Fit Your Bicycle
Your bike is something personal, isn’t it? In order to be comfortable and efficient your bike needs to be adjusted for yourself. And this goes not only for the professional cyclists but for the amateurs as well. All the components need to fit your body effectively. You will most definitely need to adjust it once in a while and whenever you will add more equipment.
If you are interested in checking and perfecting your personalized bicycle we enlisted here a few guidelines that might be of interest to you.
1. Be sure you have the right-size bicycle - not smaller not higher. If you'd like a complete analysis and fit, please contact us to set up an appointment with one of our specialists.
2. Adjust the seat.
The seat has to support your full body weight, offer optimum pedaling efficiency and make it easier to move around on the seat when necessary.
- In order to fulfill its role you have to level and center it. If you experience discomfort, tip the seat slightly (no more than 3 degrees) up or down. Women typically tip it down; men tip it up. Place your bicycle on a level surface and check that the seat is leveled. A good way to check level is to place a yardstick on top of the seat and compare the edge of the yardstick to a horizontal sight line, which you know to be level such as a windowsill or the top of a building. While adjusting, ensure that the seat is centered on its rails over the seatpost, too.
- The seat-height adjustment is also important. But this requires a friend’s help. Put on your cycling shorts and shoes, mount your bike in the trainer or place your bike in the doorway, get on and hold onto the doorjamb to support yourself. Have your helper stand behind. Place your heels on the pedals and pedal backwards. You've found the optimum seat height when your legs are completely extended at the bottoms of the pedal strokes with your heels on the pedals. As you pedal backwards, have your helper watch for rocking hips, the sign that the seat is too high. You want to have your legs completely extended at the bottom of the pedal stroke with no rocking of the hips. With the seat set at this height, when you're actually pedaling with the balls of your feet over the pedals, you'll have the perfect bend in your knees. If it feels too low or high, slightly adjust the seat up or down.
- The Fore/Aft Seat position adjustment requires a helper, too. Place your bike on a level surface next to a wall or post so you can hold yourself upright. Put on your biking shorts and shoes, get on and pedal backwards until you're sitting in the "sweet spot" on the seat. Move your feet into position. The forward crank arm and pedal must be level with the ground. The fore/aft seat adjustment is correct when a plumb line (any piece of string with a weight on the end) hanging from your kneecap, touches the end of the crankarm.
3. Adjust the Shoe Cleats
There are two important adjustments, fore/aft and angular so that the cleats on the soles are positioned correctly.
- Fore/aft: The cleat should be positioned so that the balls of your feet rest over the centers of the pedals (the axles) when you're pedaling. Sight from the top when you're on the bike to check this (hold your feet level). The balls of your feet form protrusions on the insides of the shoes and these should rest right over the axles. If not, adjust the cleats as needed.
- Angular: It is also important that your cleat position allows resting your feet in a natural position on the pedals, or you could injure your knees. Usually, aligning the cleats with an imaginary line that bisects the soles provides a safe starting position. The real test is to take an easy ride to check the position and ensure it's right for your knees. If you feel any stress or strain, change the angle slightly to eliminate discomfort. When you've found an ideal cleat position, trace lines around the cleats so you can easily replace a worn cleat and reposition a loose one.
4. Adjust the Handlebar Position
Changing handlebar height can require know-how and parts you may not have. If you realize that you need a change, bikepartsusa.com is happy to provide the needed parts.
- Handlebar Height: Inspect bar height by standing your bike on a level surface and viewing it from the side comparing the height of the seat to the height of the bars (photo). For road riding, a difference of 1 to 4 inches is optimal, even slightly more, if you're a flexible racer. For off-road use and recreational riding, bar height should be equal to or up to 2 inches below the seat height. Keep in mind that these are guidelines that work for most people. Sometimes it takes a little testing it on the go to find the most comfortable position. The comfortable back angle is of approximately 45 degrees, depending also on the degree of your back flexibility. The sign that you achieved the right handlebars height is that it feels natural to look ahead without neck craning.
- Handlebar Reach: If the bars are too close or too far away, you may experience neck, shoulder, back and hand pain. And, it can cause you to scoot backward or forward on your seat all the time. On most bikes, to change length, you must replace the stem. And stems come in a variety of types and diameters. So you may want to take a look at our Inventory and find the proper replacement. Then, a testing ride is necessary again. A helper has to look at you from the side to gauge where a plumb line dropped from the tip of your nose would fall. Ideally, there should be about an inch between the plumb line and the center of the handlebar.
- Handlebar Size: There are lots of different handlebar sizes and shapes, however, and changing might fine-tune your fit providing additional comfort.
- Check width first. For optimal control and efficiency, drop handlebars should be about the same width as your shoulders. These bars come in sizes ranging from about 38- to 46-cm wide. So, if the distance between the bony protrusions on top of your shoulder blades is 42 cm, that's what the handlebar width should be. Flat-bar widths vary, too. Usually, riders who enjoy demanding, technical trails appreciate a little additional width (24 to 27 inches), especially if they're using full suspension. All-round riders prefer a more standard width of about 22 inches. Also, if the trails you ride cut through tight spaces such as neighboring trees, you’ll want to be sure the bars aren’t too wide to clear the obstacles.
- Handlebars come in various shapes, too. Flat bars have different bends and may include rise to help you sit more upright. Drop bars often feature anatomic bends in the hooks for more comfort. And they're sometimes bent differently on the tops to accommodate your wrists. Another consideration with drop bars is reach, the distance between the bar tops and bottoms. Usually, taller riders appreciate more reach.
For more details about how to fit your bicycle click here.
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