The Fit Experience: What to Expect

The Fit Experience: What to Expect

FIRST OF ALL, BE FOREWARNED: BIKE FIT CAN BE A PRETTY intimate experience. Your fitter will be interacting with your body, sometimes even moving you around or asking you to lie on the floor for a flexibility test. You may have to relive past physical traumas when you share your injury history. That broken wrist from when you fell off your skateboard when you were 16 can make a difference when it comes to hours of pressure when your hands rest on the handlebars.
Come prepared. Make a mental list of all your previous injuries—even the ones that may have happened years ago—and strengths. Wear what you will be riding in, as it will affect both your seat height and foot position. Be prepared to challenge what you might have thought a proper fit meant and focus on your own body. The fitter can see how your body interacts with the bicycle, but in the end it’s up to your personal comfort level. Keep in mind, the goal is to improve how you feel on the bike and how strong and efficient you are.
When you arrive, the fitter will have you change into your riding gear (if you’re not already wearing it). He may test your flexibility and take measurements of different parts of your body.
Next, he’ll secure your bike in a trainer or ask you to sit on one of the special bike-fitting tools (which looks like a very funny stationary bike) and have you pedal. He’ll be examining your pedal stroke, how you sit on your saddle, your hip position, the angle of your torso and arms, and how your shoulders, arms, and wrists look resting on the bars. Based on what you’ve explained about your body and its strengths and limitations, he may make changes in some of the following areas. This will take time, as your fit on the bike is dynamic, so changing one area will often affect others that will have to be adjusted in turn. For example, moving the seat forward to make an adjustment for your knee may create a need for your handlebars to be moved forward as well and the cleat to be adjusted differently on your shoe.
Reach to your handlebars is how far your hands have to go to rest on the bars. If it’s too short or long, you’ll want to put the weight of your hands on the wrong part of the bar, making it hard to shift or brake the bike. This can be fixed by installing a different length and/or angle of stem, or depth and/or width of handlebar.
Hand position has two major factors. One is how wide your handlebars are. Depending on how broad your shoulders and back are, it can be adjusted with a wider or narrower bar. The other is how close the brake lever is to reach for the rider. Some components have a small screw that allows the lever to come in closer for small hands. Others use a tiny shim to shorten the brake lever reach.
Saddle position has many factors, all of which can influence other parts of the fit. The most obvious and common change will be seatpost height. Even something as little as a centimeter change can mean the difference between shooting knee pain and a comfy ride. It’s also common to move the seat forward or backward to help situate your hips, knees, and feet into a proper alignment. Seat width and length vary greatly between different saddle manufacturers. The bones in your pelvis can’t be supported if the seat is too narrow or wide. We’ll discuss in-depth how to buy a saddle on the next page.
Finally, leg and cleat position helps you get the most power out of pedaling.
If you’ve decided to use clipless pedals, the cleat attachment points on the bottom of the shoe are adjustable. When you buy the shoes and pedals, the bike shop will install them in a neutral position. However, that doesn’t mean it’s anywhere close to being the right angle or placement for your foot since everyone’s bodies (even from one side to another) differ so much.
All these factors have tons of tiny adjustments to be made within them. This is why it’s especially important to find an experienced, professional bicycle fitter. This is also why the cost of bike fitting tends to be $150 to $250. This covers not only the initial fit, but also any follow-up you might need. However, it does not include any of the parts you’ll be swapping out, which are considered “upgrades” and can add quite a bit of cost to your fitting.
If all goes well, you may not return for another visit. However, since most of the bike fit is done in a stationary setting (like a bike trainer), it’s hard to know if everything is dialed in until you go out and try the bike on the road with your new positioning. Any quality bike fitter should have a guarantee that you’ll be satisfied with your fit or he will keep working with you until it’s right. It’s not unusual to go back after your initial fit to make small tweaks.