So I know a lot about bike parts and even what most frames look like. What I am having trouble understanding is how a TT bike should fit. I had a professional pre-fit done with a fit specialist, same store that fit Olympic Gold Medalist Kristen Armstrong. I was thinking Cervelo and was hoping to get a P3 but was told that a P2 would be better fit for me. I went in with my actual bike to get fit and after all was said and done I had 45mm of stack and a flipped up stem.
Here are my questions:
I see so many people on here slam people because of all the spacers they have, I fee like I have a lot but also trust the fit tech in his analysis, is this just snobs who think they are hardcore because they have zero stack or if the right brand and frame is bought you should not have to need any stack?
What determines the stack that you need? Does it have to do more with your upper body or lower body, i.e. longer or shorter inseam relative to height?
I have read how some have a lot of stack because they are not flexible but I can almost rest my palms on the floor when I bend forward so I feel like flexibility should not be a problem for me.
What do I want to look for in a frame dimensions to know if it might fit me better than the P2, i.e. Slowman’s sizing chart?
I am 5’10 and have a 54 P2 and I think my inseam is around 30 1/2. I really appreciate some feedback to better understand if this is the best bike set up for me or not.
“is this just snobs who think they are hardcore because they have zero stack or if the right brand and frame is bought you should not have to need any stack?”
Yes and no. It is ideal not have to many spacers but if the guy who fit you is good then I would worry about the peanut gallery on here.
If you had a pro fit done I wouldn’t mess with what the ‘experts’ say on here.
I see tons of pro looking setups, but a scant few of them can actually ride the position effectively and comfortably. Style or substance pick your route. Very few can do both and most of whom do are full time pros who have spent years and hundreds of hours perfecting their positions.
#3 is a myth continually perpetuated by people who don’t understand how fits should feel. Unless you have significant medical issues (fused spine or that sort of thing) you are plenty flexible enough to adopt a good aerodynamic tri bike posture.
My best guess is that you got a good, comfortable, middle of the road, safe fitting. Try reading Slowman’s last article on his Slice fitting for some clues on how people might arrive at such a fit or where to look for improvement. For my $.02, unless your upper arms are unusually short or you have some other morphological anomoly, 45mm of spacers and an upturned stem does not usually indicate a good, aerodynamic, correctly angled tri bike fitting. I’d bet $ you are sitting too slack, to start with. But…I didn’t measure you and didn’t do the fitting…so any hints I might offer aren’t more than SWAGs.
Did you tell him that you wanted a Cervelo and then he told you a P2 would fit better than a P3 or did he suggest a Cervelo to begin with? Cervelo bikes have lower front ends than many other companies (and the P3 is lower than the P2). What other brands does the store carry? The fitter can be great at his job, but he still wants to put you on a bike brand that he has in the store. If you tied his hands by telling him you wanted a Cervelo, then he was probably less likely to recommend another frame that may have fit just a hair better. One example of a frame that would have a higher front end than Cervelo is Trek, but there are lots of others out there also. Good luck with your bike search.
I forgot to ask a question regarding your experience level riding TT bikes. Our local Cervelo dealer does a really great job of asking questions at the fitting as to goals, experience and what not. Your ability to produce your best power today in any given position will be nothing like it is in say a year if you truly train hard and smart…check that, properly. You will become more flexible and your muscles will get used to firing in the often cramped feeling of a tt bike if you are brand new to it. To that end any fitter who just jams someone into a position b/c the body can be forced into it, but the rider is having muscle cramps and spasms after 30 seconds under power…isn’t getting a good fit. Trust me you don’t ever want that as I lived it in '94. The advice was ‘this is how you need to be and you will get used to it, just suck it up man time trialing is hard.’ 6 weeks later my season was over with IT band and hamstring strains so bad I was unable to sit in a chair. I limped into my first IM at the end of the year back on my old bike just in the nick of time. Fitters are a dime a dozen, top notch fitters are as rare as common sense politicians.
As others have said we are only guessing since there is a lot of missing info, but I would bet he put you in a position that best suited what your body can function with…whether or not that position is on the correct frame is an entirely different topic unfortunately. In theory all of us could fit on any model out there with spacers, steerer tube extensions and upright stems:/
This is my first TT bike. I did a lot of research to find how much bikes were selling for and what I could buy or afford. I was looking to spend about 5k on a bike so I found bikes from all sorts of different makers that were sold from different stores in my area.
I had printed off certain bikes such as trek ttx, transition, plasma, some felt bikes, Cervelo p2,3,4, Slice, and I think one or two more and took that with me to the pre-fit. I said I was interested in Cervelo and Trek and he said that “he could get either to work” the place I went to is not directly connected with a store, they only do 100 credit if you buy from one of the stores here but they can recommend any bike frame without reservation.
I do remember the fitter telling me it was a fairly middle of the road fit he put me in more for a 70.3 distance ride rather than sprint.
Should distance matter with a fit or if you get the right bike/biker combo it won’t matter if its a spring or full IM?
What information would you need from me to recommend another bike frame that might fit me better to start rather than working so much with the P2 frame? Could I fit on a Trek SC?
I forgot to say that I am curious to know about all of this because while I like my bike right now something about it just doesn’t feel right! I know when I hop on my R3 road bike I just feel like the bike is meant for me and really like it but with the P2 i just don’t know if I have felt like the bike is an extension of me. I know that may sound cheesy but I am just trying to say that I am not as comfortable as I feel I could be.
Do any of you know what I am talking about or do you all ride with partial love for your bike?
Dude…its your first tri/TT bike? Of course you don’t really feel comfortable yet. Its a new way of riding a bike. You can and will get more comfortable by simply riding miles in the position. You can even move lower and steeper as time goes on. Just take your time with it and make small changes, if necessary.
I’ve been a triathlete for 25 years now. Almost every year, the first few rides on the tri bike are uncomfortable and leave me sore, because of the change from my road position. Its normal. My point is that you need miles in the saddle before a bike and a position will start to feel really comfortable. Don’t try to make any quick judgements about the efficacy of your fit after a ride or two. You need to just ride and figure out what the TT position feels like first.
I completely agree with you I guess what I am trying to understand is when will I start to feel comfortable, I have about 400 miles on the bike now, or is this a case that its just not a good frame model for me and moving to something that would be more opposite a P2 style would suite me better.
It is time to post some good trainer riding photos (clips of videos or the videos themselves), of you riding the road bike you love and the P2 you don’t… and/or fit coordinates for both.
BTW… I’m somebody who thinks that getting the headtube (stack basically) right is the most important part of an aero frame size selection. 45mm of spacers and an upturned stem is not in the ballpark… but maybe they just made you higher than you need to be too. You could try lowering the bars and see how you like it.
If you have long legs and a short torso it is more likely that you will end up with the position you have (small frame with lots of spacers)… but I would have suggested a bigger frame and then a shorter stem to get the reach correct.