so, i’m hoping to get some suggestions for refining my fit. i wonder if my homemade bike fit might be limiting my performance. my name is not really craig (it’s collin, my forum name backwards), but i do fit the profile for “longleg craig” in dan slowman’s bike picker.
background: i bought my bike after much reading, though i don’t know if the bike picker on ST was up then. i was, and still am, poor and got the bike on ebay for less than $1000 (3 or 4 years ago). i have long legs and a short torso. i decided to get a bike that would be close to (but slightly bigger than) my what would fit my torso and put the seatpost up high. because the seatpost was put up quite high, i put Syntace’s risers under my aerobars, which raise them up an inch or so. i realize there are a few possible problems with my fit. one is that my arms are not at right angles. but if i shorten my stem, i’ll hit my knees on the arm rests on the aerobars and i’m not really bothered by my arms not being at right angles.
i am a poor student and don’t have money for a different frame, so i’m stuck with what i’ve got (though i think it’s pretty workable). but any changes that people could suggest would be very appreciated.
It might not hurt to take a few spacers out to lower your front end. really no difference between what you have and what anyone on a road bike will look like.
the image hosting service took my pics down. i put them back up with another service. we’ll see how this one does. yeah, my tibia (or is it tibias? the ‘ia’ ending makes it seem pluralized) are long. is that why the pope, via tom, blesses me?
desert dude, i’ll try moving some of the spacers above the stem (thus lowering the stem) and see how it feels.
Those are some super long legs and I would imagine your performance is limited by your current setup - it just isn’t very aero. I would start the improvement process by getting a longer stem (is the current one 8.5cm? and leveling the aerobars so that you aren’t reaching down. Reaching down makes you ride taller and the idea here is to minimize your the amount of your body you are exposing to the wind. If that feels good after a couple or rides then take out the spacer under those aerobars.
After doing that and riding with it a few times I’d figure out where I want my seat at. I’m guessing you’ll want to slide it forward a cm or two but I’d just see how it feels in its current position before making any changes.
It looks like you have ok clearance between your knee and elbow but its a little hard to tell because it looks like you are just leaning against the wall and not in a dynamic riding position. I would recommend just making one or two small changes at a time and testing before making further modifications.
My body type is very much like yours. 6’ 2" and about 60 inches of that are leg. I did everything I could to get my butt forward and my elbows down low. My knees actually graze my elbows, but I’ve grown not to mind this at all. I’ve got about 10 inches of drop from saddle to rests, but that’s not too bad as my arms are long like my legs. Your upper body will feel much better when you can support it with a nice 90 degree angle at the elbows instead of with your back. Of course to do that you need to go steeper with the seat angle.
Take all that with a grain of salt though; I’d say I’m comfortable but I’m completely self-fitted.
i was drawing the lines like they’re done on the bikesport michigan fitting guide. but i think you, along with others, are right. this week will start my fit experiment. spacers are coming out, saddle going forward. i’ll start slowly and pay attention to how i feel. here’s a pic drawn with lines like in Slowman’s fit guide. the two yellow lines going from the hip to the foot are different approximations of the “bottom” of the pedal stroke.
Your upper body will feel much better when you can support it with a nice 90 degree angle at the elbows instead of with your back. Of course to do that you need to go steeper with the seat angle.
From where I sit, moving his seat forward without changing other stuff will move his arm/torso angle further away from 90 degrees and create a more uncomfortable position. If he wants to move his seat forward and wants to get his arms to 90 degrees (or more, less is bad IMO) he will need a longer stem. Heck, he needs a longer stem just to get his arms to 90+ degrees without doing anything wth the seat. I don’t really see any way around getting a longer stem with his current setup.
what if i just slid my arms forward in the armrests and held the end of the bars rather than grabbing them where they start to bend? that would make the upper-arm/torso angle more obtuse and the elbow angle more acute, bringing them both closer to 90 degrees.
also, if i’m going to get a longer stem, is there a way to just trade the one i have for another? maybe i’ll ebay it. do shops let you use current parts as partial trade-ins. i assume they have to change stems quite a bit.
Your story does not sound so different from mine. I eBayed my first bike, a Scott Waimea and then, convinced that cervelo’s were the answer to most of life’s important questions, bought a Cervelo P2. At 6’ even with a very long inseam, neither bike fit very well for my short body. I compounded the problem with very low VisionTech bars on the cervelo. I eventually went back to the Scott and used a forward seat post and a short stem. This was comfortable enough on the flat but downright scary on downhills.
Finally when I had a little money I bought a Yaqui from Ves Mandaric. It had a shorter top tube, 81 degree seat tube and a long front end for good handling.
If you can’t buy a new frame then I would start with a forward seat post to move you up and forward. The Profile post is pretty cheap and simple.
Before you pull out the risers try to ride with your hands wrapped around the shifters. This will drop your elbows and lower your shoulders immediately. Part of the reason you may be grabbing the bar where you are is that your seat is too far back.
Note that moving the seat forward is going to change the way the bike handles by putting more weight on the front wheel. This could make the handling a bit quick. Until you can buy a bike that was made for you then you may just have to live with it.
Chad
No bike shop I have ever went to accepted old stuff for a trade-in. Order a Profile H20 stem from TriZone or performance. They are solid and only cost about $40. I would start by moving your seat up and forward. Just my opinion, but you look kind of like I used to a while back.
