Bike Fit

Well for the past 3 years I have set my own bike up, adjust this here, tweak that there until it felt about right. Since having my 29er although it's unreal to ride I couldn't get it quite right. For the Tailwind 8hr I had it feeling pretty good, well so I thought.

I went into FTR [For the Riders] the other day, while I was there Tim had a look at my bike and questioned the set up, after a brief discussion about my choice of set up it was pretty clear that a bike fit would be in order. If nothing else I just wanted to see how much better it could be. A very good friend of mine Al had here bike set up by Tim a couple of weeks back and said it was an improvement a Thousand fold.

Below is a clip of my own position on the bike, there were a few stand out problems, my reach to the bars, seat height and the angle of my back was another stand out.

From here Tim could pick some changes without even going to the computer, getting the bars lower and bringing the length of my stem back to 90mm was to be the most dramatic change. Tim started with positioning my cleats in the optimal position and then went on to make me look like a crash test dummy by positioning Velcro dots on my foot,ankle, knee, hip shoulder and wrist. Only one side of your body gets measured at a time. Tim told me that most people are very different from one side to another surely I won't be an exception. As it turned out I am not to Mogny. Whilst your on the trainer the computer has a stick figure of you riding and puts all the data into a spread sheet highlighting the keys areas that need tweaking.

The next clip shows my position after 2hrs of tweaking and adjusting.

I guess it's up to you to decide whether you can see any major changes but if you look at my reach to the bars, leg extension and bar height you can see a difference. For me the bike fit has been awesome, I feel very comfortable on the bike and after some rides over the last couple of days its become clear that it has been well worth it, after racing Canugra on the weekend climbing and descending seem alot better too.

My suggestion to you guys and girls is, if you have thought about getting a proper bike fit done and did what I did " Hmmm maybe one day" I would strongly suggest getting it done. I believe I have been riding with alot of unwanted issues due to my lack of knowledge on setting up my bike. Tim from, For the Riders http://news.fortheriders.com.au/ is more than happy to answer any questions u my have.

I think it's one of the best things I have done to improve my riding.