After about 10 iterations, I think I’m finally getting close to a position that’s both aggressive and comfortable, and I’d like some feeback and measurements from the protractor-inclined. Here’s my setup:
Saddle height: 77.3 cm (inseam is 87.4 cm)
tip of saddle relative to BB: +2 cm
Predicted seat angle: 80.5 deg. (I ride somewhat on the nose so actual seat angle is steeper)
armrest drop: 14 cm (Dan’s formula gives a range of 13.2 cm +/- 1.5 cm)
My hip angle looks to me to be pretty close to 90 deg to me. The shoulder angle is less than 90 deg, but after some experimentation I feel much more comfortable being a little more compact in front. This is about as low as I can get with the current hardware. I’d have to swap stem or bar setup to get lower. Comments/feedback? Thanks.
I think it’s because I was editing my Yahoo Briefcase adding another pic. How about now?
PS- here’s another shot showing knee clearance. Cockpit length was a little tricky and my knees sometimes hit the armrests still when climbing out of the saddle.
nice bike (the one in the background too) you must have money…you should spend some of it on a professional fitting (if you can find one in your area…if not…travel to one)…some others have expressed that in order to get a really good fit requires the fitter to be present and that looking at a picture on the screen raises more questions than it answers.
One minor point - You aren’t measuring your hip angle at the greater trochanter. You’re not that far off, but enough to make you want to re-evaluate your angles. From the pic, my guess is that your g. trochanter is about where a line drawn between the top of your behind-the-seat water bottle cages and the bottom grey/red border on your jersey would pass between the yellow and white lines you have drawn on your upper leg. If you can, make this change and repost.
Though I am not an expert by any means, I can offer my insight rom what I know…
#1. Saddle height looks about right, but you might want to adjust your cleat position. You might be able to slide the cleat up towards the top of your shoe to get a better alignment of the outside of your your knee bone and the ball of your foot. This can be done using a plum bob.
#2. You might benefit by bringing your aerobars up maybe two centemeters of so. they look a little too low.
#3. It look slike you are little stetched out in the aero position. Almost as if your not stable. Consider bringing your whole center of graviry back a little.
Other than that, from the looks of this side angle, you are very close. Nice job…
OK- how’s that? I compared it to pics on Tom D.'s site, and I think this better captures both the g. trochanter, as well as the spindle axis than the previous pic. Thanks again.
Much better. You look pretty good. Your upper body may be a tad stretched out, but I prefer (and can generate more power) in a tighter cockpit. If your lower back doesn’t give you problems after a few hours then you’re probably fine.
The funny thing is that this setup feels much more compact that I’ve had it in the past. I was quite surprised when I saw the pictures to see that I wasn’t as compact as I feel. The tricky part to getting more compact is the knee clearance, as shown in one of the pictures above. Basically, I can’t get the saddle any more forward than it already is, and I can’t move the bars back any more than they are because (due to long femurs) I already hit the armrests with my knees sometimes when out of the saddle. I haven’t had any issues with back pain, even on long rides of 3+ hours with >90% of the time in the aero bars. All in all, it feels very comfortable and stable.
Just a thought, since I can’t really see the photos, but I wouldn’t worry about knee clearance if it allows you a nice, tight position. Generally speaking, riding out of the saddle if very wasteful of energy. The last month or so with a power meter has shown me that it is best to keep your behind on your seat. A recent club duathlon was a good example of why.
Three of us started the ride together and started to hammer the hilly course. I began to notice a trend. I would sit through the hills (my knees are about 1-2 inches from my armrests in the aero position), and just spin up. My friends would hammer past me out of the seat and put 10-20 meters on me in the middle part of the hill. However, as I continued to spin up through the crest of the hill and put on a progressively larger gear, they always came back to me and I would pass them again. It was just a more even effort.
Between riding PowerCranks and having a very tight position. I never ride out of the seat. If the hills are too steep to spin up, then try a lower gear, but in a tri the cycling leg is all about going as fast as you can as efficiently as possible. Riding out of the seat just isn’t efficient.
I totally agree. I’m actually a crappy out-of-the-saddle climber. I seem to recall guidelines for who is generally a good standing climber based on height (inches) to weight (lbs) ratio. <2.0 = good standing climbers, 2.0 - 2.2 = just as efficient standing or seated, >2.2 = sit your ass down. At 6’0" 166 lbs (2.3), I’m definitely in the “sit your ass down” category. There are few occasions when I’m out of the saddle, namely starting from a stoplight, giving my parts an occasional break, and really really steep climbs where I’ve lost momentum. Nonetheless, a couple of knee whacks on the armrest per ride is enough to remember and avoid at all costs.
