Question about BIKE FIT!

[Mward]

Dont mean to yell, but BIKE FIT just looked good to me.

What % of fitters use power meters when fitting? Aerodynamics testing?

Being a moderitly pragmatic person I tend to try to apply logic to most situations first, and for obvious reasons, continuously durring ANY endeavor I take on. Bike fit has always been kind of a facinating concept to me but I have never had a real fit done. Well one, but he didn’t do shit but set saddle height.

Seems to me that the ONLY way to do a proper fit is with a power meter. If not, how do you know that you are in the best position? Real Q there. How do you know? is it because a book said so?

Seems like a proper fit will create max power with approiate comfort. Doing a 14 mile TT can obviously yeald different comfort needs than an IM. Couple that with aerodynamics and there you have it. Proper fit. But it seems to me (using that a lot) that MOST places DONT use a power meter. How do they KNOW that you are getting the most power?

My friend built an airplane. He found after much trial and error that he got WAY more out of making his plane more aero than by trying to get more power out of his motor. After making some slight changes to the planes shell, his max speed and fuel consumption both got some HUGE boosts. Speeds are a little different in a plane than on a bike so the curve will be more shallow, and there are rules about what can be added to the body, but where is the balance for a rider? How do fitters find that balance?

I’ve personally found that just getting a road bike in the right size and training hard, I am able to smoke most triathletes in their aero position. Lots of BAAAAAAD aero positions out there and I have definetly run into the well trained, proper aero position athlete that had a slight advantage over me but… I’m still able to hang with a normal road bike and some spinachi’s.

What say you fitters? Position aside (steep angle, shallow angle, elbow angle, hand position etc) how do you KNOW you are getting the most out of the rider with your positioning of them?

What say you athletes? If you were fit “well” what was the mark of that fit? comfort? max power? how did you know it was a good fit, or the best fit 4 you?

Not spell checking here so LAY OFF!

[Tom_Demerly]

I don’t use a power meter. It only tests for power output, an incredibly myopic view of appropriate fit.

If you’re pragmatic you’ll be disappointed to learn that bike fitting is not an exact science nor a pragmatic process (entirely). It is craft and experience. It is about power output, but also comfort, aerodynamics, bike handling and a few other subtle features.

I used to argue vigorously, often on this forum, that bike fitting was a “science” and an empiracle, pragmatic, quantifiable endeavor.

Smarter people than I proved me wrong- on this forum.

It would be convenient if there was one fit technique that took some input or put your bike in an apparatus and perfromed adjustments and modifications until the parameters were optimized. It would be great, but it isn’t like that yet.

There are a number of interesting and useful “system” approaches to bike fit. Some use an entertaining and impressive laser light show, others use important looking special tools and vaguely anatomical vernacular combined with well crafter computer graphics. Dealers are lining up to buy them so they can cash in on “bike fitting” and become “bike fitters”.

The truth of the matter (my truth at least) is that good bike fit doesn’t come in a box, from a laser beam, a software program or a power meter. It comes from work and experience and common sense and education and saddle time and more experience.

Read Dan Empfield’s excellent article on this website about how to find a good bike fitter. It is an eye opener.

[Mward]

Well put, and I have read quite a few articles about fitting on this site. Thats most of the reason that I just dont spend the $ on fitting. I dont trust people and I have met VERY FEW fitters that I would trust or would pay the amount that they are asking.

Look here. I set my saddle at X height, place the nose at about 5cm behind the bb, use a 10-12cm drop (using 10.5 right now, will use 12 when I clip on the AB’s) from nose of saddle to middle of bar and I’m off. Any science to this? No way! I’ve never even had a fitter look at it. I just moved my bike parts till I was most comfortable and “felt” like I had the most power.

But still Tom, you telling me that you dont move the saddle around and see where the rider creates the most power? Just for kicks? Gizmos aside, I figure one would just move that ass around relitive to the bb to see where said rider can generate the most power @ X hr or whetever.

by the way, you guys ever drink at the shop? I always thought that a bike shop with a liquor licence would make a KILLING!