Saddle to Aeropad Drop

Triathlon Forum
1

Was wondering if anyone had any advice. Been getting a lot of back and glute spasms (with sciatic tendencies) in longer rides and race, which have been really severe to the point I can’t race as hard as I could. My drop is about 10 cm (4inches). I am 5’7" and moderately flexible. Was wondering if I should raise this half an inch. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Chris

2

Take it in to a good shop for a proper fit, even it’s a long drive. It’s worth it. Getting a solid foundation of fit advice face-to-face is the only way to go until you are truly comfortable enough with your equipment and have plenty of TITS (time in the saddle) to start doing your own tweaking. At that point, have a nut. But at least you’ll be starting from a solid reference point.

OTOH, if you are comfortable adjusting your stem stack, then experiment away… You can always swap it back.

Cheers, Chris

3

Is there any harm in trying? Raise it an inch or two, or stick the bike on the trainer and put an inch of foam pad on your pads and see if the higher position is comfy.

4

Your problems may not be due to the drop – hard to say without a pic. You could be stretched out too much in your cockpit and having to support your torso with your back/glutes instead of with your bone structure…

5

How far foward is your seat? What degree is your seat angle? 12cm isnt really low so it may be other factors here.

6

2x. I am not an expert by any means but hold the opinion that in a lot of cases it is not the drop – its that the rider is too spread out. Go find a strip mall or industrial park with mirrored buildings and look at your reflection. If your shoulder/arm configuration is not right at 90 degrees I would play with that first.

N=1 and all that but I have unfortunately been on 3 tribikes in the last 2 years. After the initial set up and the subsequent couple of hundred miles, the fine tuning has always included dropping the front end and putting on a shorter stem. The end result is more comfort even though every thing is lower….

7

why don’t you put all your metrics into the bike fit manager on your forum user profile? then we’ll get the whole picture. as was said earlier on this thread, armrest drop gets a bad rap for other things that may be wrong. in fact, if i’m just playing the odds, i’d say cockpit distance is much more likely to result in back pain than is armrest drop.

8

Check out this article, write down you fit and take a video of you riding then post it. You will get some crappy comments but some very knowledgable people will give good advice too. http://www.slowtwitch.com/Bike_Fit/General_Fit_Articles/Remote_tri_bike_fit_607.html

9

Wow thanks a lot guys, your advice is very much appreciated. I will use the bike fit manager and resume the post in the near future when I get my bike back from the shop. I initially had a bike fit on a cervelo p2c (51cm) in 2006 at the bike shop I worked at. The guy was a certified Serrotta fitter, but overall would say it was an average fit. After being unsatisfied I did a lot of reading on Slowtwitch (and bout 3 hrs of dialing my position) I tweaked the bike until I found a great position. After I started doing longer races (Ironman) seemed that my back started hurting more and more. The pain mimics the pain I had in 03 when I had lime disease, and it is greatly effecting my races. In early 09 while I was living in Colorado I went to Todd Carver at Retul (excellent facility) and he said I was fit very well (thanks Slowtwitch), but could be more stretched out. Overall, he didn’t put a longer stem on (might be cus I told him I just got a new stem), but dropped the stem height about an inch. The other thing he did was put a 1mm wedge in one shoe. It is kind of important to note I was getting back/butt pain in races before and after this fit. So maybe I am fit right but something is weak. Either way, I will post measurements and pictures on this post as soon as I get my bike back. I could also give you guys my Retul fit measurement sheet (which I believe has some different parameters) if you would like.

Thanks a lot,
Chris

10

Might we worth trying an adjustable stem?

11

I have a weak right glute and notice it more when I do not do my strengthing excersices. I use core performance since all the excerises deal with the muscles that give me trouble. Something to look at also. Have you had xrays on your back to make sure there isnt something medically wrong?
Good luck.

12

Sorry took so long to get back to you guys, been very busy. I posted a picture on my profile and gave my fit information. I would have liked to copy / paste more pics to this post, but couldn’t figure out how to do that yet. Trying to convert JPEG to Pdf (i’m assuming you can copy Pdf here), but isn’t working. Either way I have a lot more pictures and videos of me cycling. Overall to rehash what I said initially - Problem is lowerback, and glute pain (stabbing sensation, sciatica, etc.).

Thanks for all your help,

Happy Tri’s,
Chris