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Rich's Bike Fit, April 2005
Athlete Description
Ironman/Half Ironman triathlete
5'9", 160lb/9-10% bf training body comp, 152-155lb/5-6% race body
composition (I'm working on it).
Threshold watts of ~285
Flexibility: hips, hamstrings and lower back not very.
Core strength good, lower back could use some work. Excellent shoulder
flexibility from swimming.
I set the bike up after
attending Dan Empfield's FIST clinic in Feb '03 and found that I had
naturally gravitated to a FIST-esque fit: steep seat tube angle, close to
90 degree angle between upper arm and torso. In '04 I dropped the front
end down a couple spacers but never really got very comfortable on the
bike. I also widened the aerobars to open my chest up a bit and take some
work off of my deltoids and shoulders.
With my fit, my first
priority is to be able to completely relax my upper body, using the bone
support of my elbows and arms to ride in the bars. I want a position that
allows me to completely relax from the waist up. I've then moved the saddle forward, to get it under where
my body wants to be when I both ride hard and Steady. In other words,
whenever I found myself riding hard I would slide to the nose of the
saddle. I then just move the seat to be under where my body wanted to be.
I made these changes in '01-02 and the FIST clinic just confirmed that my
body had figured out where the saddle needed to be.
Saddle height, from
bottom bracket to horizon of saddle: 77cm.
Elbow pad drop, from saddle horizon: 15cm
Nose of saddle: 2cm forward of bottom bracket.
In March '05 I
experimented with my fit the week of Cali Half. Yeah, not too bright! The
bike fitter determined seat height with a goniometer (no changes), moved
my saddle back to achieve a straight line from my patella to the front of
the crank, using a plumb bob. This moved the nose of my saddle about 4-5cm
behind the bottom bracket. We then shortened the stem to bring my cockpit
back to its original position. Long story short, I had a miserable ride at
Cali Half. In '04 I rode a 2:28 for the 19th OA bike split. '05 was a
disastrous 2:43, didn't even bother to look up my rankings. Every time I
looked at my SRM I saw Ironman watts and heart rate but was so
uncomfortable there was nothing I could do about it. The ride drove home a
critical lesson for me: comfort IS power. If you're in agony you
will not be powerful, at all. In fact, you'll spend the entire race questioning
your love of the sport, your future races and your chosen profession, in
my case.
However, I still want
to be comfortable, powerful and aerodynamic. If its not broke, don't fix
it, so I moved everything back to where it was before Cali Half. I even
brought the front end up one spacer to open up my hips a bit. When you
look at the pictures below you're seeing a fit, lean but very inflexible
guy who still manages to be very comfortable in a very aero riding
position. My unscientific observation, after considering my poor reaction
to the slack seat tube angle at Cali Half, is that riding steep allows me
to lower the front end in spite of my tight hamstrings and lower back.
When riding slack I have to extend my legs down AND forward to find the
bottom of the pedal stroke. When riding steep I only have to reach
straight down, as you can see here.
Figure 1 notes:
Nearly a right angle between upper arm and torso, allowing me to be very
relaxed.
Aerobars are cut to the length that my arms want them to be. In other
words, the ends of the bars come to me, I don't come to them.
Below: More relaxed upper body, sinking shoulders
into my chest
I also move around in
the cockpit a bit, depending on the road or race conditions:
"Power" riding position, below, used during intervals or other
high wattage situations. Choked up a bit on
bars, gripping the bottom of the bars at the upward bend, some leverage from upper body.
Climbing position
(below), in aero bars (above about
15mph). Choked back on bars. I've found I'm most powerful with this hand
position when I stay directly above the bottom bracket. When I climb in
the hoods I slide to the rear of the saddle. I rarely climb out of the
saddle and when I do I take great care to not spike my watts.
Relaxed\asleep, below. Low wattage,
getting my heart rate down, ignoring what's around me. "Quite mind,
just ride."
Comfort
Am I "completely" comfortable in this
riding position? No. I do experience some low back, hip flexor, neck
and shoulder fatigue. However I feel these issues are trainable
through a continued core strength and flexibility program, as well
as continued swimming to strengthen my shoulder area. I also
purposely fatigue my neck during all rides, looking far up the road.
When racing I don't look as far forward.
Future Changes
If I have any doubts about the comfort of the position by the
middle of June (racing CDA) I will change out the stem to raise the
elbow pads. But until then I will continue to stretch and ride the
bike as much as possible. I'm also changing out my rear bottle
holders to a Minoura system, lighter weight, and will race with an
Louis Garneau aero helmet. Extra large feed bottle (30oz) on the
downtube, one water bottle behind the seat or I may rig up an aero
bottle in the front.
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