On the Fly Bike Fitting/Tweaking
Yesterday I dug my '06 P3C out of the garage and took it over to Wheelbuilder to have the parts put back on that I stripped off over the years (3) since I had last ridden it 
. New SRAM Red/Black 165mm compact cranks, read DR and chain. Then I moved the saddle, pedals and wheels from my road bike over to this bike. Theory is to make it a PITA to set my road bike back up...so I don't ride it. The summer of no fun has begun, so to speak, as I'm back on the TT bike until IMWI.
Anywho, I took it for a spin this morning and want to walk you through my thought process as I tweaked the bike.
In the garage I:
- Move the bars up a good bit. The bars (Hed aerobars, with flat base bar) were originally all the way down on the headset and about (guessing) 3-4cm of spacers on top. I put those spacers under the bar.
- Slapped on road saddle and slammed it all the way forward. I like to ride my tri bike with a very steep seattube angle.
- Raised the saddle a touch to account for the shorter cranks.
I then rolled out of the garage with a Park multi-tool in my jersey pocket, with the intent of riding to the bike path and the "Santa Fe Dam:" 3 miles long, horseshoe shaped, zero traffic, can see for...3 miles. Great venue for intervals, to dial in a position without having to think about hitting stuff, etc. I got about a mile from home:
- Noticed a little pain in my right hamstring (it's crazy, crazy tight). When I ride a bike, I'm used to saddle height of x, creating knee angle of y and ankle...whatever of z, all dialed in from thousands of miles on my road bike. All of that changes on my tri bike, as I'm in the aero position, bent at the waist = bumping up against this tight hamstring. I also felt like I was holding myself up too much with my arms and shoulders, sliding forward, so I:
- Lowered the saddle a touch. Knee angle now felt a little strange, as my saddle was "too low" compared to how I ride my road bike. But no more pain in my right hamstring, by far more important than the knee angle feeling weird due to lower saddle height.
- Adjust saddle tilt up just a bit to eliminate the feeling of sliding forward.
- Moved the saddle back just a bit to give me a slightlly longer cockpit (see shoulders, arms above)
- Tilted aerobars up just a touch.
Result: no hamstring pain, slightly longer cockpit and no more feeling of sliding forward and holding myself up with my arms.
Continued riding to the bike path and the dam. While riding down the path I dialed in different watts and bounced those numbers against what those watts feel like on my road bike. That is, have I lost watts on the tri bike due to such a radically different position? Hard to tell in the 3-4 miles to the dam, as there are a few turns, etc. So couldn't 100% focus on the bike. However...was crazy fast on this damn thing .
Just before the dam I stopped again. Moved the bars down one spacer but didn't touch the saddle. Rode about 2/3 across the dam, dialing in about an 85% effort:
- WOW, this is FAST!!!
- Watts seemed pretty good compared to road bike! I don't do much flat riding on the road bike so hard to compare flats to flats across bikes. The true test will be in a couple hours when I do my "Lake Ave TT Route," where I have about 8yrs of historical data.
- Back and hamstrings starting to hurt again so I:
- Tapped saddle forward, to open up my hips a bit.
Rode to the end of the dam...still not 100% comfortable so I stopped again and put the small spacer back under the bars = raising the bars back up. Pinky swore with my Lazy-Self to friggin stretch every night so I can get back into SuperAeroPosition by IMWI. But for now, better safe then sorry.
Flipped it and rode across the dam again, this time dialing in 85% and experimenting with cadence. I learned that the watts feel easier at higher cadences, which is similar to what I feel on the road bike but this was more pronounced on the tri bike. I could also start to feel the increased focus on my quads caused by the much steeper riding position. Quickly learned that my self-selected cadence + high watts = quads start to burn quickly. The problem is that I'm running my road bike 26-11 cassette on the bike, which has a pretty big cadence gap on my cruising speed on the tri bike of 23-24mph (!!!!). So...:
- Going to WB right now to pick up a 25-12, should be no to very little cadence gap at that speed.
- Going to force myself to ride at higher than self selected cadence until "higher" becomes my new self-selected. Sorry, I don't display cadence on the Joule so dunno what my cadence actually is.
- Gonna just be mean to my quads. Ride hard in the aerobars, climbing in the aerobars, grind a big gear in the aerobars on hills to, in general, force my quads to adapt as quickly as possible. It won't be pretty, or nice, but the more I make it hurt the sooner it stops hurting
.
Other:
- Took the Arundel mount off the downtube and replaced with budget aluminum cage.
- Lost the PD mount on the front.
- Mounted the Joule on the stem. Had to look down to see it more often than I liked so when I got home I used some electrical tape and a plastic widget dealio I used with my Ergomo to move the Joule out in front of the stem, suspended between the aerobars. Because of this...
- Will probably pick up a Speedfil to mount on the downtube. Run the tube up the frame and along the left aerobar. Flip it up to drink. 40oz is enough for training, can carry a second bottle in my jersey, and I'd like to reserve the space between the aerobars for a the Joule vs a bottle. But I have all summer to consider a way to put both a bottle and Joule mount between the bars. I don't like the idea of carrying 40oz in a race when 24oz will do and I'd like to keep the wind around the downtube clean vs slamming it around a $99 aerobottle system...
Anyway, there you go. You can do this yourself, my only tools were some allens and something to lean the bike against.
If you pay attention to the changes I made, you can see identify these key fit points:
- Saddle height is most important and I just listen to my body. I said "shut up, legs, you're not on your road bike anymore! You might want to have x and y knee and ankle angles but your tight hamstring says otherwise! Fit to the hamstring, get used to the changed knee angle, and STRETCH!!"
- The farther forward your saddle is, the lower you can drop your aerobars. Think about it: lowering the bars closes/changes your hip angle. If I move the saddle forward, I then get back to my original hip angle, but this time at a lower aerobar height.
- Likewise, if you bring the aerobars up, you "can" or should move the saddle back a touch, as raised bars + no saddle change = hips opened up more. However, I think opening up the hips more is generally a good thing, as it's usually more comfortable, so I would advise that if you raise the bars...don't move the saddle back. Keep it forward and see how it feels.
- Feel like you're sliding forward? You saddle should have a little downward tilt but, in my experience, there's a good tilt and then just a tick too much tilt that creates this sliding forward thing. Play with it and see what feel right.
- Aerobar tilt: in my experience, if your bars are tilted down a bit, there's a tendency to pull up on them = wasted energy, less relaxed. If tilted up = more relaxed but can often make the cockpit feel constrained. Mine are basically level (I think) to maybe tilt up just a tiny bit. Bottomline is I'm more relaxed, not sliding forward or feel like I'm holding myself up with my arms.
- Cockpit length: I like to have a "slightly" longer cockpit, as I have four positions I use on the tri bike:
- Falling asleep, IM watts: hands limp across the front of the shifters, head turtled low, totally relaxed, basically falling into the aerobars.
- Work/Hammering: bring hands back about half way, grip underside of the bars, maybe pull up a bit. This is for 85-100% riding: HIM, intervals, "work," etc. Where we spend most of our training time.
- Climbing, in a race: same as #2 but choked back more.
- Climbing, in training: #3 and/or will just go to the hoods. Sorry, hommey ain't gonna do a 16mi climb in the aerobars . I did notice that in the hoods I had about the same watts as in the hoods on the road bike.
Caveat: I have all of 28 miles on the bike, all today, and you can see how much I stopped. In 90' I'm going to hammer for 48-50', for 12 miles climbing about 2500ft. Not very tri-specific. Bottomline is I still have a lot of clock to punch, to sort things out like hip flexors, etc.
Comments
rich, this works well for me (see pic), in terms of joule right in my face and no straining to see it. i have the speedfil on the down tube. also i like the speedfil 'filling' the space between the downtube and seat tube. i think that's more aero than normal bottle down there and even aero bottle, since you don't have to reach down. definitely more aero than behind the seat.
g
Got pics of the whole set up? Where do you put your hands?? My aerobars are a different, not straight like yours.
Before you hurt yourself or cause an injury that will slow you down, follow your own advice, get with TT bike fit and get er done!!!
With that said, I like your logic, and I think you should take some pics as you make your tri position more aggressive and you get used to riding like a "fred" again :-)
Ebe
Bottomline, first time on the bike in 3yrs after thousands of miles on the road bike, but I'm not afraid listen to my body and adjust things on the fly as it talks to me. I'll post pictures soon.
To paraphrase my co-naked-gym owner in Spain, this is Rich's way of saying he's cheap Ebe.
rich, will post pics of the whole set up for you...just gotta find them.
g
Got my vote to put it in the Wiki for future reference...
Hey Rich,
@G: thanks, looking forward to the pics! Oh, I know you're riding HB100 on Saturday but if you change your mind, we're doing 39, EF, GMR, Baldy Ridge, Lifts, Ridge, frontside GMR, Encanto on Saturday. 7:30 from Encanto
@Tucker: no, what says cheap is my Ultegra brakes on the bike from about 2004. My friend and EN member Barry Plaga just got a P4 with Di2 shifting. Was trying to talk me into it over beers last night...
Over said beers I told my hommies that it's on, I'm bringing the pain all summer. I'm basically looking at every Saturday ride like it's a race, gonna auger myself into a hole and make them all count.