Advice please! re: Bike Set up

Anyone had any experience with professional bike set up.

As i have got myself remeasured for the second time in about 5 years, and was advised to drop my saddle height 1.4cm,
Long story short i am now experiencing different pain than before “and” my speed has reduced. tossing up weather to go back to the height i had before or maybe split the difference.

Everything else i had set up was spot on, but i have developed a very pointed toe pedal style that i cant seem to correct.

Anyone gone through this?

Hey,

I also had a bike fitting done and the same problem occoured. We lowered the seat but it reduced the amount my leg could extend. The partial solution was to move the cleats back towards my heel. This reduced the “pointy toe” effect and caused my quads and hamstrings to take more of the work. Subsequently I have adapted a smoother pedal stroke as you begin pulling more with your hamstrings rather than using your calf muscles.

I hope this provides some sort of answer/solution.

Blake

I went and saw Dom @ FirstPlace. will speak regularly and highly of his advice and work with bike fitting.

it might be that the change in position is now working different muscles and that trying to ride at your previous level with the new position is causing discomfort as your body tries to adjust under stress.

i was told to ‘ease into’ the new position/pedal stroke.

I got a bike fit a couple of months back. We dropped the saddle by a couple of cm and shortened the front end up. Initially I started getting some pain below the sides of my hips and I felt like I was working extra hard to go just as fast as I previously had ridden. Did a 180km the other weekend and couldn’t be happier. The same distance before the fit had me in all kinds of pain, the recent one was luxurious in comparison.

My thoughts are that it does take some time to ease into the new fit as nikcee mentioned above. Give it a try for a couple of weeks and if you’re unhappy give them a ring and talk it out.

I’ve experimented a lot with cleat position and with a lot of different types of pedals- all research now shows the optimum position for the ball of the foot is directly above the centre of the pedal axle.
Taking it too far back or forward can make a difference when either sprinting or climbing- but overall the central is the best compromise.
Any adjustments to your position of many years will feel wrong, you need to concentrate once again on your technique- keep heels down.

Saddle height is complicated, none of us have identical length legs- also many of us have a posture that makes us almost lopsided. Sometimes this posture is not apparent until a period of riding or- at a stage such as sprinting, accelerating or climbing.

While “bike fit” is a great idea- it is not a finite science- just because you have been set up perfectly on a static trainer, does not mean that after 2 hours on the road you are going to sitting or riding to the same optimum that you were when you were set up.
Bike fit is dynamic and needs to be adjusted to each riders style- while there is often some room for improvement in technique (see above) I very often adjust riders that simply look wrong out on a coffee ride or in a bunch.

If it hurts somewhere- then chances are you need to adjust!

One of things I do now when I set up a new bike is to get someone to video me riding along from the side- you can then compare it to where feels weird- and take that back to discuss with the bike fitter.

I know its not quite the same as one on one bike fit but does anyone recommend a good bike fit website?

Given my obvious skeptisism of bike fit, see prior post, this has proven useful in the past- I also like the way they give more than one type of fit, and don’t assume we are all as flexible as a pro!
Fit Calculator - Competitive Cyclist