Bike Fitting

I definitely think one of the hardest things to do when you are a beginning cyclist is to buy a bike. It's all about angles and fit nowadays, so a beginner has to trust the bike salesman to sell them the right bike.

After purchasing my road bike over a year ago, I found out recently that I might have been sold a bike that was too big for me. That is why today I had my bike fitted specifically to me by a professional bike fitter. Yes, they have those now.

At the fitting, I was asked about previous injuries and current aches and pains and then my flexibility was measured. She looked at me on my bike and measured many angles while I was on the bike pedaling. It's very precise and I thought it was well worth the money.

First off, she suggested replacing my saddle (seat) because I was having to press really hard with my hands on the handle bars just to keep me from rolling forward on the seat in the "ouch" zone. I learned that my current saddle was actually forcing me to roll forward due to the shape of the padding.

Not sure if you can tell from this picture, but the seat on the left (old seat) actually forced me roll forward on the "banana" part of the seat due to the way the padding was placed on the saddle. This definitely hurts after about 10 miles on the bike.

On this picture you can see that there is generally more padding on my old seat. One would think that the more padding the better, but if the padding is forcing you to sit on anything other than your sit bones, then the padding is causing problems, not preventing them. We'll see how it goes on my next ride.

She also adjusted where my clip-on cleats attach to the bike pedal and suggested changing out the handle bars to a compact size so that my arms don't have to stretch as far. This should alleviate the knot I have in my back, however I'm sure a massage therapist will do a fine job as well.

So, that's your boring "fitting" lesson for the day.