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Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry)
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So no video but this series of photos from Sundays race I think represents well my position during a race.
I'm 5'10" and that is a Medium Shiv with a -24deg 120mm stem (slammed), PD Aeria (first gen) basebar with PD evo bracket kit - no risers.
I ride this position for everything from Sprint to Halfs and will be heading to IMTX next April.

Sundays race I had 4th fastest bike split overall (including a few athletes in an elite wave) and 2nd fastest in all AGs.
So bike is working but any advice/recommendations to improve the fit?






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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [HoustonTri(er)] [ In reply to ]
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Can you post a video?
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [HoustonTri(er)] [ In reply to ]
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you're on the wrong type of bike... the Shiv is very tall, and even with that negatively angled stem, you're still quite upright. Also, you don't have enough reach, which you could get with a larger Shiv but of course you'd be even higher up.

Look into a long and low frame vs. the narrow tall one you're currently on.

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.”
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [HoustonTri(er)] [ In reply to ]
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Agree with Eric above. The bike geometry of the shiv doesn't fit you. You could make some changes to make it better but it still wouldn't be ideal. I'd start considering trying to find a good reputable fitter with a fit bike to find that optimal position and then what bikes will work.

Other thoughts:

- what saddle are you on? You don't have a lot of pelvic tilt which is probably because of the saddle you are riding. You need to rotate your hips forward but a standard long nose saddle (which I believe you are riding) doesn't always allow you to rotate as much as you should.
- You need to get your head down. Shrug your shoulders and "turtle". You may need to widen your pads to do this and I would also consider resting your arms closer to your elbows (or on your elbows) on the pads.
- your seat is a tad low

blog
Last edited by: stevej: Oct 24, 18 8:49
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [HoustonTri(er)] [ In reply to ]
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As others have said - it needs work and equipment is a limitation for you.

Philip Shama does a good job fitting TT bikes and is in H-town. I recommend you visit him.

Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [jimatbeyond] [ In reply to ]
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I'll have to edit what videos I have to make smaller file size and post tonight.
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [trentnix] [ In reply to ]
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yours and the other comments are pretty much what I expected.
I bought this bike back in 2013 upon a shop recommendation and "quick fit" and have been working it as best I can since.

To stevej - I'm riding a Specialized Power saddle. Used to be on the Sitero but found the saddle widened too quickly so found the narrower Power more comfortable.

Thanks for the comments - anyone looking to buy a 2013 Medium Shiv?
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [HoustonTri(er)] [ In reply to ]
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I was at Kemah this weekend also - did the Olympic - although no where near as fast you. Cancelling the swim was a no brainer IMO with the conditions.

I have a Power Saddle on my road bike and I can't imagine using that in aero position. If you haven't already, definitely try out a split nose saddle, which will allow you to roll your hips forward without crushing your junk.

And I'm no expert, but your bike definitely looks too short horizontally, as others have said. Your seating position looks like it should be more forward, which makes the problem even worse. On the positive side, you have a good excuse to buy a new bike.
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [HoustonTri(er)] [ In reply to ]
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Well, yeah, that bike sucks for you, but if you want to keep it you could:

1. Get a shorter crank. By the looks of it probably a lot shorter. Maybe 15mm. The additional seat height will get you more drop and the additional setback will get you more reach.
2. You could go to a 130 stem of the same pitch to go lower and longer.
3. Lower stack aerobars.
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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yeah I forgot to take my surfboard to Kemah this past weekend which would have been useful in those conditions - weather was nice and cool though.

I have seen quite a few comments/reviews of people using the Power saddle on their TT bikes - it is hyped as the illegitimate offspring of the Romin/Sitero!
My saddle history goes - Romin - ISM Adamo - Sitero - Power.
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [FindinFreestyle] [ In reply to ]
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quite a few of my Shiv clients will run a slammed -25 stem at 130mm... it's not ideal

FindinFreestyle wrote:
Well, yeah, that bike sucks for you, but if you want to keep it you could:

1. Get a shorter crank. By the looks of it probably a lot shorter. Maybe 15mm. The additional seat height will get you more drop and the additional setback will get you more reach.
2. You could go to a 130 stem of the same pitch to go lower and longer.
3. Lower stack aerobars.

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.”
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [FindinFreestyle] [ In reply to ]
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What’s wrong with his crank length.
Looks fine to me
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [ In reply to ]
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So--generally speaking, what bodyshape is good for a Shiv?
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [TriByran] [ In reply to ]
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A shorter crank length would allow him to raise the saddle, which should put him in a more aerodynamic position.
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [jimatbeyond] [ In reply to ]
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Raise saddle yes. More aero, not necessarily
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [TriByran] [ In reply to ]
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TriByran wrote:
What’s wrong with his crank length.
Looks fine to me



That angle right there. Considering that shot isn't quite as flexed as the knee would get at BDC, while acknowledging the limitations of trying to accurately measure that flexion from that photo, I think he is a clear case for shorter cranks. I'd like to see that angle over 70 degrees, and it is somewhere in the low to mid 60s right now.
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [HoustonTri(er)] [ In reply to ]
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The first few answers you received were spot on. You're probably not going to get there on this bike. You're already going to an extreme with that stem just to get into your present position, which might not look good, but you achieved a decent result for sure. Nice job.

You need to get up on a fit bike with a competent fitter, find your fit coordinates, and choose an aero bar and frame from there.

Jim Manton / ERO Sports
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [FindinFreestyle] [ In reply to ]
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Angles mean very little.
One persons overly acute is another’s absolutely fine.
Therefore using angles to prescribe shorter cranks is foolish.
‘If’ he was complaining of hip impingement symptoms that would be a different matter.

Saying everyone needs shorter cranks (which seems to be your unwavering message) is quite absurd. It’s all individual.
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [FindinFreestyle] [ In reply to ]
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Current crank length is 172 on a quarq power meter setup.

Even with the slight difference in opinions it seems the concensus is pretty clear:

1) I can mess around with seat height, crank length, even longer stem, lower stack bars - all of which is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole,
or
2) start from scratch with a real bike fitter

Thanks everyone for your input
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [TriByran] [ In reply to ]
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TriByran wrote:
Angles mean very little.
One persons overly acute is another’s absolutely fine.
Therefore using angles to prescribe shorter cranks is foolish.
‘If’ he was complaining of hip impingement symptoms that would be a different matter.

Saying everyone needs shorter cranks (which seems to be your unwavering message) is quite absurd. It’s all individual.
And individuals that ride bikes are very, very similar, which makes angles really useful. Because that allows you take historical data, compare it to a current scenario, and make recommendations to help a person prevent hip impingement and the sometimes extremely damaging symptoms that accompany it.

But shorter cranks do much more than just open the hip angle, as was mentioned on the thread. It allows you to get more armpad drop when you've already bottomed out the cockpit. And if you get to open the hip angle too then bonus! After all, it's cheaper than a new cockpit and there's ample evidence shorter cranks do not negatively impact the rider's ability to perform effectively.

Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)
Last edited by: trentnix: Oct 24, 18 14:15
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [TriByran] [ In reply to ]
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TriByran wrote:
Angles mean very little.
One persons overly acute is another’s absolutely fine.
Therefore using angles to prescribe shorter cranks is foolish.
‘If’ he was complaining of hip impingement symptoms that would be a different matter.

Saying everyone needs shorter cranks (which seems to be your unwavering message) is quite absurd. It’s all individual.

I generally don't prescribe crank length. I prefer to take riders through an intuitive process where they choose for themselves. After doing that a bunch, patterns appeared. Rider height as it related to typical crank length became seat height, morphed into thigh-torso clearance, and finally knee flexion as it related to typical rider selected crank length. These observations and angular confirmers came after the rider's intuitive selection.

With the help of some truly world class fitters (Trent and Jim here among others), I discovered for myself that the most useful thing I could correlate to crank length was knee flexion at the top of the stroke. When it goes below 70 degrees, there are generally issues, and often these issues are not apparent to the rider until we go shorter. In the last few years I haven't fit anyone who preferred anything as long as 172.5. Nobody.

For online, remote, and forum fitting, I feel pretty good at this point prescribing crank length solely off knee flexion, especially when the obvious choice would also help with a fitting issue, as in the case of the OP.

It's really the same thing as 100 degrees of hip angle. Some riders might be 96 and others 105, but 100 is a good place to really start paying attention.

But your theory that everyone is different and angles are useless for all this is truly fascinating.
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [stevej] [ In reply to ]
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stevej wrote:
You need to get your head down. Shrug your shoulders and "turtle".

I don't know if I'm odd in this sense, but I have an easy 10cm of vertical frontal adjustment just in the way I *hold* my shoulders. Probably more than that.

The OP is obviously pulling his shoulders down in front of his body. If he shrugged more towards his ears and dipped his head, the height and frontal area would be reduced a lot with no equipment adjustments.
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [trentnix] [ In reply to ]
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Could you provide the evidence that short cranks don’t impact performance.

One caveat, it must be on road in aero.
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [TriByran] [ In reply to ]
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plenty of studies in the literature linked here on ST... use the search function.

TriByran wrote:
Could you provide the evidence that short cranks don’t impact performance.

One caveat, it must be on road in aero.

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.”
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Re: Yes - another critique my bike fit thread (sorry) [ericMPro] [ In reply to ]
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Yes, plenty of studies. Sat up on turbos.

Aero on road? I can’t find any, can you?
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