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Bike fit progression?
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I got a fit when I bought my tri bike last fall (first one). My fitter came highly recommended by local roadies, but he hadn't done many tri fits. I was comfortable all season, no problems and my bike comfort was never a limiter, but now I'd like to try to get a more aggressive position. Is this something I can play with on my own--I have no wrenching skills, though I'd like to learn. What do you start playing with, what kind of increments and what's the best way(s) to assess? I'm open to going back to my fitter (or another one), and if that's the recommended route, how often and when is the best time in the training cycle to make changes? Thanks.
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Re: Bike fit progression? [Push] [ In reply to ]
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Adjustable stem. They are cheap. Best to get a 120mm one. And you will need bars that have good fore-aft adjustability, and width adjustability for the pads.

Start with getting lower in the front and narrower. Don't be afraid to go pretty extreme. Practice... a lot. If you can't adapt, you can always adjust to make it more comfortable.
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Re: Bike fit progression? [rruff] [ In reply to ]
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Great, thanks.
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Re: Bike fit progression? [Push] [ In reply to ]
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Did your fit come with any free adjustments? You may be able to get back there and have the pro dial in something more extreme for no cost.
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Re: Bike fit progression? [dfroelich] [ In reply to ]
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Yes, I'm sure he would, actually. We did a little tweaking about three weeks after the original fit. My hesitation in going back for this is that on our original sessions, I said I'd like to try something more aggressive, but he didn't really want to take it there. He thought for HIM distance it wouldn't be sustainable. It felt a little like a roadie/tri issue, but unfortunately we don't have any close experienced tri fitters. He's a nice guy and I was comfortable on my bike. A tri fitter may be the next step if I can figure out the logistics, though I'll probably play a little first and get a better idea of what I can handle.
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Re: Bike fit progression? [Push] [ In reply to ]
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Gotcha...well, I would trust even a roadie specific fitter more than my own tweaks. I will be going back for a fit tweak in a few weeks now that my races are done for the season as well.
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Re: Bike fit progression? [Push] [ In reply to ]
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If you are making some changes then sometimes it is good to make those with a few things in mind. I am not a bike fitter but, I think, some understanding of rotating your fit around the BB might be good rather than simply lowering the front end, which will reduce profile but also your hip angle. Maybe someone a bit more qualified can chime in.

I thought that going lower at the front could maintain the same angles providing you raise your seat and move it forward a touch as well as lowering the front and moving that forward. That should help maintina the same angles but lower the front end, following that circular arc around the BB.

I would also do the opposite of what the other person said and don't just simply go to an extreme and then dial back. Your body is probably used to one position so let it adjust slowly would seem a more sensible approach ... again, just an opinion and a fairly uneducated one. I can understand your body becoming more flexible in your current position, allowing you to go further, but I don't see how it can have got flexible enough for an extreme position when it hasn't been in one. Maybe it's just me but whatever I do in triathlon the very first question I ask is 'what is the injury risk', and drastically changing your bike fit would seem to be a higher risk than chainging it slowly.

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Re: Bike fit progression? [dfroelich] [ In reply to ]
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This is true. I struggle with understanding how much of it you can get to by, as rruff said, just practicing a lot. At some point comfort or power will be limiting factors, but it seems like one strategy would be to take a bit more aggressive set up than is comfortable and see if you can adapt? Just spit ballin here... I guess one thing to ask might be for those who have unlimited access to a great fitter, how often do you go--assuming that it's not static and you're trying to maximize aero?
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Re: Bike fit progression? [Push] [ In reply to ]
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Push wrote:
This is true. I struggle with understanding how much of it you can get to by, as rruff said, just practicing a lot. At some point comfort or power will be limiting factors, but it seems like one strategy would be to take a bit more aggressive set up than is comfortable and see if you can adapt? Just spit ballin here... I guess one thing to ask might be for those who have unlimited access to a great fitter, how often do you go--assuming that it's not static and you're trying to maximize aero?

Once you're in a good position, you can got a while (multiple seasons?) without fittings. Most people only get re-fit when they get a new bike.

For someone looking for more performance, I would definitely look into modifying the fit slightly [without seeing it, of course, so take that with a grain of salt]. Going slightly forward and up is usually a good idea coming from a roadie position, which allows you to go down slightly on the front end.

Just for the record, if you know what you're looking for and you know how your body feels, it's possible to fit yourself and well. Using a video camera set up to record myself from the side, I fit myself on a tri bike and, over the next year, rode to a top 10 split in a 2,000 person HIM [and a good run off of it, for me].

That said, I think a lot of people neglect the acclimation aspect of the human body. Given enough time, the human body can adapt to almost anything - ultrarunning, swimming, heat or cold, etc. The key is to remember that, for about 10-12 rides, your legs will feel slightly less powerful after a position tweak. This is what blows me away about people tweaking their fit just before the big race. So, you might decrease CdA by .005 or whatever, but you might lose 8-10% of your power. It's also worth mentioning that the fatigue-resistant adaptations are the ones that take the longest to develop (and are, arguably, the most important in triathlon).
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Re: Bike fit progression? [dashmutton] [ In reply to ]
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That's cool that you were able to dial yourself in like that. The three times I've been at the fitter, I just felt like the process required riding that feels so different than even the rhythm I hit in 20 min on the trainer at home (which also feels very different than any rides outside), it was hard to have complete faith in it because I felt like I was riding weird. You're in the shop, and off and on, and stopping and starting. So much of it was, "how does that feel" and after two hours of that, I'm not even sure I'm making little circles anymore. Could very well just be exacerbated by me being a green cyclist.
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Re: Bike fit progression? [Push] [ In reply to ]
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That's another thing that seems odd to me about fittings... just isn't possible to tell if it "feels good", let alone power and aero, in a couple minutes.

Like dashmutton said, video is great for adjusting things and seeing how it looks. The front view can be used to judge your frontal area which is a good thing to minimize. Get adjustable parts. Experiment. Ride on the trainer and outside. Find out what works.

Concentrate on relaxing everything above your hips. There are aero gains from pulling in your shoulders and neck (shrug and turtle) but for a HIM that might be a lot to ask.
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Re: Bike fit progression? [rruff] [ In reply to ]
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"Shrug and turtle"? Damn it man, now all I can think is "this...or this".
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