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 downtub, one water bottle behind the seat or I may rig up an aero bottle in the front.