensions as mentioned, but not sure its that feasible at the moment with current setup. I’m tempted to ride in this position (inclusive of any changes you all recommend or I get in formal bike fit), before considering replacing the front end with a more flexible solution (Looked at Burnt the Sheeps old posts and looks interesting what he did). to be more flexible (extended and maybe dropped 1cm).
• Overall, I think this is getting close to what I can achieve without a larger bike frame or new front end solution.

Any feedback appreciated!

Original before any changes:


Video of new position:


Front shot

Leg Angle:



Video from back of bike: