I know many of you don’t worry/care about UCI rules as I guess they don’t apply to triathlons, but this still seem like one of the best places to get info for bike TT. It seems like steep (75+) seat tube is the current big deal, but doesn’t that steep of a seat tube conflict with the saddle nose/bottom bracket alignment? I’m not into circumcising my seat to make it legal. The reason I am asking is that tomorrow I am going in to have a professional fit done on my road bike to see how close I can get it to a good TT position. Not enough $ left over from Christmas for a new bike. Given that I want to stay within the UCI rules (not that they check in my local series, but hey, gotta sleep at night) should I be looking at more of the “big slam” position?
Spend the money on a cycling coach!
How can anyone who looks at you for one day on a stationary piece of equipment and honestly evaluate your position.
Coaching over 3++ months, various positions and training plans… Yeah maybe.
I just dont get this thing going on in the USA at the moment where everyone thinks they can get fitted into being a faster cyclist. And even worse people think they are capable of making you a faster/better cyclist simply using some fit kit system.
If you were buying a new bike, would you get fitted?
Well, if trying to take your current ride from just a bike you ride, to something you ride faster and more efficiently in a specific type of race, wouldn’t $75 be a good investment?
It seems to me, that no matter how many watts you produce, you want to waste as few as possible. I dinked around with my seat and bars all year and never seemed to find the spot where I felt like I produced good power and wasn’t having to constantly push myself back on the saddle(no, it isn’t tilted down).
If I can get a knowledgable opinion that either gets to a very good fit starting point, or shows me why my current bike is ill designed for this purpose, based on what I am trying to do, that seems like money well spent to me.
Correct me if I am wrong, but in a dead flat time trial, isn’t aerodynamics crucially important? And if so, isn’t rider position potentially the biggest aerodynamic drag? ANd if said rider clocks a 59:18 over 40k with no aero equipment save some clip-ons, wouldn’t it be reasonable to invest in a professional opinion as to position?
Sorry to sound snippy, I’m just a guy looking for useful opinions here.
A UCI legal position means that the nose of the saddle is no less than 5cm behind the center of the BB. To achive this, it matters little what the seat angle of your frame is, 73, 74, or 75. Your top tube should be long enough to give proper extension and allow a reasonable size stem. Too short of a stem and the bike can feel squirelly.
If you cranked out a sub 1hr 40Km then maybe you should be looking for real advise, and you get what you pay for! $75 Hmm
I just put my 2c worth forward. I have a pb of sub 54 for a 40Km and sub 5hr for IM and have never heard any real ‘enlightening’ advice from people who charge and offer services like this and it seems to be getting worse.
Again I fall back to coaching, pushing back on the saddle is often a sign of someone who is pushing a bigger gear than required when often an adaption in training and cadence will make a difference.
This at age 38 and many a year after a long break I rode with some Euro juniors, they not only kicked my ass on every climb but reminded me of why there are so many ‘better’ cyclists in europe. They learn to ride before they ‘learn to ride’.
I’m of the thought that correct positioning/fitting will give you extra speed just as will aerodynamics, but I’ll guess what tri-espana is suggesting is that there is no true substitute for proper training.
I’d definately get a pro bike fitting if you’re unsure how to do it yourself. But realize that all even the best bike fitter can do is put you in the general area. You should do the final fine tuning yourself by listening to what your body tells you about comfort, etc. The most aero position will mean nothing if it’s uncomfortable to ride in. Even small differences in seat height, fore/aft position, etc can sometimes make a noticeable difference. These are the things you can play with after recording the exact measurements taken from your bike fit. If everything feels good from the fit, you may not have to fine tune. Why try to fix something that ain’t broke. But if it doesn’t feel quite optimum, then it likely isn’t. We had to redo my wife’s position after she paid a high end fitter, because it just wasn’t working for her as well as it should have.
It takes time and effort but what I’ve done is ride the same course many, many times and notice what small adjustments have on comfort and stop watch times. I “think” after lots of trial and error that my road and tri bike positions are close to optimum for me. It’s possible that I could have got to the same place by paying a top fitter, but I learned a lot more and had more fun doing it myself. But that’s an approach not for everybody.
"What is proper training? "
Sounds like you need to hire a coach 
25-30 hrs a week for five or six years. I think it would be hard to be slow if you did that… G
if you’re concerned with the UCI rule, set your seat (given your required height) at exactly the limit (5cm behind the BB) then determine what stem length you need. this is assuming that you can get low enough on the bars (determined by your own flexibility and your headtube height). i’m recommending getting your seat as steep as possible because i feel that this is the only way you can get as aero as possible. look into learning to ride on the nose as well so that your effective seat angle may be steep although you are still UCI-legal.
something was mentioned about a stem being too short…yes it will affect handling. in my own case, i was using an 80cm stem on my p3 for a while but it just felt too twitchy, particularly when i was off the extensions and on the basebar. i changed to a 90cm. this positioned the pads closer towards my wrists and i had to shorten the extensions. but the ride became so much more stable because i was stretched out a little bit more when riding on the basebar. so maybe you should try determining the stem length first then adjust the aerobars accordingly.
not knowing what kind of bike you already have (road or Tri/TT) what i’ve said above may or may not be easy to do. with a roadbike there will definitely be a lot of compromises in handling. unless you decide to get an optimized road position first then just add shorty clip-ons.
hope this helps!
Kim
Thanks for the reply. My bike is road geometry with a pretty slack seat tube (72). We put a forward post on it and after one ride yesterday I could tell it was a major difference. Easier to maintain a spin into the wind. We’ll see over a week or so if it translates to real speed. I go back to the fitter this Sat. for a followup.
I have great equipment, a pretty easy job, and live in Hawaii. If I had the 20 year old body and my life set up like it is now I would be dangerous.
I am just saying to get fast you have to work hard. I did train for 4-5 years with 20-30 hour workout hours a week . Science or no ,if you make time to swim 5hrs, run 8-10 and ride 15 hrs a week for a couple years you won’t have to worry about seat angles and aerobars in carbon, you will be fast.
That may not be the best way to train, but after a couple years of the big volume, you can sort out what works. You need to start young, because I don’t know many old guys like me that can handle that kind of volume. I know I sure can’t anymore. I cannot name any top endurance athlete that didn’t have a huge volume period of workouts in their history.
You ought to look at the time swimmers put in the pool in HS and college, elite runners at 5k and above all have the 80-120 mile a week periods in college and their twenties. Cyclists are the kings of long workouts. Piles of miles need to be a way of life early in your career, then you can shortcut your workouts and keep the speed in your thirties.
I think the other most important thing is to get your bodyfat down under 10% and maintain over 50 miles of running a week even on a 15 hr a week training program. I was a trainer and coach with a PE degree so I did follow Lydiard, Daniels, and current Exercise Phys. stuff, but when it is all said and done lots of hours is the key to getting good.
A great example is before the Sydney Olympics there was a group of people living high training low on Big Island. They had a kid from the former Yugoslav that ended up 10th or something at the games in the Tri. I tried to ride with him a couple of times and couldn’t really hold his wheel. He had an alum Yugo made bike with 105 8 speed stuff that was beat to hell. I had at least 5 bikes at my house way better than his, but he was out there burning on and didn’t complain about the crap bike he was on he just trained like an animal. I did upgrade a few of his parts, but he was one of the pure guys, that I wished I could be now. g