I have 4 bikes:
Canyon Endurace Road
Orro Terra C Gravel
Ridley Dean RS TT bike
Canyon Exceed MTB hardtail
They are all size large and have 175mm cracks except the Orro which is XL and 172.5mm.
Just for reference I am 188cm tall and 89cm inside leg.
I have been thinking about changing the TT bike to 170mm cranks given all the talk about the advantages of shorter cranks, especially on TT bikes. But when I told a friend my plan he was shocked and suggested that I would have to have the same length on all my bikes or I would risk problems with injury/pain in some muscle group or joint. He is a roadie with only two road bikes, and they have been set up with identical seatposts, saddles, stems and cranks.
This got me thinking about the fact that we all have different bikes for different jobs and the geometry of each is designed to make it more comfortable/efficient to do that job.
The gravel bike would have a higher front and more upright riding position and the long saddle be quite a bit behind the BB, whilst the TT bike would be lower at the front and the shorter saddle closer to the BB. The MTB has very much wider bars. The weight distribution is also be very different.
All these differences in geometry and weight distribution make it impossible to have the same stack and reach etc. for every bike. I am quite adaptable to different bikes and not sensitive to small changes, (raising the saddle by 5mm would probably go unnoticed), so I move between them without much issue.
So what is best/standard practice for setting up each bike?
If I went to a fitter and had a fit for each bike individually would there be transferable measurements that could/should be applied to all, apart from saddle height, which I suspect would be the same for all.
Canyon Endurace Road
Orro Terra C Gravel
Ridley Dean RS TT bike
Canyon Exceed MTB hardtail
They are all size large and have 175mm cracks except the Orro which is XL and 172.5mm.
Just for reference I am 188cm tall and 89cm inside leg.
I have been thinking about changing the TT bike to 170mm cranks given all the talk about the advantages of shorter cranks, especially on TT bikes. But when I told a friend my plan he was shocked and suggested that I would have to have the same length on all my bikes or I would risk problems with injury/pain in some muscle group or joint. He is a roadie with only two road bikes, and they have been set up with identical seatposts, saddles, stems and cranks.
This got me thinking about the fact that we all have different bikes for different jobs and the geometry of each is designed to make it more comfortable/efficient to do that job.
The gravel bike would have a higher front and more upright riding position and the long saddle be quite a bit behind the BB, whilst the TT bike would be lower at the front and the shorter saddle closer to the BB. The MTB has very much wider bars. The weight distribution is also be very different.
All these differences in geometry and weight distribution make it impossible to have the same stack and reach etc. for every bike. I am quite adaptable to different bikes and not sensitive to small changes, (raising the saddle by 5mm would probably go unnoticed), so I move between them without much issue.
So what is best/standard practice for setting up each bike?
If I went to a fitter and had a fit for each bike individually would there be transferable measurements that could/should be applied to all, apart from saddle height, which I suspect would be the same for all.