Artoi wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Burke Gilman" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > About the particular hybrid (flatbar) roadbike in question, I think it
> > likely that attention to the fore/aft saddle position has been
> > overlooked.
> >
> > As the bars were moved forward and down, the rider's center of gravity
> > was moved forward, thus distributing more weight through the wrists,
> > arms, and shoulders. If the saddle is now moved rearward, doing so will
> > tend to return the rider's center of gravity back to its original
> > position. Depending on other factors, such an alteration may provide
> > the desired fit. Regardless, I continue to assert that subtle factors
> > ignored -- either because they were either not readily apparent or were
> > too quickly dismissed -- can still be factors significant to the fit of
> > the bike to the rider.
> >
> > To sum it up, I usually start the fit process by locating the saddle
> > where I want it over the crank (in consideration of both dimensions).
> > If the OP has started out with a focus on the bar height without prior
> > adequate attention to saddle position and concurrent attention to other
> > factors, then the ideal fit may prove continually elusive.
>
> Thanks to your reply.
>
> I did start my fitting by the standard taught process of,
>
> 1) seat post height (based on stretched heel length without shoes and
> review of hip movement on back peddling)
> 2) seat fore/aft position (based on lining up the tibial protuberance
> with the pedal axle at the horizontal pedal position)
>
> And now that I've started to play around with the spacer in the
> Aheadset, it would appear that I'll need to readjust item 2.
>
> I just hope that I am doing it right and not creating some monster.
> --
I've found the following fit procedure to work fairly well. This
presumes that you're "warmed up" at least enough to become limber (a
good spin for 20 minutes).
Start with the saddle height as in 1) in your post. Then put your
shoes/cleats on. Ride the bike, raise/lower saddle to a position just
a tad short of when hips start rocking in your "optimal" cadence on
level road.
To determine initial saddle fore/aft position, start with the saddle in
as aft a position when riding "no hands" becomes possible, w/o losing
control of bike. You might have to adjust saddle height again if your
hips start rocking (if you had to move the saddle aft). Forget about
"knee over pedals."
Then determine reach/saddle height empirically (i.e. trial and error).
Ideally you want to the position where it is easiest to turn the bike
by leaning, w/o turning handlebars. (You're using a flat bar, but if
you had drops you check to see if the drops and brake lever reach are
comfortable at this stage.) I've found this to be generally the ideal
starting position for fine tuning.
The above three steps will get you fairly CLOSE to your sweet spot.
Further tweaking will be still necessary. You also want to try this
position on some extended hills, to see if it is sufficiently
comfortable on climbs and controllable in descents. I've generally
found that nothing is ever more than 5mm off from this initial starting
point.
