Posting fits seems to be all the rage right now. This is a fully new build for me. I’m 5’9" and about 190 right now, race weight around 170-175. Have a pretty short torso. Coming from a 50cm road bike with fast forward seat post to a 54cm S-Works Transition. I have a straight seat post as well but it needs to be cut. 100mm stem, 42cm standard drop bar with Ui2 road and bar end shifters. I live in the northeast and like to climb in the drops.
You’ll notice I rock a lot while pedaling. It’s a combo of lower back weakness and stiffness at the same time (head on accident with a Mack truck in 2003). I have custom 148mm crank arms due to some ACL and MCL damage in my left knee and surgery last year. Also riding Keywin pedals with -6mm spindles so I think that puts them under 50mm in q factor.
Enough excuses, tell me what you think!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPcor9CLqJI
I think there was a problem with the video (posted from my phone). Can someone just verify that it works?
Saddle looks massively too high, even without the pointed toes.
Brought the seat down about 4cm. Don’t feel like I’m reaching anymore but the toes are still a bit pointed. It feels like preference though, I flattened my feet but didn’t like the feel of it.
Posting fits seems to be all the rage right now. This is a fully new build for me. I’m 5’9" and about 190 right now, race weight around 170-175. Have a pretty short torso. Coming from a 50cm road bike with fast forward seat post to a 54cm S-Works Transition. I have a straight seat post as well but it needs to be cut. 100mm stem, 42cm standard drop bar with Ui2 road and bar end shifters. I live in the northeast and like to climb in the drops.
You’ll notice I rock a lot while pedaling. It’s a combo of lower back weakness and stiffness at the same time (head on accident with a Mack truck in 2003). I have custom 148mm crank arms due to some ACL and MCL damage in my left knee and surgery last year. Also riding Keywin pedals with -6mm spindles so I think that puts them under 50mm in q factor.
Enough excuses, tell me what you think!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPcor9CLqJI]
Your saddle is so high, everything else is impossible to gauge. You are not even in the ballpark seat height wise. Can you measure your old saddle height from bottom bracket to top of seat and move that over to the new bike (assuming that it your old bike fit was correct)? If not, adjust saddle to point where your heels are on pedal with knee extended at bottom of pedal stroke as starting point. Reshoot video and post.
My hips feel totally closed off but here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLv7RGBqXCA
This is only a 4cm drop from the other video. I swapped saddles to make sure I had the same setback.
Chris
Just brought the saddle up from the last video’s (100.5cm) to 102.3cm from floor. This gives me 77cm from BB to center of saddle and is .2cm less than my fit last June which was only with 155mm cranks. Their suggestion was that I set the height to 77.6cm from BB to center saddle and adjust up 1-2mm by feel if necessary.
To say that I was so far off base with my first video doesn’t seem so accurate. I might have been 1-2cm off but the amount of knee flexion in the most recent video is way too high. I would barely last through a sprint tri with that kind of bend and I’d be walking the 5k.
Just brought the saddle up from the last video’s (100.5cm) to 102.3cm from floor. This gives me 77cm from BB to center of saddle and is .2cm less than my fit last June which was only with 155mm cranks. Their suggestion was that I set the height to 77.6cm from BB to center saddle and adjust up 1-2mm by feel if necessary.
To say that I was so far off base with my first video doesn’t seem so accurate. I might have been 1-2cm off but the amount of knee flexion in the most recent video is way too high. I would barely last through a sprint tri with that kind of bend and I’d be walking the 5k.
Your first video seat was too high. 1-2 cm off is a lot. Your last video the seat might have been a bit low but you are also really pointing your toes down. Not sure why you would lower it 4 cm - that is a huge adjustment.
If you are measuring from your bottom bracket, changing your crank length by 1cm means your saddle height should be 1cm different to have the same position at bottom of pedal stroke. I guess what I am saying is that somewhere in the midpoint between the first video and the 4 cm drop is probably about right. You might have hit on this yourself.
Your fit looks off to me. Its off to the point where I would go into a shop to get a professional fit. I don’t think you can fix it by simply raising or lowering your saddle.
Thanks. Somewhere around 78cm is probably right and I’m going to bring the seat up one more time to match that. The bike is getting dropped off at my fitter to have the Ui2 shifting checked out and brakes installed.
They’ll help me fine tune the seat position if I need it since I was fit there last June. The only change I made besides seat height was moving the saddle forward. I maintained the same seat to aerobar pad drop and distance. It’s more comfortable and definitely more relaxed than I felt last year.
Oh and I point my toes down out of personal preference. It feels better on my knees (diagnosed with early onset arthritis last year) and helps me keep my cadence up.
Is there something about pointing toes downward that is inherently bad?
You’re not really offering anything here. This position is a minor tweak from the professional fit I had done last year and was very happy with. I wanted to ride a bit more forward so I followed the rules for raising the saddle and bringing it forward.
It is not really a minor tweak. You are raising and lower the seat by 2-4 cm. My experience is that when you make such a change, everything needs to be addressed. If you manipulate one component of your fit, generally you need to manipulate the rest. Because you ride with your toes pointed down you should ensure that your hip angle and all that is correct at the bottom of your pedal stroke. It is hard to tell from the video.
Good thing I’m headed to drop the bike off with the fitter on Saturday. We’ll throw it on a trainer real quick and have them check out the positioning. Doesn’t feel like anything is wrong with the angles, just want to stretch my legs out more.
Oh and I point my toes down out of personal preference. It feels better on my knees (diagnosed with early onset arthritis last year) and helps me keep my cadence up.
Is there something about pointing toes downward that is inherently bad?
Some people have a pointed down toe style (Lance Armstrong for example) and others drop their heel a lot (think Greg Lemond). The problem here is your seat height was way too high in the first video, and seemingly way to low in the second. Keep in mind that your foot length comes into play when you point toes down, so sometimes people do that when their seat is too high. When you do it, it is so exaggerated, it would make a seat height that is “normal” feel too low.
You’re not really offering anything here. This position is a minor tweak from the professional fit I had done last year and was very happy with. I wanted to ride a bit more forward so I followed the rules for raising the saddle and bringing it forward.
A minor tweak is 2-3 mm. The fact that you lowered your seat 4 cm when people suggested you lower your seat a bit indicates that you might need some assistance to get this dialed in.
Just for clarification, you had said it wasn’t “even in the ballpark” and “so high, everything else is impossible to gauge.” That didn’t suggest I should put it down a few mm but implied something more drastic. We’re only talking about 1.6" and now after the last change, only .8" difference from the first video. I’ll be sure to reply back with any further tweaks made with my fitter.
Just for clarification, you had said it wasn’t “even in the ballpark” and “so high, everything else is impossible to gauge.” That didn’t suggest I should put it down a few mm but implied something more drastic. We’re only talking about 1.6" and now after the last change, only .8" difference from the first video. I’ll be sure to reply back with any further tweaks made with my fitter.
I was wrong to assume anything about your experiences and understanding of bike fit. You keep saying " only" but a 4 centimeters change is huge. If had to guess lowering it 1 to 1.5 centimeters would be a better starting point.
I am somewhat confused by the OPs subject “tri and road position”.
Are you trying to get two different positions out of the same fit/bike?
Yes, I actually have two seat posts (straight for tri, team setback for when just road riding) and intend to post the road fit as well. However, the initial “critique” I received didn’t provide much in the way of direction so I figured I’d hold off posting the road fit until after I have my fitter look at my tri fit first.