What is the purpose of a bike fit? Ideal comfort? Ideal power? Ideal performance? Are those mutually inclusive? Mutually exclusive?

should we fit our bike one way for 50, 60 or 100 mile road rides but change the fit for shorter gravel rides? One fit for flat rides but change for hilly climbing rides?

I have just one bike, change the wheels and tires for gravel and use typical wheels and tires for road.

If if I got a professional bike fit, should that set up be ideal for any and all rides on that bike?

I rides, don't race. logged 3400 miles in 2019, on road and gravel.

You are asking the right questions. Some might require a therapist.

No one size fits all. You have to have a goal or goals, and something will have to be compromised on.

IME one fit for everything. I use the same standard road fit for all my bikes, all my rides from spirited group rides to touring. That said, if one had a short commute, I think a slightly more upright fit would be better, optimized more for easy terrain scanning than for comfort and performance, and thus a different bike with fat tires for curb climbing.

The purpose of a bike fit is to find the right balance between aerodynamics, power output and comfort, so if you use your bikes differently, it follows that you will have different fits for different bikes. As an extreme example, your hour time trial bike will have a very different fit than the beach cruiser that you use for short rides around town. I have a bunch of bikes and they all fit a little differently depending on what I use them for. Some of my bikes even have different stems that I swap depending on the duration and intensity of the ride.

I've personally never had a professional fit, but I think it's a good idea in 3 cases. 1) You're new to cycling and need some help or want some advice setting up your bike 2) You're racing and want to eek out every available watt of performance 3) You're having some discomfort and are unable to resolve it on your own through trial and error

My bike fit is emphasized on comfort, means I can ride any distance without too much pain anywhere in my body .

I also never had a professional fit but all my road bikes are set up the same or very similar, but it took me years and many long rides to perfect it. I even had to change my headset for a lower stack headset on my endurance bike and get a -17 degree stem to set it up closer than my "race" bike for comfort reason.

thank you

Thanks

thanks

Of course not. Same position on a TT bike and a single speed cruiser?

Road bike and mountain bike?

The fit should be to get the best balance of the things that matter for the activity.

For an all around bike, an all around riding position.

It's pretty common to change things over the season e.g. bars higher early, lower & possibly longer later when fitness & flexibility improve.


What Kingston said.

Fitt will be different depending on the usage... However, one thing's for sure, it will always prevent injuries on the long run.

Your body will also change over time - your fitt too.

I would think the "fit" of a bike would vary quite a bit depending on the nature of the use of that bike.

Ditto Kensington's comments above.

Myself, I've got a couple of bikes. One requires a bit of a stretched-out, more forward-leaning riding position, with a much longer (56cm) top tube that's used for commuting. Whereas, the other bike is for a nearly-upright riding position, with a much (50cm) shorter top tube and swept/riser bars and stem that's also intended for urban commuting. Two different riding positions, each bike's format matching the riding style/posture intended, even though both are used on similar roads for commuting. Still, just based on the riding position of each, the formal "fit" is quite different between the two.

Years ago, I had a more-upright postured bike that was completely suited to commuting around town, but it was wholly inappropriate and incapable on the dirt trails of the nearby fields. That riding posture, alone, simply couldn't cope with the inclines, let alone all the other little inefficiencies that bike's format created on those trails. A swap of wheelsets wouldn't hardly have addressed those issues.

Assuming, though, that your riding position and riding "style" (aggressiveness, weight balance, etc) isn't all that different from one activity to the other, then in your case perhaps just a swap of wheels would accomplish what you're looking for. I suppose, then, a single fit could result in a given bike being capable of handling the best compromise possible on that bike.

Thanks for your well-reasoned and rational input. That all makes sense.

Thank you!

Yes, of course. Thanks

I think most people will agree that bar position relative to the saddle will change drastically depending on application. Commuting vs crit racing vs group riding vs gravel epics all will demand various degrees of long/short, wide/narrow and high/low.

I think what is more contentious is whether saddle position and crank length ought to vary depending on application. Of course, you have some external considerations like fixed gear crit bikes needing shorter cranks for corner clearance or TT bikes needing shorter cranks to allow for breathing and pedaling in a flat back position. But barring those, I think there are many who think there exists a perfect, optimal saddle position that works for all applications.

I don’t believe that to be true. I think, for longer, slower rides, you’d want to be further back and low (think beach cruiser) and for harder, hillier or shorter rides, you’d want to be slightly further forward and up - maybe even slightly tilted. In the end, the range of power you can deliver doesn’t vary all that much. So you’re not going to need drastic changes to saddle position. But I personally believe there are optimizations and compromises to be made.

Proper fit is critical for overall comfort and performance, and though a professional fit can greatly improve both of these, there is no one-size-fits-all formula. It can take years of riding and occasional adjustments until you find what you think is the perfect fit. I had been riding for some 15 years, and thought I had finally gotten my bike set up right, then an old coach recommended that I change my seat position slightly. The change felt awkward at first, but it made large difference in my performance. I guess that is why teams hire coaches.

It is a good idea to experiment with different adjustments, because even when you think you have found the perfect fit, you still might be able to improve it.