First, Paul Williams in the St. Petersburg / Clearwater / Tampa Bay area did my bike fit about ten months ago. Paul was recommended on ST. Later found out the Paul fits many of the roadies that still compete. He uses the Retul system plus his years of experience. He's genuinely a good person who does a good job.
That fit took the doubt out of my mind and got me > 95% of the way there.
Except as Paul told me, the bike is symmetrical and you are not. Which is something I can definitely feel. The feeling is that my left leg is "shorter" than my right leg though it clearly isn't shorter as measured by doctors, chiropractors, bike fitter, therapists. This feeling has been the case for years and was first noticed while running over 30 years ago.
The reason for the feeling that the left leg is shorter is probably less flexibility and range of motion on my left. The left hamstring and quad are chronically my sore and weak points.
So Paul told me to experiment with lowering my saddle. But how much?
In the last year, John Tanner (area roadie and PT), was explaining to someone how to corner at speed on a road bike. He said that you have to "un-weight the saddle when cornering or through a curve". It's not just enough to have the foot down on the outside. Your weight has to be on the down foot with such force that the saddle is no longer supporting the body's weight.
After all these year, I've been getting my outside foot down without really taking my weight off the saddle. In fact, most of my weight stayed "high" on the saddle and the outside leg just straightened or hung there. I really wasn't lowering my center of gravity and it showed in my poor cornering at speed.
So my seat at bike fit height was too high for cornering and un-weighting the saddle. The fit was accurate for riding straight down the road, which is just the way they fit us.
I started to lower my saddle until I could easily un-weight the saddle when my outside left leg was down while taking right hand corners.
Feels like I achieved fit perfection when I could take right hand corners at speed without having to stretch or work at getting the weight off my saddle. If your saddle is too high, your will weight stay on the saddle when cornering.
My right leg never had this issue when I started to monitor un-weighting the saddle. No doubt left hand turns are usually wider. but the point is that getting my weight on the right leg/pedal was incredibly easy compared to achieving the same feel on the left side.
Therefore, if you want to try this:
Take some right and left corners or curves at speed.
Lower your saddle until you can un-weight your saddle easily on both sides.
Doing this has helped me tweak my saddle height while working with my asymmetrical body.
Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.
That fit took the doubt out of my mind and got me > 95% of the way there.
Except as Paul told me, the bike is symmetrical and you are not. Which is something I can definitely feel. The feeling is that my left leg is "shorter" than my right leg though it clearly isn't shorter as measured by doctors, chiropractors, bike fitter, therapists. This feeling has been the case for years and was first noticed while running over 30 years ago.
The reason for the feeling that the left leg is shorter is probably less flexibility and range of motion on my left. The left hamstring and quad are chronically my sore and weak points.
So Paul told me to experiment with lowering my saddle. But how much?
In the last year, John Tanner (area roadie and PT), was explaining to someone how to corner at speed on a road bike. He said that you have to "un-weight the saddle when cornering or through a curve". It's not just enough to have the foot down on the outside. Your weight has to be on the down foot with such force that the saddle is no longer supporting the body's weight.
After all these year, I've been getting my outside foot down without really taking my weight off the saddle. In fact, most of my weight stayed "high" on the saddle and the outside leg just straightened or hung there. I really wasn't lowering my center of gravity and it showed in my poor cornering at speed.
So my seat at bike fit height was too high for cornering and un-weighting the saddle. The fit was accurate for riding straight down the road, which is just the way they fit us.
I started to lower my saddle until I could easily un-weight the saddle when my outside left leg was down while taking right hand corners.
Feels like I achieved fit perfection when I could take right hand corners at speed without having to stretch or work at getting the weight off my saddle. If your saddle is too high, your will weight stay on the saddle when cornering.
My right leg never had this issue when I started to monitor un-weighting the saddle. No doubt left hand turns are usually wider. but the point is that getting my weight on the right leg/pedal was incredibly easy compared to achieving the same feel on the left side.
Therefore, if you want to try this:
Take some right and left corners or curves at speed.
Lower your saddle until you can un-weight your saddle easily on both sides.
Doing this has helped me tweak my saddle height while working with my asymmetrical body.
Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.