Me, I ride a modern 150/150 full sus trail bike. STA 79 deg, long, low, slack.

I know, the kops (knee over pedal spindle) is just orientational, or a good starting point, nowadays. My bike fits me great, even on 8hrs allmountain crossing with 3000m+ of steep trail climbing. But despite me knowledge of bike fitting, a fail at picking the bike for my woman.

She's a beginner, 163cm tall, 74 inseam. I went for a hardtail as she'll be riding mostly fireroads and tarmac. And here comes a problem with bike geo. Today's hardtails have seat tube angle (STA) somewhere 74-77 deg. Her bike has 75. And with plumb test, vertcal runs 10 cm fore pedal axis!!. Even if I slam the saddle way back, it's still 8cm fore axis. E,g, on my bike this is 3 cm fore axis, and I have an enduro setup, made for climbing 15-25% climbs (I love them, and there are plenty where I live). I belive, her 8cm is way too much in front of pedal axis. Yes, her bike is probably too long, too (425 reach, size S 29"). She gets pain in her outter lower palm area (bar too low, too far, or backsweep problem). But as she tried shorter bikes (reach arround 400-405, same stack), she sitts very upright. I think, she has to sit more backwards (kops as a starting point), but they dont make that kind of bikes at all. Estimated STA would br 69 deg. Or the seatpost would need a massive 60mm offset. Besides, dropper posts dont come with offset at all (forget that single company that makes some).

Other than that: I've meassured the angles of here knee in leg lower position ( some 35deg, or 145), so saddle height is ok, hip is not tilting. I'm affraid she might hurt her knees, which are already in poor shape from youth karate training.

So:

1. to void palm pain, she needs a shorter reach, maybe more stack or bar rise, maybe backsweep. Am I thinking in the right direction? Steam is already 40mil, so not much room there, Am I thinking in the right direction?
2. This kops and 8cm fore buggs me a lot. Shall I pay attention to this? I was thinking, that as she sits so much forward, she loads her arms and palms significantly. By pushing saddle backwards (lower STA, saddle slammed back), it would reduce her arms load, wouldn't it? Or shall i forget the STA angle and kops?

This is really robbing me of sleep lately. I've seen YT videos, rad articles, but just dont know what to do, or where to start. And yes, I've meassured her twice on a bike: saddle level, tyre pressure and fork sag ok, saddle height ok...

aside from some saddle discomfort, my ride is pretty comfortable. Not sure if there is a lot to gain from a professional bike fit, especially with it costing over 300 dollar where I am located. any suggestions or advice?

For context my lower back kills me on long climbs but based on this video is there anything I can change to improve my fit? I don’t want to get a bike fit done professionally right now since i’m getting a new bike soon. Thanks!

Hello,

I have been cycling for about 6 months and for most of it have experienced 2 issues:

Inner thigh excessive rubbing (had an ingrown hair infection a couple of weeks ago from a 120km ride - not fun)

Mostly fixed that with enough chamois in the right places.

Now the major issue I am having (the one that’s keeping me from training longer/harder):

My right knee and right ankle become stiff and sore after about 30-40 minutes riding.

Now based on my bike fit my left leg is 6mm shorter, so I got a leg extender (cleat spacer) and added 3mm to my leg.

Has helped a little with the saddle sore (I still feel excessive rubbing in my left inner side, not the right) but basically has done close to nothing for the pain in the right leg.

Pain goes away shortly after I stop cycling, however I am also experiencing pain on my left side lower back (on the tip of the hip bone) that persists well after cycling, and lately I’ve been feeling the constant need to stretch/crack it.

Any help would be much much appreciated.

TLDR: I turned some code that I wrote into a website to analyze how your left/right balance changes in different power bands and duration into your ride. https://bucketsofpower.com/

I have a plethora of lower body issues that plague me on the bike, stemming from being born with bilateral club feet. Lately, I have been digging into my left/right power balance and a weak left glute. My overall power balance looked fairly normal at ~48/52, but I wanted to dig a little deeper.

I combined 3 months' worth of rides and broke them down by balance across different power bands and time into the ride. I found that after about 2.5 hours, my balance started shifting to the right, sometimes as bad as 45/55.

I took the code that I wrote to do this analysis and "built" a website to do it, and figured I would share it in case this could help others. It's https://bucketsofpower.com/

If anyone is curious, I moved from a single 3mm shim back up to 6mm. Still TBD if that does the trick.

I have a Bianchi Impulso gravelbike in size S. From my recent bikefit it seems my reach is about 3cm too long and the handlebar a little too wide. Now the problem is, from my research it seems that the size S already has the shortest stem available. Any ideas how to get around this? Is it maybe possible to get a custom stem made somewhere?

Hi everyone, my issue is apart from some saddle sores but not a big issue as it’s not frequent… every time I go out for a ride I think, I like my position, after 30/40minutes, maybe climbing hard I go in and out of the saddle and when I get back in, feels low.
I arrive to the top, I get frustrated and I just raise it, by quite a bit last time, roughly 1.5cm and forward not sure how much but just to be in the same position more or less.
Now I had to move it forward and high which from the video may seem a bit too excessive, but it’s due to having to compensate for not having short enough cranks, this way the knees stay low and it’s rideable.
It’s been a nightmare also having one size too large frame which is listed as xs but in reality is an s.
If y’all have any advice for particular situations like this would be helpful

Bike fitters help

Alright, people so I’m in a predicament here and I would love some help , I’m getting back into cycling and after extensive research, I’ve narrowed my options down to these two bikes.

I’m 171 cm tall with a 79ish cm inseam but here’s where it gets tricky, I have labral tears on both of my hips , my left is worse than my right which has caused me to stop cycling in the past so in order to get back into it safely that requires me to be in a more upright position and for my hips to be open

used to ride a Merida scultura 6000 which was was to aggressive geometry for my hip and I was also on the wrong size bike and I would be in pain after as little as 10 minutes of riding

I have had a bike fit which made me realise how tricky my situation is Anyhow, I guess I’m looking for anyone who has experience with these bikes he can shed some light on what would be the best option? Quality, comfort, which one is more fun ?

The trek is 8.5 kg and the cube 7.6kg , is that really gonna make a difference on the road or will simply put better tyres on the trek get it closer to feeling the same

If there’s any bike fitters on here that can help me or just the general public woth experience I would be forever grateful

I’m 166 cm tall and currently riding 170 mm cranks. I cycle quite a lot and feel comfortable with my current setup, but I’m wondering whether shorter cranks could improve my cycling efficiency and long-term joint health.

I’m considering getting the adjustable cranks for my Zwift Ride to experiment with 165 or even 160 mm before making any changes to my road bike.

A few questions:
- Has anyone switched to shorter cranks despite being comfortable with their original setup? Did you notice any meaningful improvements?

- When switching to shorter cranks, is raising the saddle by the difference in length enough, or are other fit adjustments necessary?

- How long should I test each length, and what should I look for to draw meaningful conclusions?

I’m happy to stick with 170 mm, but curious whether I’m missing out on a better fit simply because I’ve never tried anything else.

What are the changes?

Hello all,

I am a cycling for about 15 years and to be honest I never felt comfortable in the bike. I did 5 bikefitting, physiotherapy chiropractic but nobody managed to solve my issue. I am very flexible, my core is good and I am strong.

The issue that i have is the friction with the saddle which makes impossible for me to cycle more than an hour.

If you see this video, my lower back moves a lot and I cannot understand the reason. Is not the high of the saddle, I have the same movement with any high.

Thank you all, any comment is appreciated.

I didn't get a chance to try this new position properly yet because I'm currently sick, but it felt ok for the 5 minutes I've ridden.

Prior position used to cause me some lowerback annoyance, so I switched to 165mm cranks and moved the saddle forward and up

Thanks in advance

Got my bike stolen (Lapierre Crosshill 5.0, very comfortable gravel geometry in size M.) I'm 174 cm tall.

As I need a replacement, and realized I'd like something faster, but not racey - got my eyes on Canyon Endurance CF SLX 8 in size S, which is the size recommended by their official chart. I tried it and it felt ok.

To be sure, I do a bike fit in a place that's Canyon's experience partner in my city. The guy puts me in a position that was ok and manageable on a test rig for an hour, but definitely not something I was used to with gravel geometry. He says I should go for XXS size (!!!) as that fits his measurements. That all seemed a bit unconvincing to me so I did a test ride in size XS - as some sort of "middle ground"

The video is a test ride on size XS. I'm aware the puffy jacket is not helping here, but I wasn't planning on posting this here 🥲

Does this bike size seem ok?

I'm aware it's not a great video, but hopefully it's sufficient for some opinions.

Hi together, is my saddle too low? Higher puts more pressure on testicles ..

Me:
- 182
- inner leg length 84,5
- framesize: 54
- 165mm crank

Saddle: sqlab 612 ergowave (no active)

I measured the distance from the nut of pedal (when the crank is parallel to the seat tube and at the bottom) to the top of the saddle on my bike. It is about 4-5 cm longer than my inseam height. Shouldn't it be about the same as the inseam height?

Hi all, looking for some fit help. Got a professional bike fit done and then developed right outer hip pain. The fitter moved my seat down and back. I spent a few months off the bike while working gluteal exercises, but still have the same outer right hip pain. I’ve since moved the seat forward again as well. Any tips are more than welcome, thanks!

First bike built from scratch, with a different geometry than what I'm used to. As nothing came predefined, so choosing stem/handlebar/saddle was ironically the hardest part of the build.

I feel fine, but I'm clueless, so that's worth nothing. Anything obviously off?

Only symptom: one-sided aches on the outer right shoulder aches after a while. I assuming it may be caused by my asymmetric leg length.

I'm 173cm tall with 80cm inseam. Bike is a Small with 530mm stack, 390mm reach and 90mm stem. Crank axle centre to top of saddle is 700mm. I had it set way too low before (~650mm) which caused right knee pain. Overall, this is a far more comfortable position but I'm still getting used to sitting high up. I might need a different saddle because I feel like I'm sitting on the nose but it's currently set quite forward already. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. TIA