I want to change some positional things on my bike. Move my feet in closer to the bb, move my saddle forward etc. In car racing while testing, you make one change at a time, go out do a few laps and see how that one change affects your time. If you make more than one change at a time, your not sure which one made you faster/slower.
Is it the same for the bike? Make a saddle position change, live with it for a few rides then make a second change, and if so, how long between changes? Or do I just make all my changes at once and see what shakes out?
In a thread a little while back, I asked about changing to a different shoe manufacturer and getting cleat placement right. I was told that my lbs has a tool to check for straightness. My lbs told me to ride and keep moving them until they felt right. Other than painful knees, how do you know it’s right?
There’s info on Slowtwitch site about bike fitting. That info will get you pretty close then tweak your position for comfort. For cleat position, having the ball of your foot over the pedal axle is the traditional way. I think there’s also something about cleat placement on the main site as well. It was easier in the old days when you could wear your wood soled cycling shoes without cleats then nail the cleats on once a groove was worn in the shoe. There’s a book called something like “andy pruitt’s medical guide for cyclists” that has good fit info for road cyclists and info on cycling injuries.
Thanks Nick, but do I change things one at a time or do wholesale changes? My cleat is on the ball of the foot but I want to move my foot inward as I have about 3 to 4" clearance between top tube and my knee. I know my knees do turn out some, I practically walk on the sides of my feet. The seat is just an experiment as my butt is the limiting factor for time in the saddle.
You still need some clearance between the ball of your foot and crank arm so you probably won’t get that much sideways movement. As far as saddle position, you want the nose level. Saddle fore/aft position and height are pretty dependant on everything else. If you get fitted to your bike by a third party or by do-it-yourself and decide to radically change your position, I wouldn’t change saddle height more than 1/4 inch at a time. Changing just your saddle height and not your bar height will change your position so it depends on what you’re trying to do. Measure where everything is now and take a wrench with you on your rides or ride on the trainer. A saddle that’s too low or too high can make your knees hurt and one that’s too high can make your butt hurt from rocking in the saddle to reach the pedals. The rule of thumb is if the back of your knees hurt your saddle is too high and if the front hurt the saddle is too low. Most people I know who have sore butts limiting their riding have one of these problems: their butt isn’t broken in, low quality or poor fitting bike shorts, saddle too high, poor flexibility.
I think my saddle height is ok and it is level. I have several different shorts I rotate, one new two weeks ago so that leaves butt not broken in I guess. Once I get to the hour mark on the trainer, I’m doin’ the squrimin’ herman trying to keep going. A little numb… or words to that effect. I will likely try a change of saddle, but before I get too radical with changes but I thought if I could just see how a change of contact patch worked then I would know if a new one was needed or if it was strictly a placement issue.
My road bike and my trainer bike unfortunately, fit quite different. My road bike is quite comfortable but I don’t want to switch the saddle from that to my trainer. I’m a little too streched out in the bars but that changes this week with new bars.