Should I reboot my bike fit?
Your riding position isn’t fixed forever. With age comes physical changes that can require tweaks to your bike set-up to prevent injury, as Cyclist discovers
stare at the sea of red numbers in front of me like a banker trying to make sense of the carnage during a stock market crash. Except these aren’t tumbling share prices – they’re the angles of my ankles, knees and hips as I pedal on a turbo trainer. I’m wired shoulder to toe in laser-read sensors and the Retül bike fit software says ‘no’. If this were day one with a new bike I wouldn’t be concerned, but I’ve ridden this bike in this position for four years and about 20,000km.
I’m only here because a niggle in my left knee has prompted a re-evaluation of my riding position. Casting my mind back to the day I collected the bike from the shop, I was so giddy with excitement they could have sold me a frame built for a four-year-old and I’d have sworn blind that it fitted like a glove.
So what’s changed? Have I always ridden this bike in a poor position, or has something happened to my body to demand a new pedalling posture?
Either is possible, says Richard Follett, physiotherapist and director of Fit4-physio, as he takes an allen key and starts tweaking my set-up. He lowers the saddle and nudges it towards the bars, then shifts my cleats back towards my heels. Green numbers flicker on the monitor. The computer says ‘yes’.
Follett spent last summer with the British Triathlon team in Rio, and whether dealing with elite or amateur riders he recommends an annual bike fit check-up as a precaution against physiological changes. This can be the result of a change in lifestyle, such as a new job that involves more time sat at a desk or behind the wheel of a car.
‘In general, you’re less likely to change saddle height,’ he says. ‘But with a less flexible spine and hips, and tighter hamstrings, you might need to go to a more relaxed position.’
Yet if this suggests that the ageing process slowly pushes us all towards a riding position better suited to a bike with a basket on the front, think again.
Shape shifters
‘Riders I first saw six or seven years ago are now a completely different
shape,’ says Andy Sexton, owner of Bikescience and veteran of more than 5,000 bike fits. ‘They’ve lost three or four stone, they’ve gained the suppleness that comes from riding and they can ride longer and lower with the bars. As they’ve got older they’ve actually become more capable. Age will not necessarily slow you down, especially if you’ve only taken up cycling in your forties and fifties.’
He says more riding time, combined with strength and conditioning work off the bike, can change your riding position. ‘The limiting factor with saddle height is how flexible your hamstrings are. You’re always going to work within a sensible window, but that window gets a bit wider if you get more flexible in the hamstrings by stretching twice a day. It can make a radical difference.’
Poetry in motion
Standing at the roadside as a sportive passes by, the variety of riding positions you’ll see is astonishing. Watch as a pro peloton blurs past, however, and there’s a symphony of geometry: hip, knee and ankle angles in perfect harmony.
‘Most pro teams will have a bike fit at their first training camp of the year,’ says Matt Rabin, chiropractor with Cannondale-drapac. ‘Riders coming in from other teams might know their measurements, but these may not be suited to a different bike. So you might find yourself changing everything from components to frame size.’
He sees the value of a bike fit in putting a rider in the right ballpark when selecting a frame size and geometry, but places more store in how riders feel: ‘Can they produce power for long periods of time? It’s supposed to be an aggressive ride if you’re racing, so it’s not going to be like an armchair.
‘The body is a moving target,’ he adds. ‘The SAID [Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand] principle means your body gets excellent at what you practise, so your body will adapt to a bike fit. Over time you might get stronger and want to go faster and tweak your fit. That might mean you need to do a bit of remedial work, strengthening your lower back or opening your hip flexors to accommodate your new fit.’
The danger comes when you make an adjustment in one area, to accommodate an ache or injury, and the harmony of the original position starts to unravel.
‘If you develop an injury, get it diagnosed,’ says Rabin. ‘If you start tweaking your bike you can chase it and chase it, and before you know it you’ve robbed Peter to pay Paul and developed an injury somewhere else.’
The pro’s perspective
‘There’s nothing more uncomfortable than getting dropped from a group you could have stayed with if you were in the right position,’ says retired pro Yanto Barker. He had his first bike fit at the age of 19 and maintained the position with only minor modifications until he was 25, when he took a break from the sport. Returning to racing at the age of 29, a new bike fit suggested a radically different position, shifting his saddle back 6cm and moving his cleats 1cm.
‘I was very nervous about changing it, but adopted it fully and it was definitely an improvement,’ he says. ‘I was getting all my power out without getting cramp or a bad back. Since then I’ve had two bike fits and it’s just been tweaking basically the same position ever since.’
Setting an example any recreational rider would do well to follow, he worked hard off the bike to make sure his bike fit position remained achievable, keeping his muscles flexible so that any soft tissue niggles didn’t develop into more serious tendon and ligament injuries.
‘After heavy exercise you’re left with toxins that shorten the muscle,’ says Barker. ‘I feel it in my Achilles, due to tension in my calf. But if I stretch my calf after every ride it solves the problem – if I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t finish a fourday stage race because of the pain.’
If a regular refit works for the pros, it would seem to be an even more essential requirement for the rest of us. At least you know what to ask for the next time your birthday rolls around.
‘There’s nothing more uncomfortable than getting dropped from a group you could have stayed with if you were in the right position’