I am in need of some bike fit help. I have been to a bike shop for a fitment on a previous bike but they are not very well versed in tri bike fitment. A little background: I have had back problems ever since I was 10. Last year my L4-L5 herniated causing some foot drop and muscle atrophy (please wipe away the tears and read on). I am now back to all normal activity but I can not get comfortable on my bike. I am able to ride up to 50 miles and can ride without too much discomfort but when I go to get off the bike my lower back is extremely stiff. Walking is not too great but running is out of the question. Should someone with lower back issues have a steep seat angle or shallower? Any help is really appreciated. Any advice on how to post pics underneath eachother would be helpful too.
Is that ice-cream she’s eating?
Yes it is, and anyone can have a free bowl if you help with my bike fit ( must help my back to qualify for ice cream).
Do you know your current seat angle?
I would slide your seat forward and flip the stem. But your position needs some real-time tweaking.
Also your seat is kind on the high side, which is not common for a Softride rider.
On posting pics, after posting your pic, scroll down place the cursor after the first pic hit enter then post you next one.
Nice bike.
I agree with the Smartass’s assessment.
e mail me your measurements and I could probably get a decent position starting point for you.
heriniated discs eh? steep should be fine but bear in mind as you rotate your self around the bottom bracket you do take weight off your feet, (those two things that usually do the bulk of weight bearing) and move it to your arms and your ass…the jerk would shy you away from a beam bike as well…a solid connection between your feet through your legs and up through your hips will take some of the pressure off your lower back…rememeber bub, the point here is to get your hips rotated forward enough that your glutes are working, give you enough power so you can spin, and leave everything refreshed for the run. go steep, get low gears and stay in those aerobars putting out whatever power you can so that you’ll be able to run off the bike.
jerk
On posting pics, after posting your pic, scroll down place the cursor after the first pic hit enter then post you next one.
No kidding, it’d make the original post a lot more reader-friendly.
The only thing that comes to my mind is to look into taking some voice lessons. I suspect your low back is locked up and you don’t let it expand when you breathe. Vocalists are great at breathing. It’s part science, part art, and overlooked by the vast majority of us. Likely you’ve been doing that since you were 10. We should probably psychoanalyze you to figure out why. Then again, I could be way off, as I’m pretty good at that.
huh…never thought of a vocal coach. makes sense though.
jerk
I don’t agree with a few things that have been said.
I’m not so sure that your seat is too high. That’s becoming a real Slowtwitch cliche lately. I printed off your photo and measured your knee angle at approximately 154 degrees and note this is with your heel flat to the ground which will increase this angle slightly. Slowman recommends a 155 degree knee angle as optimum, so by his standard you’re there. Other people think about 150 is optimum which is actually what I personally prefer for myself. So i don’t necessarily see a great deal of problem with your seat height assuming that my protractor measurement is correct. A better way would be for me to come over and measure your knee angle with my goniometer but unless you’re living in eastern Ontario it’s probably not to practical.
Your hip/torso and torso/arm angles ar very close to 90 degrees which is what you want. A plumbline dropped from your ear falls just in front of your elbow which is also where it should be.
The big factor is not knowing what your seat angle is. You should only go a bit lower in the front if you are riding a slack angle and want to move it steeper. With that kind of injury and an accompanying loss of low back flexibility it is not adviseable to go lower otherwise.
I also think some people are also over doing the “get low in the front” advice. Factors such as low back flexibility and hamstring tightness have to first be considered. Also the distances you are riding. If you do sprints it’s easier for most people to maintain a Bjorn type position over 20-30 kms than in an IM. In your case it’s probably not good advice to automatically just say “get lower”.
It’s hard to tell if you’re having low back issues riding because of the riding position or because it’s just the nature of the injury that only allows you to ride a certain limited mileage even in a good position.
I’m a chiropractor and my approach to fitting you on a bike would first to be measure your flexibility of your individual muscle groups. How far forward can you bend, how tight is your hamstring, psoas, etc. Are you also getting neck issues while riding? A lot of things to consider first.
Besides thinking about the fit, what kind of rehab have you been doing? We should be working on flexibility stretches. Pilates or yoga may be helpful providing the exercises are done carefully and properly as to not hurt your back.
It may not just be the position that is the problem, but the nature of the injury itself. With atrophy in the calf it was a serious herniation involving the sciatic nerve.
Are you doing rehab to help with this at the present? Perhaps this is where we should start.
Tom D should probably you give you some better insight on the fit. I wish it was possible for the three of us to get together in person and try to solve this for you.
I have some tests to determine flexibility for you to try at home. You’ll need a partner for some of them. Send me a personal message and let’s see what we can come up with.
Slowman recommends a 155 degree knee angle as optimum, so by his standard you’re there.
I think he says 145-155 is acceptable and the majority of folks are in the 145-150 range. So, he’s not an extreme outlier at 154 but he’s getting up there. Maybe Slowman’ll chime in soon enough.
Picture fix
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I wish I could find his original article but you might be right. Now that I think of it Slowman had an article saying that he rode his tri bike at 155 and road bike at 150 if I remember right. Seems to me that he later said he changed his mind and rode both at 150.
Dan, are you out there.
Cerveloguy, sorry to hijack a thread. Would you mind if i pmed you about some physiological wierdness having to do with my scolios and riding? I think I know what is going on but would like a second opinion.
Feel free. I set up a woman with scoliosis/harrington rod on a bike. Was quite a challenge.
I have low back issues with L4-L5, L5-S1 and I ride steep with no problems (Oly distance). I would not recommend the beam bike as the ‘bounce’ transfers right to the low back when in the aero position. I agree that you should stay with lighter gears and spin rather than mash. PT and core strength (both front and back) is critical. Don’t focus on the abs without focusing on the back as you can pull your back further out of whack (the opposite is true as well).
BTW - Having been FIST’d by Dan, we recommend a 145-155 angle with most longer course people being on the 145-150 range because of muscle contraction later in the ride. Shorter course people can sometimes go towards the 150-155 range but is it always better to err on the side of a saddle too low then too high. 150 is still ideal and all the measurements should be done a few times to limit the error factor of foot drop. My $0.02
hope you get better fast,
Thanks for all the help. Now I know how to post pics correctly I’ll try to do it better next time. I worked on it for quite a while but I was afraid to hit enter. When ever I hit enter on Trinewbie website it always post your article before you are done entering the info. One of my favorites quotes as a kid will apply to this situation:
GI Joe “and knowing is half the battle!”