Pro bike fit
Hello everybody,
Let me just kick off by saying that I am happy with the fit that I have on my bike currently. But having thought a bit about it, I can't figure out how certain pro's are fit to their bikes. Let me explain...
I am a similar height, and I would say a similar build to Fabian Cancellara. I'm relatively flexible, in that I can raise my legs quite far when lay on my back, can almost place my palms on the floor with my knees locked when standing, etc.
The bike I ride is a 56cm Specialized Allez which has an effective top tube around 565mm, and a stem I put on of 110. Sometimes I think that I could do with a 120mm stem - when I'm really going for it, the hoods can feel a bit "close" - but all told, if I'm doing a crude measurement, I could ride with about 575-580 between the middle of the bars and the seatpost.
The headtube I have is 170mm. The little thing that covers the seals above the headset - not the spacers but the thing underneath it (what is that called?) is fairly tall, and I have one 10mm and one 5mm spacer under the stem. Including those, the length between the bottom of the headtube and the bottom of the stem becomes effectively around 20cm.
I feel comfortable on the bike, no aches, no pains. And when I get onto the drops, my arms are bent and my back is flat. It's not a bad position or fit from what I can tell, and I'm certainly not looking to change it to emulate any pro.
But when we look at Cancellara, who on the face of it is proportionally not a million miles away from me, his bike is almost completely different.
His H1 madone's headtube is, AT MOST, 160mm. He'll have a little cover over his headset between the headtube and the stem, but even if we assume generously that this is 10mm, with his stem slammed as it is, the effective height of the headtube is already 3cm lower than mine. That's a big difference!
Coming to the stem. 140mm. That's massive. I'm sure he rides a 58 frame, in which case the difference in the crude reach measurement as before between his bike and mine could be in the region of 4cm. Again I would say that is huge, considering that we're the same height, give or take 1cm.
I understand that professionals typically have a greater range of flexibility and core strength to allow them to lock into these aerodynamic fits much easier than a normal consumer like me. But looking at the case of the headtube in isolation - I lowered my stem by 5mm once, and noticed that my back was beyond flat, with my head and shoulders being lower than the middle of my back. This seemed unnecessarily low, and so I moved it back. The position I have is as aerodynamic as I can think it reasonably needs to be.
Can anybody shed any light onto how the difference between his and my setup could possibly be SO big?
Cheers
Let me just kick off by saying that I am happy with the fit that I have on my bike currently. But having thought a bit about it, I can't figure out how certain pro's are fit to their bikes. Let me explain...
I am a similar height, and I would say a similar build to Fabian Cancellara. I'm relatively flexible, in that I can raise my legs quite far when lay on my back, can almost place my palms on the floor with my knees locked when standing, etc.
The bike I ride is a 56cm Specialized Allez which has an effective top tube around 565mm, and a stem I put on of 110. Sometimes I think that I could do with a 120mm stem - when I'm really going for it, the hoods can feel a bit "close" - but all told, if I'm doing a crude measurement, I could ride with about 575-580 between the middle of the bars and the seatpost.
The headtube I have is 170mm. The little thing that covers the seals above the headset - not the spacers but the thing underneath it (what is that called?) is fairly tall, and I have one 10mm and one 5mm spacer under the stem. Including those, the length between the bottom of the headtube and the bottom of the stem becomes effectively around 20cm.
I feel comfortable on the bike, no aches, no pains. And when I get onto the drops, my arms are bent and my back is flat. It's not a bad position or fit from what I can tell, and I'm certainly not looking to change it to emulate any pro.
But when we look at Cancellara, who on the face of it is proportionally not a million miles away from me, his bike is almost completely different.
His H1 madone's headtube is, AT MOST, 160mm. He'll have a little cover over his headset between the headtube and the stem, but even if we assume generously that this is 10mm, with his stem slammed as it is, the effective height of the headtube is already 3cm lower than mine. That's a big difference!
Coming to the stem. 140mm. That's massive. I'm sure he rides a 58 frame, in which case the difference in the crude reach measurement as before between his bike and mine could be in the region of 4cm. Again I would say that is huge, considering that we're the same height, give or take 1cm.
I understand that professionals typically have a greater range of flexibility and core strength to allow them to lock into these aerodynamic fits much easier than a normal consumer like me. But looking at the case of the headtube in isolation - I lowered my stem by 5mm once, and noticed that my back was beyond flat, with my head and shoulders being lower than the middle of my back. This seemed unnecessarily low, and so I moved it back. The position I have is as aerodynamic as I can think it reasonably needs to be.
Can anybody shed any light onto how the difference between his and my setup could possibly be SO big?
Cheers
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