The "Critique My Bike Fit" Thread
Many folks are posting their fits looking for feedback from the team. Might be better to put them all in one place, as a convenient future reference for everyone?
If yes, post your pics/vids and questions here!
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Many folks are posting their fits looking for feedback from the team. Might be better to put them all in one place, as a convenient future reference for everyone?
If yes, post your pics/vids and questions here!
Comments
Yep, still have the aerobottle on the bars, stil have the CDA stickers, etc.
Bike has been stripped of wheels and rear DR. I put in an old front wheel, with no tire, so I could hang it from a hook
I guess I will be the first lamb. I need some guidance/advice on my current set up. I am interested in a powermeter but feel a correct bike fit is more important. Can only get a new bike or a PM at this point.
A few things: I have a Profile 20 degree offset seat post, seat is all the way forward, crankset crank 170mm, stem is as low as it can go on the headset.
This is the first time I have seen my position and some observations are I more upright than I thought which isprobably due to very little difference between the seat and areo bars.
Any thoughts and advice would be greatly aprreciated.
Thanks,
Brian
I can tell that you're reaching too much. Even with your seat all the way forward, your seat position is too far back as you're way behind your cranks.
I think a new bike is a better investment for you. A power meter isn't going to help much if you're on a bike that doesn't fit worth a damn.
I also uploaded the pics to my profile which are a little bigger but as you said it is not a good fit. The more I look at the pics I agree converting the bike to a tribike has been a failed experiment. I guess next step would be to talk to ttbikefit.
Brian,
You've made a common mistake with trying to convert a road bike to a tri bike: slapping on aerobar and an offset seat post. I recommend you:
Watch a breakaway in a pro bike race. You'll see guys get more aero by riding with their forearms on the tops of the bars. This is the position you're trying to create, but it can be kinda scary to have anything for your hands to hold onto other than cables
. It is for me! Same deal for ITU racing: these guys ride road bikes with shorty bars to create this position.
OK, I'll be the next guinea pig.
Here's the video: www.youtube.com/watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htYhIGbg5H0 (one of those should work).
Note that I'm warmed up here and riding probably 105-110% of FTP but relatively comfortably. Cadence is perhaps a bit slower than race (85-87 rpm) but otherwise pretty close. Using an Adamo saddle, which I really like but wondering if I'm reaching a bit too much.
Thanks for any input and thoughts!
Paul,
Although it was good enough for HIM Syracuse, I'm just gonna call this pic..."BEFORE"
. And I am guilty of every single thing Rich mentioned in his post above! Literally rekindled the triathlon flame over a year ago, got the road bike out of storage in the garage (for 10+ years), and started swapping $hit out. This was before coming to EN. Fortunately, I did it so most of the components could be eventually applied to a new frame. So will update with "AFTER" pics in a few weeks
can't wait for the new pics!
I have considered dropping the stem in order to increase the drop and rotate to a more forward, flatter position. Problem there though is - as you suggest - less comfort and resulting lower back pain and neck strain. But I'm sure if I were more flexible that would improve. A greater drop might also increase clearance between my knees and elbow pads - right now, there's 1 cm at best when my knees pass through. A greater drop would also have implications for handling, no?
Overall, I agree I'm pretty upright (and that's the only "pretty" there is) but with IMTX just a few weeks away, I'm kinda worried about tinkering too much. However, I will adjust seat height a bit and see how it goes.
And thanks for the Lance video. It seems that my position is more similar to his previous, more upright position. But that is where the similarities end.
Not really. I haven't called anyone an asshole or berated them for not being a sub-9 IM finisher.
Comfort trumps all else. A super aero position (which I don't possess either) doesn't mean jack if all your going to do is kill yourself trying to hold it.
I'm pulling a Cardinal Sin by using a new bike at IMTX that I'll have had for about 2.5 weeks. I'll hopefully have the fit kind of dialed in by then though. I can relate to your not wanting to tinker with a new fit this close to IMTX. I can't let that kind of awesomeness sit around and not be used on May 21st though.
That's not a sin at all as long as you keep the same fit. I have raced on a new bike each of the last three years with little to no time to "adjust".
As long as you have the same saddle, pedals, bars and the fit is the same I would not worry at all. If you start swaping contact points then things can get a likely riskier. Just make sure that the actual fit is still the same as you may be in a different spot on a new saddle or hold new bars differently.
The sin is changing your position before a race.
Saddle and pedals will remain the same. Obviously, the bars will be different. I'm going to have it fit next Tuesday. I'll be able to get a couple of long rides in ahead of time to make sure there are no surprises.
I just had a Retül bikefit... I have posted the before and after images here for inspiration.
Pre fit:
http://boengel1.smugmug.com/Sport/B...-fit-M.jpg
Final setup
http://boengel1.smugmug.com/Sport/B...tion-M.jpg
Video of final set-up:
That's more aggressive for sure.
One thing I've noticed fooling around with my own fit: angling the aerobars so the hands are higher automatically drops the shoulders, and vice versa. THat seems to be a part of your changes.
Retul fits do not pay attention to the position of your head. You've got some daylight between the tail of your helmet and your back, confirming the need to drop your head lower between your shoulders. The head is the first big thing to hit the wind, so getting it tucked lower down can make a big difference, as long as you can see.
I second Al's comments on your head, you may just have been looking at the screen, but get in the habit of tucking it.
In my opinion your elbow pads need to come back and go under your elbows instead of your forearms. It is easy to hold a position for a fitting with your forearms on the pads, but for an IM it is much easlier if the pads are under the elbows. If you like it this way, go ahead and leave it as we are all different.
What is your effective seat tube angle like? It may just be the camera is off angle but your look pretty slack to me from that angle and could probably go steeper, therefore moving your elbows forward to the pads and possibly even down a little lower.
The pads are actually directly under my elbows (for the first time ever)... this will take some getting used to..
What was changed in the fit was that both the saddle and cockpit were moved up and forward - the tribars were moved much closer together and the cleats were realigned. I now have an almost 12cm drop and hands almost touching in the areo position. No doubt my frontal area has decreased considerably.
Changing the position of the tribars was actually what we spend the most time on... ideally they should have been angled (for the very reason Al mentions), but this was not possible with my current bars... Instead the bars were moved very close and the pads were moved and inverted.
The Retül report is here: http://boengel1.smugmug.com/Sport/BikeFit/i-TPQxp3x/0/L/SCAN0061-L.jpg
Since I changed my position this year I'll post some new pictures. I actually did the opposite of most people and am in a higher position now and have my saddle a little bit further forward.
I purposely have my elbow pads and extensions about 20mm too long as I like to be able to strech out. The position I am in here is my sit at .7 all day long position. For efforts about about .85 I slide my elbows further back towards me and move further up on the nose of the saddle.
Other than having to clean up the cabling, add bar tape, and add the speedfill the bike and my position are pretty much race ready as shown in the pictures.
Seriously, nice fit. Looks good!
@Rich -
The helmet is a LG Rocket with the visor. I've been tempted to try one of the newer generation aero helmets (i.e. Lazer Tardiz, Rudy Project, or LG Vortice). However, I've been using this helmet for 3 years I haven't changes yet. I'm pretty sure my helmet, pedals, and saddle are the only things I've kept consistant accross all my bikes.
As far as the cockpit. I'm running a 3T brezza base bar, with Ventus craddles and pads, and Zipp brake levers. The extensions are Zipp VukaShift, with Sram R2C shifters. The bottle cage and computer are my standard setup I have used on my last 4 bikes. The cage is a trek bat cage that is zipp tied to each extension in the front and the stem in the back. My computer gets mounted to a piece I make from an aerobar extension. I just cut it to the width of space between my aerobars, drill a few hols, and then zip tie it in place. This way the mount is very solid and does not bounce or move. I'll take a few pictures of this latest version and post them tonight or tomorrow.
For IM I add a speedfil. As I've posted in the past but I just leave the strawed tucked next to my left aero extension and left it to drink. It fits right in between my arm and the water bottle cage.
For hot races I add a salt stick to the right aero extension.