Editor’s note: The Fits is a new series of pieces we will publish concerning bike fit and the needs of riders. We will be examining everything from what constitutes good fit to new products that have the potential to provide greater comfort. To find the whole series, you can click on the category “fit services.”
To the degree that the cycling media talks about bike fit, we generally only discuss new tools—gadgets—meant to help a fitter make our bikes fit us better. When you judge your editorial mission to be looking at products, the outcome is predictable. We’re not faulting anyone, but it’s worth pointing out that the cycling media simply doesn’t discuss fit the way golf publications examine a player’s swing or the fit of their clubs. Given the stakes and a rider’s needs, riders deserve more information about what to look for, and what to be suspicious of in their own fit.
My career in cycling is old enough to be married and have children. In that time, I’ve ridden hundreds bikes and upwards of a dozen were custom-built to my dimensions. I’ve been fit according to so many different approaches and schools of thought I’ve lost count.
That experience has given me a hard-won level of knowledge. The news, based on my exposure to so many philosophies of fit, is both good and bad. The good news is that is that principles of good fit are more consistent today, provided you’re talking to someone who has been trained by another knowledgeable fitter. The bad news is that the consequences of a bad fit can alter your ability to ride.
Some of those fittings I received were less precise than others. I once had a revered Italian frame builder establish my fit based on three measurements he made of me—inseam, height and arm length—while dressed in cotton at a trade show. One alleged fit expert positioned the bar so low that I only used the drops for technical descents and the hardest sprints. Another put me on a frame so small it felt like I was riding a clown car.
Today, I ride with spinal stenosis—a thinning of the discs in my cervical vertebrae—which results in nerve pain that shows up in ever-changing locations in my left shoulder. When aggravated, the sensation feels like someone jabbed an ice pick in my shoulder and said, “See ya.” This because I thought it was good journalism to try each builder’s approach to fit. Turns out, that was a bad idea. I should have stuck with the fit that had served me from 1989 to 1996.
Which is to say, when your fit works, think twice before changing it, and if you do change it, think three times before radical changes.
I’d like to save others from a fate like mine. There aren’t a lot of reasons to change your fit, but here are the big ones:
• Pain or numbness—doesn’t matter where
• An injury that restricts range of motion
• An identified problem with your fit, such as saddle too high or too low—even if you’re not experiencing pain
• Saddle discomfort
• Aging/loss of flexibility
• Change of discipline (road to mountain, road to gravel, etc.)
• New bike
• The new one: a desire for improved aerodynamics
In coming pieces I’ll discuss these issues and more.