Hi all,
Per the subject line, just wanted to share a few things I learned at my first-ever bike fitting today.
1. The first thing I learned is this: get one done! I had been considering getting a bike fit done for a while, just for general usefulness and for my own knowledge, but hadn’t prioritized doing it. Because I’m now having a custom (acoustic) bike built, though, I actually needed to get a bike fit.
2. It was extremely helpful: the fitter had me hop on the stationary “fitting bike” that they use and immediately pointed out a few things that I was doing that were problematic in terms of efficiency and/or discomfort. For example, I tend to flex/bend my foot forward while pedaling, which causes various problems; I was unconsciously swaying my hips more than necessary due to my seat height on my own bike being too low (something to do with what my hamstrings were used to doing while riding, I think); I was getting neck strain from unconsciously always craning my neck up into a position to see through the center of my glasses, which both have narrow frames and also tend to slide down my nose, etc. (This last one was a total surprise to me; didn’t realize I was even doing that. The fitter said that this is the #1 most common cause of neck strain that he sees when doing fittings for people, so if you wear glasses while biking and have neck strain, give this some consideration. He said there are apparently prescription “biking glasses” that can help to avoid this. (I suppose I could also just get a strap for my current glasses, which would at least stop them from sliding down.)) On the bright side, I apparently have very good intuitive upper body biking posture: he had no recommended changes from hips to shoulders in terms of back position, use of my core, arm and hand position, or arm, shoulder, or hand tension.
3. Most importantly was that the various minor aches and pains I tend to have on my bike - lower back soreness, aggravation of sciatica on my lower left back and tingling in my left foot; aggravation of pre-osteoarthritis in my right hip - were gone once he adjusted the fit bike to my measurements and optimal position. Not minimized; *gone.* It was shocking, especially given how minimal some of the adjustments were. That alone makes it the best $150 I’ve spent in a very long time. I do realize that this was a controlled environment where I didn’t have road vibration, lots of stopping, starting, looking around, etc. But even discounting for that, it truly was shocking that I experienced not even a twinge of my typical issues, even though I was riding the fit bike pretty intensely for a pretty decent amount of time.
4. The shop that’s building my bike told me (among other things) to make sure that I chose a fitter who had a lot of different saddles that I could try; this fitter had a ton! I only got a chance to try a few because I was somewhat pressed for time, but I do plan to try a lot more in a follow-up appointment: having access to a library of saddles was very cool and helpful.
I plan to do at least couple of follow-up appointments to try more saddles and then for any final tweaks after the new bike is built and delivered; the hourly rate for follow-ups is quite reasonable, I think ($75/hr).
The very short version of this long post is: I really recommend that you consider getting a good bike fit done if you never have! (“Good” is the key word: some of the places I initially found were just random guys who like come to your house for 30 minutes or whatever; so definitely get some recommendations rather than just picking someone via Google.)
Per the subject line, just wanted to share a few things I learned at my first-ever bike fitting today.
1. The first thing I learned is this: get one done! I had been considering getting a bike fit done for a while, just for general usefulness and for my own knowledge, but hadn’t prioritized doing it. Because I’m now having a custom (acoustic) bike built, though, I actually needed to get a bike fit.
2. It was extremely helpful: the fitter had me hop on the stationary “fitting bike” that they use and immediately pointed out a few things that I was doing that were problematic in terms of efficiency and/or discomfort. For example, I tend to flex/bend my foot forward while pedaling, which causes various problems; I was unconsciously swaying my hips more than necessary due to my seat height on my own bike being too low (something to do with what my hamstrings were used to doing while riding, I think); I was getting neck strain from unconsciously always craning my neck up into a position to see through the center of my glasses, which both have narrow frames and also tend to slide down my nose, etc. (This last one was a total surprise to me; didn’t realize I was even doing that. The fitter said that this is the #1 most common cause of neck strain that he sees when doing fittings for people, so if you wear glasses while biking and have neck strain, give this some consideration. He said there are apparently prescription “biking glasses” that can help to avoid this. (I suppose I could also just get a strap for my current glasses, which would at least stop them from sliding down.)) On the bright side, I apparently have very good intuitive upper body biking posture: he had no recommended changes from hips to shoulders in terms of back position, use of my core, arm and hand position, or arm, shoulder, or hand tension.
3. Most importantly was that the various minor aches and pains I tend to have on my bike - lower back soreness, aggravation of sciatica on my lower left back and tingling in my left foot; aggravation of pre-osteoarthritis in my right hip - were gone once he adjusted the fit bike to my measurements and optimal position. Not minimized; *gone.* It was shocking, especially given how minimal some of the adjustments were. That alone makes it the best $150 I’ve spent in a very long time. I do realize that this was a controlled environment where I didn’t have road vibration, lots of stopping, starting, looking around, etc. But even discounting for that, it truly was shocking that I experienced not even a twinge of my typical issues, even though I was riding the fit bike pretty intensely for a pretty decent amount of time.
4. The shop that’s building my bike told me (among other things) to make sure that I chose a fitter who had a lot of different saddles that I could try; this fitter had a ton! I only got a chance to try a few because I was somewhat pressed for time, but I do plan to try a lot more in a follow-up appointment: having access to a library of saddles was very cool and helpful.
I plan to do at least couple of follow-up appointments to try more saddles and then for any final tweaks after the new bike is built and delivered; the hourly rate for follow-ups is quite reasonable, I think ($75/hr).
The very short version of this long post is: I really recommend that you consider getting a good bike fit done if you never have! (“Good” is the key word: some of the places I initially found were just random guys who like come to your house for 30 minutes or whatever; so definitely get some recommendations rather than just picking someone via Google.)
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