A beginner’s guide to bikefitting: what to expect
If you’re engaging with a bike fit for the first time, it can be a daunting prospect making a choice on where to get fitted and what sort of fit to get. Options span from a very basic saddle height setup to a fit which covers everything from foot position optimisation to saddle pressure map testing and power output etc.
The minimum of things you should expect to get addressed in a basic fit are:
- Basic cleat setup
- Saddle height
- Saddle setback
- Reach to bar
- Saddle to bar height setup (bike dependent)
With the above, you will progress into understanding more about your position and how that feels out on the road, more about how your body functions, and more about what you yourself actually want from your position. This will lead you to better understand what you’d want from a more advanced bike fit, if that is what your aim is.
Although a rudimentary physical assessment does usually accompany a basic bike fit it isn’t necessarily needed unless you have serious issues. If it’s offered, we’d recommend you taking them up on it.
A basic bike fit provides enough information to you as a rider to grasp the fundamentals of positioning. Assuming that gets done correctly everything from that point on is a tweak, a fine-tune, an optimisation. Importantly, all further tweaks, fine-tunes and optimisations should be offset against and compared with the basic initial position.
So, how should you feel when you head out after your basic bike fit? The answer of course does depend on how good or bad your position was to start off with, and how well your bike fits you. But in general, you should be feeling the following:
- A sense of balance on the bike without any excess pressure or stress in any particular area
- A sense of power through the legs with the sensation that what you’re putting in you’re getting out
- Feet feeling well planted on the pedals
- The ability to jump up (stand on the pedals) and sit back down quickly and efficiently without having to search for the saddle
- The feeling that you are in control of your bike and that cornering flows easily and without excessive effort
- The ability to brake and shift gears fluidly
The above then becomes your basic reference point when engaging in the more advanced aspects of bikefitting.
