Call me weak, or stiff, or whatever you like: 150 rpm is just not happening for me. I know that my highest gear right now is 53x11 and my lowest gear is 30x28. Wishing that I had a wider range is rare, and equally common on both the high and low end. I've ridden most of the paved roads within 20 miles of where I live, and covered around 2,500 miles on my current groupset. I obviously could be wrong, but at this point I'm reasonably confident that I wouldn't be happy with a significantly lower top end gear ratio.
Choosing A Bike Fitter
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55mph on the bike? No thank you. 40mph is as fast as I care to go and that's only on roads I know very well, otherwise no more than around 30. 50/11 works fine for me.
Downhill Strava segments don't impress me. What impresses me are uphill segments.
Uphill segments are undeniably more impressive than downhill, but I'm still working on reducing my advantage on downhill segments, so I'll take what I can get.
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Very well. For me though, 55 is just crazy. Go down at that speed and I won't be cycling another day.
There's only a handful of freshly paved rural roads without sharp corners that I'll try it on.
a lower seat tube angle, or higher maybe would be the right term, wont bring you lower to the ground really assuming you end up with the same saddle height. I like a very setback seatpost and big angle on the seat tube as it puts me in a more relaxed position and even enables me to lean farther over and not have more weight on the bars.
having a lower bottom bracket does make the bike more stable and even a cm there will make a very big difference. if youre bombing down hills and wanting stability a lower bottom bracket would be good.
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If you are buying a $4,000 bike from a reputable bike shop, then you should be getting a professional fit for for free. Frankly, same for a $1000 bike. But if you do have to pay a fee, it should be worth the same regardless of the cost of the bike.
As for top speed, the max I've recorded is 51 mph.
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I don't think a 'professional' fit should be included with a bike purchase. Ski boots don't come with custom fitting. Tennis racquets don't come with a 'pro' string job. You're utilizing the skills of a very specialized employee. In my area nearly all of the bike shops have stopped doing involved, 'pro' fittings. There are a bunch of places that do only that and they've taken over that aspect of the business. If they charge $300.00-500.00 for their service it's ridiculous to expect that a bike shop would even be able to do that for free.
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Of course not.
Besides, nothing is for free. If they're going to do that, it would be added to the cost of every bike, making them even more expensive.
What if I don't need a fit? If I know my fit, I can transfer the measurements. Or what if I want to use a different fitter with different mythology? Then I'm paying for something I don't need.
On top of that, many (most) shops selling bikes don't have a clue about bike fit. Sit you on the bike, eye ball you pedaling on a trainer, looks good, out the door.
Go to 10 different shops and get 11 different opinions on setups.
Shops can't even afford to pay for quality mechanics. They're not going to keep a certified fitter on staff.
It may be worth mentioning that I'm hoping to buy parts and build the bike myself. I'll probably either buy a frame online or buy one that my local (non-fitting) shop has in stock. I may buy the rest of the parts from one shop, or I may shop around. It's easy to compare measurements to a fit sheet, but much more difficult to test ride a bike online. And it certainly wouldn't be reasonable to expect a bike fit to be included in the price of some random parts.
That extra one is from a 16 y.o. summer intern, right?
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Of course you won't get a "professional fit" with a bike purchase. But the stores I have bought bikes from have at least put me and my new bike on the trainer, watched me pedal and made adjustments. Granted I knew much less about fit then than I do now. At one shop, it was the owner who did this Granted it won't be precise, but it will at least get you a ballpark starting point.
Right now, I'm dealing with some spinal issues that are causing some pain I hope can be at least partially resolved with some adjustments.
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This is a very good video, well worth watching. Probably worth watching seasonally or whenever some sort of physical niggle, injury or change arises.
Knowing what works for oneself goes a long way in finding a fitter that can help sort things out. Also, what type of cyclist are you and what's your physicality? It does one no good to go to a fitter who is totally focused on pure in the drops race fit when an hour into the ride one doesn't have the core strength or flexibility to maintain it.
Know ones needs and get help from one who understands those needs.
So far I've emailed 2 fitters about 2 hours drive from me asking for help deciding between a standard size frame or custom geometry. Maybe I'm just asking wrong, but so far I've gotten a grand total of zero emails in response. I have lots of one-sided conversations, and while they're great for assimilating information that I already know I've noticed a distinct lack of new information learned from those conversations.
One of the two I've emailed, who never got back to me, looks to be primarily in the fitting business (bikesbikesbikes.com). That seems to be the most promising option at this point.
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And of course, the fit you get will be dependent on what type of riders they mostly work with. Are they pro or recreational riders? And of course you need to make your own goals clear. Are you looking to increase performance or decrease incidents of pain? For me, I'm just looking for a pain-free ride.
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