So I was fit to my tri bike nicely - fits great and it comfy and I have no complaints. Now with my road bike, I was wondering is there any sense using a pretty forward seat post and replicating my saddle-BB-crank-pedal fit and position on this bike to mimic my tri bike for riding as a commuter and group rides etc. with the reasoning that the same lower body position will develop overall stronger riding on the tri bike rather than switching between slightly different positions? Am i just overthinking this and should just set up my road bike as a road bike because its all just pedaling anyway?
Don’t fit your road bike like your tri bike unless you plan on using the same position on your road bike, which would look silly. Go with a more normal road position, and you’ll develop a slightly different set of muscles, which will make you stronger all-around. Getting strong in your road position will benefit your tri position strength, and vice-versa.
On a tri bike you support most of your upper body weight with your elbows in the aero position, on a road bike you don’t want anywhere near that much weight on the front end and need to have your saddle position far enough back to be balanced and be able to support your weight comfortably with your lower back. Ride a far forward road saddle position and you’ll have too much weight on the front end and too much supported by your arms.
But yes, matching working angles on the road bike vs. your comfortable tri bike makes sense, just not the absolute positioning. Basically the whole TT position is rotated back which means a saddle that’s lower and further back and bars that are higher but the important angles like max knee angle at full extension, hip angle and min knee angle at the top of the stroke should be very close in both positions.
It comes down to hip angle if I read this correctly. The hip angle of a tri bike fit in aero position is similar to the hip angle of a road bike fit when you are on the brakes. If you recreate your tri bike measurements on your road bike, you will be uncomfortable and have the wrong hip angle on your road bike because you ride your tri bike on your elbows vs. your road bike on your hands.
Every time I’ve had a road bike fit (I’ve had 3), the fitter always tends to set me up in such a way that it feels like my pedaling action is as much ***forward ***as it is down. Which is to say, it feels like they put me farther back behind the pedals than it feels like I am on my tri bike. And while it always seems reasonable and I’m able to do ok that way, it never feels good or natural. Then, over time – particularly if I mix a lot of tri-bike riding in with it – I find that I start to hate that position. And so I end up sliding the seat forward and getting a longer stem so that I’m more over the pedals than behind them.
I’m sure I’m totally screwing up the fit and it’s all wrong, wrong wrong but it just feels better to pedal that way. Then everybody with an eye toward that sort of thing tells me how wrong my fit is and that I should go to so-and-so to get a real fit. I do and I’m back to square one.
Are there many different “schools of thought” to road bike fit? How many? Too many to count? I sometimes wonder if I’m just going to the wrong fitter. In a few months I’ll be going to someone else when I get a new frame and I’d like to get it right the first time.