Road Cycling - Fitting

Going to the LBS today to try and get a better fit for my bike. I have a Airborne Valkyre with stock shimano 105 and velomax tires. Last year I rode for the first time the MS 170 and did not have alot of experience. Needless to say it was probably the most painful experience of my life, but I made it and the feeling of accomplishment was well worth it. I had to spend a month in PT after the ride to work on injuries to my hands and left knee, but again it was worth it. The biggest issue I had with the ride aside from not being able to feel anything from the waist down after about 4 hours was the killer pain in my shoulders and neck which was about unbearable. This year I have been training smarter with a heart rate monitor, weight lifting to strengthen my upper / lower body, and more miles on the bike. However, I noticed I still have pain in my shoulders and neck, but after reading all the advice of the experienced riders here I am heading to the LBS today to see about fitting... Well anyway I just wanted to say thank you to you all for all your good advice to us newbies ;) I hope to see some of you on Bike NY or the MS 170!

Keep Ridin

Going to the LBS today to try and get a better fit for my bike. I have a Airborne Valkyre with stock shimano 105 and velomax tires. Last year I rode for the first time the MS 170 and did not have alot of experience. Needless to say it was probably the most painful experience of my life, but I made it and the feeling of accomplishment was well worth it. I had to spend a month in PT after the ride to work on injuries to my hands and left knee, but again it was worth it. The biggest issue I had with the ride aside from not being able to feel anything from the waist down after about 4 hours was the killer pain in my shoulders and neck which was about unbearable. This year I have been training smarter with a heart rate monitor, weight lifting to strengthen my upper / lower body, and more miles on the bike. However, I noticed I still have pain in my shoulders and neck, but after reading all the advice of the experienced riders here I am heading to the LBS today to see about fitting... Well anyway I just wanted to say thank you to you all for all your good advice to us newbies ;) I hope to see some of you on Bike NY or the MS 170!

Keep Ridin

Check out Sheldon Browns web site. Lot of good articles. Also check out the article in signaturecycles.com on The Anatomy of the Bike Fit. Have fun Doing BIKE NY. I may be doing it
also. If you are looking for a century ride check out the Montauk century on MAY16 at 5bbc.org (same club that oragnizes BIKE NY)

Keep in mind that your fitting is only as good as the person fitting you. I had one person the fitted me pretty good, while my wife's fitting was totally off by the a different person at the same LBS. Also, how it fits sitting on the trainer will be different than how it fit when you actually get your bike on the road. My fitting felt great at the LBS, but when I took it for a test ride the next day, I changed almost every settings that the LBS made. Granted they were minor changes, but it made a huge difference in confort. The LBS was able to get me in the ballpark and I was able to finetune the rest. The was years ago. I've since learned how to fit myself from sources like this forum and other websites. Good luck!

Check out peter white cycles on fitting.

Just got back from the fitting... Would have to say I never thought my seat was too low as it was my LBS who adjusted it a year ago when I bought the bike... but after raising the seat about an inch and tilting it down a bit I felt better for the half hour on the trainer the true test will be on the road on Saturday. I suppose there will be alot to learn about fitting as I am very new to cycling... Thanks MichaelW I read that site very informative.

Going to the LBS today to try and get a better fit for my bike. I have a Airborne Valkyre with stock shimano 105 and velomax tires. Last year I rode for the first time the MS 170 and did not have alot of experience. Needless to say it was probably the most painful experience of my life, but I made it and the feeling of accomplishment was well worth it. I had to spend a month in PT after the ride to work on injuries to my hands and left knee, but again it was worth it. The biggest issue I had with the ride aside from not being able to feel anything from the waist down after about 4 hours was the killer pain in my shoulders and neck which was about unbearable. This year I have been training smarter with a heart rate monitor, weight lifting to strengthen my upper / lower body, and more miles on the bike. However, I noticed I still have pain in my shoulders and neck, but after reading all the advice of the experienced riders here I am heading to the LBS today to see about fitting... Well anyway I just wanted to say thank you to you all for all your good advice to us newbies ;) I hope to see some of you on Bike NY or the MS 170!

Keep Ridin

I highly recommend a professional bike fitting. I had one after several orthopedic events some that included surgery. I have to say it is some of the best money I have ever spent. My husband did the same thing and now the pain in his shoulders and neck while riding is gone... They say the proof is in the pudding. Make sure that the person who does the fitting is qualified. Every person has weak points. Mine is more my back and knees.
Good luck.

This is the one instance where I will recomend raising the bars. you are trying to look up too much, and that is what is cramping your neck, and the weight on your hands is what is killing your shoulders. one way to see if your bars are high enough is to get in your riding position (more on that later) and then take your hands off the bars. if you can stay in that postion comfortably (no hands) then you have the right position. this calls on abdominal and lower back (longisimus, I think) muscles.

However, technique is important. when you ride, try to stick your belly out at the top tube. keep your arms bent to absorb shock. make sure that your back is straight, bent at the hips, not the middle of your spine.

Try these changes. the airborne is a nice bike, so dont give up yet. good luck.

Hi,
I agree with the fitting advice. This spring I put a shim under my left cleat, and what a difference. My left leg didn't like it at first, because the muscles were really doing their share of the work for the
first time. I used to get a cramp on the inside of my right leg, and those are mostly gone. I think it was trying to hold me level, and gettng fatigued. Might be worth a try.

I could definitely see how your knees would have pain if the seat was too low- that vibration you get from smacking your foot at the bottom of the pedal stroke that travels up the leg and into the kneecaps would do that to you. I was heartened to see they lifted the seat.

If you're still feeling pain in the knees, try getting a fit for your cleats- make sure they are turned inwards enough so that your knees are pointing inwards when you're pedalling. This ought to also help alleviate knee pain too.

Also take a look at your gears used. If you're using the big gears and you're a masher, you could also be putting undue stress on your knees. Learn to spin more in the smaller gears, and that should help reduce stress on the knees, which will take away from knee pain greatly.

Good luck. I'm glad to see you got a nice bike fit!

Koffee

Well this weekend I had some decent rides, 30 miles on Saturday and 20 on Sunday. I will have to say that after having the seat raised I am experiencing alot less back and neck pain, however it seems centralized in my right shoulder blade after about 2 hours on the bike and my neck gets a bit stiff but not like before. Also, I noticed with the saddle tilted down I tend to sit with my butt bones slightly off the back of the back of the saddle which I find quite comfortable for my posterior and it relieves the pressure from the twigg and giggle berries.

Question I have is does anyone know of a requtable LBS that does good fittings... not sure if my LBS is good or bad but would like to get a second opinion on my fitting. I live in Northern New Jersey / NYC Metro Area. Any help would be appreciated.

BTW In response to some of the great comments in this thread...

Phatman - I will have to try and lift my hands off the bars and see if I can hold that position. I thing I told the LBS when he tiltled the saddle down was that I noticed it seemed like I was being pushed into the bars. However, he tilted it down in response to a issue I had when he raised the seat which was Mr. Happy going numb... So in that case I prefer the saddle tilted a bit.

Koffee Brown - Actually on Friday I went to the Dr. to get a checkup and he noticed that my left knee had a bit too much play in the patella ie "floating knee" and recommended that I wear a support brace until they get an x-ray and see how serious it is. With the brace and bike adjustments my knees are fine. I do try not to mash too much the rule I use is stay one gear below where your legs start to burn on the flats and I try to keep a steady cadence.


Thanks for all the great advice people I love this board and I love cycling!

Good luck with the knee. If you can keep spinning with a cadence of 90- 100 rpm, I think you'll be all good.

If it turns out your knee is ok, I would recommend doing some weight training to strengthen the knees. I used to be able to move my patella all over the place, but with incorporating weight training over the years, they're now solid as a rock!

Koffee