Creatre

Chappy, just curious, but do I see a giant camelback straw to your water bottle? Do you have better pics of that setup?

TT fit looks pretty good to me. Looks like a good helmet for your position too.

Ygduf

more than that. Saddle is so low he'll gain 20w just by using the length of the muscle, then add in the aero gains.

robbyville

You think saddle is low? It's strange after my last fit (over a year ago) it was a couple mm higher then all of a sudden (but months after the fit) I started to have some knee challenges so I lowered a bit. Guess it's time to re-invest! Fwiw stages is sending me a new crank as well, super bummed that I didn't get good data

waterrockets 

As suggested by shovel, work it gradually. I dropped my shoulders about 2.5 inches over a year of working on it. Stay flexible (stretch actively) and make sure you get time to adjust to changes before making the next one. At least one or two training blocks, IMO. I did the trig to figure out how far I needed to move my saddle forward with each bar drop to maintain the hip angle, so my only change was lowering the bars. Then I could adjust saddle fore/aft for my next fit change step.

Again, as shovel said, it depends. Deeper bars can be a big help, then just make a conscious decision to stay on your hoods if you're on a long ride. Hit the drops for pulls, spirited segments, descents...

With my current fit, more power means more comfort. My long races are 2.5 hours, and I'm fine for those. I'm best with 60-90 minute crits though. More power means more pedal force, which means less weight on saddle and bars. On longer rides, there's less pedal pressure and I get tired triceps and my rump gets sore. I did 76 miles yesterday, and that was a bit long for the comfort -- although I'm fine today.

Yep

grolby

I don't know how Fudgy thinks he can accurately assess your saddle height from that angle and pedal position. No offense to him, but it's very difficult to tell. And the best saddle height is not as easy to determine from knee flex as a lot of people think, because you can't tell how stable a rider's pelvis is from looking at a still shot from the side with maximum leg extension.

Most importantly, if you were having knee problems and lowering the saddle helped them, do not raise the saddle just because someone on the internet advised it! As someone who is sensitive to saddle height, I can tell you that raising the saddle just because someone thinks it will make you faster is a very good way to get injured.

hack

^Agreed, saddle height is a crazy tough thing to get right.

Saddle height shouldn't be a static measurement (e.g., 0.883*inseam). I'm setup much lower than a static fit or knee flex angle would dictate as I tend to pedal with a pretty big heal down movement effectively decreasing my leg length relative to the pedal. I did a "fit" and had my saddle raised significantly (in steps) and it just didn't work for me, so I reverted to the prior lower setup.

robbyville

Understood thanks guys. I'm a bit of a fit junkie and know not to do anything to the extreme. I've done retul and BG. Since for now we're just talking spacers and potentially the angle of the saddle I'll probably experiment on my own for a bit.

the one thing I haven't done is a fit that looks at power while making changes but I think guru is the only one that has that ability?

Ygduf

I can assess your saddle height without even a picture. Too low.

shovelhd

It's one. You can also do video fit on a Computrainer or other device. But that misses the point. If you optimize for power immediately after the change, you didn't give yourself time to adapt. It's better to make one change, do a few blocks as WR suggests, and evaluate it based on RPE over many training days. If you do it all in one sitting you might miss the best fit. That's OK once you are really close and want to squeeze the last few watts out.

ips0803

Different people then? My very limited experience is that its more about the knowledge of the person doing the fit, their understanding of your goals, and then finally the tools they are using to perform the fit in order to get it right.

Bike looks nice, what's broken that needs repair?

robbyville

Yep different people. I did the Retul and while decent like everyone says it's just a tool in the hands of (hopefully) someone who knows what they're doing. It worked for a bit but frankly I didn't feel that the person operating it was quite what I was looking for. Despite what I told him he had me on a much shorter stem with body position far too upright for me (you can imagine compared to how I am now). The BG fellow was very good and did a ton including my cleats. I was very happy with his fit for the past year, I'm still very comfortable on the bike just think I'm ready to progress.

The bike is my baby, or as my wife likes to remind me the "last bike I'll every own", built it up frame up with parts that I've always wanted but could never have. Obviously way beyond my needs but I enjoy futzing around on it all the time and I do ride the heck out of it relatively speaking. I did chintz out on the power meter though since I was just getting into racing and training so I wanted to ease my way in (I'm more than a little vain and wanted the carpet to match the rug), so I went with Stages. It's worked perfectly well for my needs but for some reason has recently started to drain batteries every two days. They have been great to deal with, sent me new battery covers, etc. Now they're sending me a replacement crank. I'm told and have read that they have had some of these same problems with other DA 9000 cranks or earlier models. We'll see. In the meantime I'm saving my pennies to get an SRM assuming I continue to race and train, which I'm sure I will. I do however have another nasty vice which incorporates the bottomless pit of Harley Davidson modifications...

Ygduf

via doug pearl, from 2 weeks ago at Berkeley Crit

I don't get more suffer-y than this. Side stitch was murdering my ability to breathe.

Creatre

Seat's too high.

mattm

Legs too sexy.

gsteinb

photo by wife

Hermes

Helmet too aero

globecanvas

MTB racing is lonely.



Did you ride in the rain? I strongly recommend taping up the crankarm.

gsteinb

Particularly when you're OTB.

robbyville

Nope, and I'm pretty careful when washing the bike as well. They told me that some of the older units had battery compartment challenges. Guess that's what it was. I did look at the new unit compared to the older one, definitely differences in shape and sealing.

robbyville

Pretty awesome pic

Ygduf

Incorrect.

Possibly correct.

Just the right amount of correct.

hack

bike is too big. should be on a 52, maybe a 54

grolby

As long as we're turning this into the "unsolicited criticism of Fudgy's fit" thread, I'd say if anything the handlebars are too low. Negative torso angle is actually harmful to aerodynamics.

Ygduf

before we get too far into unsolicited criticism, please examine other angles https://imgur.com/a/V9aYr




(and it's not negative, I'm just leaning through a corner there)

globecanvas

Ah, the "because podium" defense.