Fitting session

[Tim Kelley]

If Freshbikes doesn’t work for you, any of the other local bike shops should be able to do it. Where’d you buy the bike? Might be worth going back to them to see if you can get a deal.

[americancyclo]

Here are some threads to help you sift through the fitting landscape here in DC.
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?835-Best-place-to-get-a-professional-fitting
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?2314-Yet-Another-bike-fit-question
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?2746-set-up-fitting
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?4682-DC-Area-Bike-Fit-recommendations

[Bilsko]

The basic session at Freshbikes will run you about $150. But, depending on your setup, you may end up having to spend more to achieve the fit as it is suggested.
It may very well be that the components on your bike are the right sizes, and that all you need are some position adjustments – but (again, depending on how much you need to change things) you may need to buy new components. Much of this will depend on what types of pain you’re having.

My experience (working on sizing on a frame that was too big for me):
–New saddle (independent of the frame, but the width of your sitz bones and how they seat on the saddle can impact comfort. I was riding on a saddle that was much too narrow.
–Crank arm length. Should be towards the bottom of the purchase list because many of the changes that longer/shorter crank arms would achieve can be replicated/approximated by changing saddle height and for/aft position. But if the crank arms are really off (more than 15-20mm) it may be a worthwhile expense.
–Seatpost: Setback or no setback, and length of tube (if you need something that can really sit high off the frame, for example)
–Stem: A few mm can make a pretty significant impact on how far you have to reach to hold the handlebars comforatbly
–Handlebars: Can be too wide or too narrow.
–Pedals: The amount of float can impact how much your knees/ankles move during each pedal stroke

So you might just need to dial in the position of these components (if its a road bike you can really only tweak seatpost height and saddle fore/aft position, everything else is fixed), or you may see a need to invest in some or all of the above – which might be a modest expense or a hefty investment.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@StopMeansStop 62031 wrote:

My knees are objecting to me riding. My ortho suggested I get a fitting. Can anyone make a suggestion? I’m looking to avoid getting a $300 fitting that takes two hours, cos I’m cheap and feel like a tool going into FreshBikes.

Do you ride clipless? I’ve heard that, for some people, this can alleviate knee pain as it smoothes out your pedaling and keeps your feet lined up. Also, cadence could be a factor as well.

[Tim Kelley]

@StopMeansStop 62031 wrote:

My knees are objecting to me riding.

Also, talk to Bob Cannon. He was posting a few links from medical publications last year on this topic.

[jrenaut]

@TwoWheelsDC 62044 wrote:

Do you ride clipless? I’ve heard that, for some people, this can alleviate knee pain as it smoothes out your pedaling and keeps your feet lined up. Also, cadence could be a factor as well.

This was definitely my experience. Switching from toe clips to SPDs got rid of knee pain that was going to push me back to the Metro.

[hozn]

My knee pain has hitherto been a function of seat height. That said, I am considering getting a fitting for some independent perspective on fit. Check out Andy Pruitt’s book too. Or PM me if you want to borrow it.

[APKhaos]

This from a fresh noob, so calibrate on that basis.
Cleats come in varying degrees of freedom to rotate. Turns out that a full-on hard man 0 degrees can be tough on tricky knees unless the cleat mount angle is adjusted to perfection. A regular bloke cleat with say 9 degrees of rotational freedom makes it easier [and more likely] for the foot to find its happy place without asking the knees to rotate in compensation. Might be worth keeping in mind when buying your black widows and matching cleats.

[Dickie]

I have essentially avoided the cost of a proper fitting by reading a ton of information and tinkering myself. I set up my bike on a trainer with a live video feed to my TV and look for issues. My biggest problem for a long time was knee pain, usually at the back of the knee, but occasionally at the front as well. I am a big believer in Steve Hogg’s theories, and he has a very robust website with a bunch of helpful information. Many cyclists tend to ignore his ideas as it is often in stark contrast to the rigid and dated theories that continue to be practiced. For me a few things made a major difference:

1) Lowered my seat by 15mm. My seat height was set too high for one of my legs (everyone has one leg longer than the other). This caused my pelvis to rotate down on each stroke and caused strain on the opposite knee as it compensated for the misalignment. I was also a toe pointer and was loosing much of my power on each stroke.

2) Stopped trying to align my feet with cleat position. The idea that clipless pedals helps is not necessarily true. I found that when I was pedaling hard I had maxed out my cleat rotation on one side (no more float on one side). I realized I had positioned my cleats to help force my feet out of their natural “pigeon toe” alignment. This was causing strain on my knees with each stroke. Once I set up my cleats properly, and allowed my feet to point in their natural position my knee pain went away.

3) Moved my cleats much further back. The general (and again dated) rule of thumb is that the ball of your foot should rest over the pedal spindle. This isn’t always true for everyone, and in fact many studies have shown that more power and comfort can be achieved by moving your feet forward on the pedal (cleat backwards), just be careful of foot/front wheel overlap. I moved mine back about 20mm

3) Used a combination of arch supports and heel shims to help my feet sit squarely on the pedal. This allowed my legs to stay aligned over the pedal throughout the stroke. I noticed that my shoes were deforming at the heel towards the inside of the shoe, as if my knees were coming together at the top of each stroke. The video confirmed this and I played around with a combination of set-ups.

All in all my knee pain has almost entirely gone (unless due to overuse). Of course all the time and energy I spent could have been achieved much easier at a proper fitting, but I like learning about the theories.

Here are a few links to Steve’s site:

http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bikefit/2011/11/knee-pain/
http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bikefit/2011/04/the-right-side-bias/
http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bikefit/2011/04/power-to-the-pedal-cleat-position/

[mstone]

@Dickie 62146 wrote:

2) Stopped trying to align my feet with cleat position. The idea that clipless pedals helps is not necessarily true. I found that when I was pedaling hard I had maxed out my cleat rotation on one side (no more float on one side). I realized I had positioned my cleats to help force my feet out of their natural “pigeon toe” alignment. This was causing strain on my knees with each stroke. Once I set up my cleats properly, and allowed my feet to point in their natural position my knee pain went away.

Cleat alignment is critical: screw that up, and you’ll be limping. My rule of thumb is that if the knees start to hurt at all with cleats, they’re not dialed in yet, and that’s not a problem that will fix itself. I’ve had generally less trouble with cleats than without, as I have this bad tendency to move my foot all around when I’m not clipped in and all the twisting around ends up trashing my knees after a few hours. I also keep the release tension dialed down pretty low, as the twisting motion to unclip is really hard on my knees also; I forgot on a pair of new pedals earlier this year, and caused enough trouble in one ride that it took months to fully recover. That said, I have really bad knees and YMMV.

[Author]

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