Doing my own bike fit?

you shouldn't really need to make any except adjusting the bars into a position you like, width/length, and length probably isn't that big a deal since you don't have shifters on the end.  the bike, seat/stem, should already be set up correctly for you if its a bike you have been riding for a while now.

Trimi140 - 2012-08-24 8:42 AM

I just about spit my drink into my computer just now.  Thanks for that.

Shane, in regards to the bolded part, isn't it better to measure from the top of the trochanteric without wearing shoes and then just add the thickness of the cleats?

Also, what is a good way to locate the ideal point to measure from?  It is easy to see the point in a diagram of the human body but it is something else locating that exact ideal point on the body.

I'm currently fitting my girlfriend to her first road bike in conjunction with analyzing some of her angles on Kinovea until she gets a good feel for what she needs and can communicate that to a fitter.

Thanks in advance

/QUOTE] Honestly, it doesn't really matter all that much. 96-100% is a huge range (for example, for me it is just under 4cm). However, the literature indicates that in this range is where cyclists will be most efficient in their pedal stroke so find a comfortable height in the range and you should be good to go. Even precisely finding the exact height of the greater trochanter isn't critical; off by a cm or 2 isn't going to change the saddle height much. Shane

Hey guys thanks a bunch for the information! I had no idea what the troch-whatever was and did some research. I really appreciate y'alls input

And the meme. That was pretty great :p

You can also take a look at using our (free) iphone app and guide for doing your bike fit- all the files are at the bottom of my post!

T1_coach

Doing your own bike fit is an excellent idea. A couple caveats though: Do some reading on the subject. Read Dan Empfield's article on triathlon bike fit and survey the literature about road bike fit.

Secondly, a good reason to do your own fit is to learn to trust your insights. If it feels wrong, it likely is wrong. Now, that said, there are exceptons to that: Fit and position isn't entirely about comfort. You have to condition yourself to sit on the bike correctly. That takes time and work. You have to do core training, lots of riding, etc.

Thirdly, remember that you cannot guess at aero, and that while lower is almost always more aero, more aero is not always faster. Don't fall into the trap of "I lowered my position to go faster". If you key on reasonable comfort and power output by feel you'll be surprised how close you get.

I've done fittings and positionings on clients who fit themselves and they were nearly spot on. The only thing missing was a second setof eyes to make a few small changes, usually to thing they weren't able to see themselves.

Keep reading. Keep researching. Keep questioning. Keep experimenting and keep learning.

You're absolutely on the right track.

There are two seperate things to consider:

1) how long is your cockpit- ie the saddle nose to aerobar horizontal distance

2) what is your "effective seat tube angle"

You should probably set yourself with a shortish cockpit to start out with, and maybe use your bikes organic seat tube angle.  THis is a great place for a new rider to start.  The point of these "Fast forward" seat posts is that they let you steepen up your effective seat tube angle- Probably not necessary in the beginning.  

The trick to setting up road bikes with aerobars is to use INSANELY short aerobars to keep the cockpit lenght from getting really long.   

Insane amounts more details in the files in my sigs.