Position critique please (2)

Triathlon Forum
1

I am getting close?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQQh049c6nY

2

says “this video is private”
.

3

says “this video is private”

Thanks. Fixed

4

That looks like a very relaxed position. It depends on what you are going for? Finishing or HTFU? If you want to decrease your bike leg, you need to get more aggressive. Look at the angle of your back, it slopes up towards your head. This means your frontal exposure is going to be pretty large and your “pocket” that the air is going to fill in and act as a brake is pretty large. It appears you have little, if any, drop between your saddle height and your arm pads. I think you have 2 options:

  • Going lower in the front will help level your back and reduce your front exposure. You will need to play with your stem/extensions to ensure you don’t get too tight in the cockpit area.

    • Or tilt your armbars “up” a tad to reduce the distance from your hands to your face which will also help decrease your front exposure.

    It all depends on what you are looking for from your fit, aero or comfort. From a comfort perspective you look pretty good. From aero, not so good.

5

A little bit more about my goals…

I am doing a half iron in June. I would like to finish between 5 and 5 1/2 hours and average over 30 km/h on the bike.

My cadence was low for the video because I thought it would be easier for people to judge the positioning. My normal cadence is much higher.

I am looking for a mix of aero and comfort I think. I have lower back issues (facet joints) so I don’t want my position to exacerbate it.

6

Given what you just said then, I would recommend the “Levi Approach” aka tilt the angle of your bars “up” a tad and take on the praying mantis position. I would close the gap between your bars to as narrow as you can stand. Assuming you have time to train it to comfort, I would make them very close. This will shrink your pocket without really messing with your position too much. If they are already fairly close, the tilting up will have little effect. If they are fairly far apart now and you narrow the gap, you will slightly increase your front end height. If this is significant you may want to take the smallest spacer you have below your headset and move it above to offset the increase in height due to narrowing your shoulders.

7

Well, no one else has said it, but it looks like your seat is too high. Your hips appear to be rocking and your feet seem more pointed than they should be. You may want to experiment with lowering the seat, ducking your head, and shrugging your shoulders. Hip angle looks good to me, so I’m not sure you need more drop, especially if you have back problems.