What Happens During Your Bike Fit

What Happens During Your Bike Fit?

So much for the theory, but you may be wondering "what actually happens during a Bike Fit?". The following section will give you a good understanding of what to expect during your Dynamic Aero-Dynamic and Physio Fits*.

*Note that the Junior Bike Fits are much less detailed. See relevant description for details

Precision Cycle Fit operates out of a dedicated Bike Fit Studio in Southam, Warwickshire. Once you have driven through the entrance, you have the option of parking in our dedicated parking space outside the studio, or one of the other spaces in the larger car park. See details here:

We'll be looking out for you and can usually meet at your car and assist with bringing your items in to the studio.

See details here:

Whilst you read and complete a brief questionnaire, we'll attach your bike to the Turbo Trainer. You can male yourself comfortable and get changed in to your normal cycling gear if required before we proceed through the DMAIR steps of our Bike Fit process:

What to Bring

Define

Starting with an informal interview, we'll establish why you are here and what you want to achieve from the session.

Measure

With your bike on the Turbo, we'll make a number of static observations and gather key data and measurements.

You'll get on to your bike for a warm up during which we'll make a number of dynamic observations and ask questions so you can identify how you feel.

Its now time to apply the markers (to pedal axle, ankle, knee, hip, shoulder and elbow). In some cases this may involve a bit of prodding to find the exact position.

With the markers in place, we will film you cycling and use video analysis to establish dynamic angles between your joints.

We will then conduct a number of simple floor assessments to determine natural body positioning, flexibility and any difference in leg length. If you have chosen the Pysio Fit, a more detailed emphasis will be placed on these activities.

Paying particular attention to your feet, the positions of your metatarsals will be identified to ensure correct cleat positioning.

The assumption is that most people coming for a Dynamic or Aero-Dynamic Bike Fit will have clipless pedals, although this might not always be the case, especially for mountain bikers, and we will still determine your optimal shoe position on the pedal if you are using 'flat' pedals.

Analyse

We can now correlate all of the observations, data and measurements gathered to your cycling goals to understand the problem root cause and identify necessary improvements.

Improve

Starting with the feet, we'll optimize the position of your cleats. If you've selected the Foot Correction Add-On, this will involve trying different wedges and shims both inside and outside of your shoe.

With your saddle levelled, we'll make coarse (~5mm) adjustments to your saddle height and layback and get you back on the bike and warmed up.

It is then an iterative process where we make fine (~2mm) adjustments and ask you to home in on how each adjustment feels until we've achieved something that feels good from a feet and legs perspective.

Now its time to do the same thing with handlebar position and once that feels good, we go back to the saddle to ensure that the whole system is in harmony; Rider and Bike As-One.

If you've selected the Aero Fit, we'll also be considering your shape and frontal area as we proceed through this stage, with a particular focus on shoulder width which may involve adjusting the position of your shifters and brake levers, or trying narrower handlebars.

Record

With the bike remaining on the Turbo, we'll take down the final measurements of your optimized position.

As far as your Bike Fit session goes, we have nearly reached the end of the process. The only thing left to do is review what we have done and gather any feedback you have so we can implement Continuous Improvement.

You will leave with your bike in its optimised position and a few days later will receive a comprehensive report recording your complete Bike Fit journey for future reference.

Ride / Review / Refine / Re-book

As you ride your bike after you bike fit most improvements will feel better straight away. But some may take a few rides to become familiar - remember you were likely in your old position for a long time and your body needs to overcome some muscle memory.

Many cyclists will be happy to leave their bike as it is when it leaves our studio. For some, this will be enough and you may not need to consider another bike fit until something significant changes like a new bike, or (hopefully not) a new injury. But others like to tinker so I treat each Bike Fit as an opportunity to educate you on how you feel with each adjustment, empowering you to make small changes if desired. What we have done in the studio is to create a position that is near the centre of your 'Bike Fit Window' and small adjustments to this position should not only be expected, but also encouraged as you get a better ‘feel’ for what improves your cycling experience

This could be because you find your strength, fitness or flexibility have improved now you are riding your bike more. Conversely, accident, injury or riding in winter (if your bike fit was conduction Summer, or vice versa - see my Blog How to get the best Winter Bike Fit to learn more) could also mean minor tweaks could be beneficial. Obviously at all times you are welcome to get in touch to ask for my advice but its also great if you know what change, and how much, will improve things. As such in your report I will make a number of 'directional change' suggestions. So if you have left with a 90mm stem and 30mm of spacers underneath but are aiming to become more racy, I might suggest as a directional change: 100mm stem with 20mm spacers. Or if we have increased your saddle height, but your flexibility reduces: lower your saddle by 5mm etc.

To achieve and confirm perfection, some cyclists will benefit from a 'top-up' bike fit where we check that everything is as expected once your body has adapted to its new position, especially if significant changes were made or we felt there was more to come but it was not sensible to do it all in one go. This often takes around an hour and can be booked as part of our Consultancy service.

Once you have had a bike fit with us, following fits can often be completed in less time, at a reduced cost, because we do not need to go through the 'Q&A' section of the Measure phase in such detail.

Through our partnership with Do3 Triathlon Coaching, we see a significant number of athletes who are just embarking on their cycling and triathlon journey. It is not unusual for people to set a target of 'never ridden a bike before, but I'm going to do an Ironman next year. In cases such as these we employ a multi-stage fit process, which can be done in conjunction with your coach. Each process will be athlete-dependant and an example of how this could look is:

Initial Fit: A Dynamic fit (or if you need it, the Pysio fit) focusing on comfort and control. This would be best conducted on a standard road bike (Not TT / Triathlon bike unless you are experienced on these type of bike).

Enhanced Fit: Follow-up sessions to adjust saddle and bar position, and other elements for improved performance. Now would be the time to add clip-on tri-bars to your road bike and become familiar with them.

Expert Fit: Advanced aerodynamic fitting for triathletes, leveraging knowledge from previous sessions to achieve optimal positions more efficiently. This may be the time to buy a dedicated TT / Triathlon bike and be fitted with that.

Enhanced Expert Fit: Continuous adjustments for high-performing athletes to ensure ongoing improvements and adaptations to changes in circumstances or performance levels.

To concluded this section, for all cyclists who have had a bike fit with Precision Cycle Fit, thank you and if you want to keep in optimal tune with your bike remember the other four R's:

Ride: Ride your bike with its new position for several weeks. Try and home in on how each of your three contact points (feet, bottom, hands) feel individually, and as a whole.

The important word here is feel. So, R is also for:

Review: How do you feel in your new position? There is no right or wrong answer, it’s how you feel that is most important. If it doesn’t feel quite right, don’t be afraid to tweak the position per the personalized suggestions in your report.

So, R is also for:

Refine: Play around with your position. But just make one adjustment at a time so you can understand the impact of each change. And don’t forget to record it when you’ve achieved something that feels good.

And finally, if things don't feel quite right, something has changed, or you want the confidence boost of an expert-opinion:

Re-book: And we'll continue to optimize your position with you and your coach.

The more you go through these steps the more likely you are to also complete the Control stage (C in DMAIC), or at least attain a set of ‘Control Positions’. Although we don’t want to control the position to a 'One Size Fits All', you will hopefully reach a point where you have several Control Positions for different stages of your cycling diary, whether that be the effects of weather, current fitness and flexibility or the particular cycling goal you are focusing on.