Your seat is too high.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Jacket too puffy?

No way to tell with those pictures.

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)

Thank you.

Get on a trainer and take a video and post it.

Race pics have weird angles and you look higher than what you think. I’ve said the same thing from race pics.

Do you really care about your position?
You have shallow rims, a non-aero helmet and a big ass jacket on!

I guess it was cold and wet, but a lot of time could have been saved by changing the above 3 things, even without changing your position. The aero helmet would have been warmer too.

Yep, not enough information. Here is an excerpt from what I send out when clients want to submit video:

"Video 1 should be a perpendicular to the rider side view shot from a tripod or a steady hand. Good smart phone video is more than sufficient. Center the view on the hips but be sure to capture the entire body including the bottom of the pedal stroke. Rider should be in motion, warmed up, settled in to their typical position and riding close to threshold or 1 hour effort level.

Video 2 is optional and should be shot from the front of the bike with the camera aimed right at the head tube. Center the view on the head tube but be sure to capture the entire body including the bottom of the pedal stroke. Rider should be in motion, warmed up, settled in to their typical position and riding close to threshold or 1 hour effort level.

- If the rider uses an aero helmet, it can be worn for both videos
- A ten second clip is more than sufficient"

Obviously yes, or I wouldn't have asked.

Looking to replace the rims this year.
Helmet is aero. https://www.specialized.com/...works-evade/p/154852
"Big ass jacket" was the only thing I had that was rain repellent.

Fit should always be evolving. Try to get it evaluated every year or do some self evaluation.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

On a fundamental level, bike fit DNA is a real thing. The idea is that there exists an optimized position that you are ready to ride NOW.

On a practical level, sure, maybe you are moving towards your bike fit DNA slowly, making small changes here and there. Visiting different fitters and trying different bikes, parts, and positions until you get it right.

The reality is, in the hands of a competent fitter, you are going to get very close to your bike fit DNA on day one. And any competent fitter you visit is going to put you really close to where any other competent fitter puts you.

The alternative to this approach is what some would describe as "gradually evolving your position" or "slowly adapting to an aggressive position", but it was best summed up by Jordan Rapp a few years back when he called it "riding a shitty position until you decide to ride a good one".

Not sure if I quite agree. Maybe you could make fast adaptations? I don’t think my body would have liked me if I have tried 6 years ago to get into the postion I am in now. Hard to know since I did not try it. I can only really talk from a personal level, but I have adj MM this way and that trying to find that optimized fit.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

Hard to get Mitch of a read from the pics, but your pads look quite wide. Being narrow (arms shielding the torso vs. contributing to frontal surface area) is typically more impactful than getting marginally lower.

On the equipment side: deep wheels, gabba or similar weatherproof jersey instead of a jacket, and aero helmet.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

It's a nice thought, but nonsense. IME, there is a massive range of positions that "work". Power, comfort, and aero are all near optimal. But finding optimal is a never ending process. It takes time, adaptation, and lots of aero testing. Lots of $$$ doesn't hurt either.

Unless the fit includes extensive aero testing, I don't know how you can could even fantasize about making such a claim.

Well, I do it 5-10 times a week for the last 10 years, so there's that. You can find it nonsense, I'm not offended. I find it somewhat nonsensical that you think there is a massive range of positions where power, comfort, and aerodynamics are largely the same. But maybe there is something to that as well. I can float with the idea.

Finding 100% optimized might take some time, but pulling the band aid off and getting 90-95% of the way there takes about two hours. And yes, I am talking about things like lower being generally faster, and believing in the efficacy of the eyeball wind tunnel. Now if you want to tell me that the majority of bike fitters suck, and have no sense of aero, and couldn't locate bike fit DNA with a Retul branded microscope, I'm totally with you. I'm just not one of them.

Just my experience. And I don't think I'm that unusual based on what I've heard from others.

I'm always fiddling with it. I recently got a new frame and bars so I could *really* fiddle with it. I was surprised that moving the bars up 10cm and back ~15cm is giving me the same aero drag. Is that a big range? The lower torso position is the same in both. The upper torso is a little higher (no longer tilted down) and the way I hold my shoulders is massively different; scrunched and pulled up to my ears rather than stretched down and in. I haven't raced in the "scrunched" position, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be an issue for 40k. It could even be better.

That's just a single example. The subtle and not so subtle perturbations one can make to their position are infinite, and the effects of each change on drag and sustainability are all over the map (individual differences). If you are a good fitter and are good at coaching the client during the fit, then I believe you can put them in a very serviceable position. But I wouldn't call it optimal. To find optimal (+-1%) I think I'd need to spend at least 1000 hrs in a wind tunnel. And there would still be new things to try...

I know you are a pretty high end time trialist, and a fiddler, and I think those two things go hand in hand. We're sorta talking about two different things though. I used to personally field test (VE) a lot to achieve the position in my profile and go 51 low in a 40k. But what we do personally is not super informative for what 99.9% of triathletes should be doing to get 95% of the way there.

I certainly believe that up and back 10 and 15cm was roughly equal for you, but extrapolating that into what you are claiming is a stretch. For most people that walk in my door, lower is generally faster. Of course there are caveats to that. Of course we want the head low, relaxed, and turtled. I generally want the elbows pretty narrow. Those things go without saying. But while 10cm up and 15cm back may both be equally aero and comfortable enough to ride, I'd wager that 99% of those I fit in the context of a controlled fit bike setting are going to choose one of those vastly different reach options as clearly and unequivocally more comfortable, and they should probably have that. And most of the time positional changes of that magnitude are not going to have equal drag.

You're experimenting in the realm of radical positions, and you need to be in that realm to find the last 1%. But you gotta keep it in perspective.

Never been accused of that! Just trying to do the most I can with what I've got, and the money I'm willing to spend. And have some fun with it.


I was reading a very long research paper yesterday regarding NZ's attempt to improve Olympic cyclists' performance. The effect of changes really was all over the place. Granted low and narrow is likely to be more aero than high and wide, but one guy was more aero in the highest and widest position tested. Just one example. It was like that for every position or equipment change. And then there is the ability to produce power and sustain it...

I usually favor aero first. I can't tell if I'll be able to adapt until I've spent a good deal of time trying. Practice, exercises, stretches. Pay attention to unnecessary tension, and relax. Make equipment adjustments. It's a process.

95% of the way there in one fit session? W/CdA within 5% if optimal? If you are good, that's probably true more often than not. I'll give you that.