Bike fits, the reasoning behind them and why a proper bike fit is so important
When you purchase a new bike it’s imperative that you get the correct size for you. I know it sounds obvious, but in my experience there are a lot of shops out there that will sell you anything they have to get it out the door even if it’s too big or small for you.
A bike fit can advise the correct bike size, recommend the best possible saddle, set up your shoe cleats accurately, or provide guidance on the best possible saddle height, setback or saddle to handlebar drop for your riding style.
This not only makes the bike more comfortable to cycle, it makes you more efficient and reduces the chances of injury from an incorrect set up. Over stretching can cause a lot of issues and damage, so a bike too big for you can be detrimental to your health, conversely a bike that is too small will have you all scrunched up on the bike, unable to stretch out and not able to do a full leg extension causing lots of issues and be highly inefficient.
The thing with bike fits is that a small change can make a massive difference, even raising a saddle by 5mm, removing a spacer from the headset, or rotating a cleat a couple of degrees can have a huge impact on comfort and efficiency. The other thing is that a bike fit will often depend on you, you need to turn up with all the relevant information. Have you had pain in one knee, have you had an ache in the neck after cycling 30km? All these points will have an effect on the bike fit. Make sure you also let your bike fitter know of any injuries, I often see people who have been in a car accident and suffered whiplash, if the injury hasn’t healed correctly they could have one shoulder that sits differently to the other which means that the shifters need to be set at different positions to cater for it. It’s these simple observations that make the bike fit all the better.
Most people that I see for bike fits come to me because there is an issue, they have pain somewhere and need to get it resolved. If they had had the fit done when the bike was purchased, either in the store they bought the bike or by bringing it to me, the issue they now are facing probably wouldn’t have occurred. My advice would be to always get a proper bike fit done on any new bike purchased, it will make the cycling far more enjoyable, less injuries, more comfort and higher efficiency, and who doesn’t want all that?
At Evolution Cycles we provide bike fitting for everyone, not just people that have bought a bike from us (although if you do purchase your bike from us, we do provide a full bike fit free of charge). For more information on our fittings see link below:
https://evolutioncycles.ie/services/bike-fitting/