I'm a bit of a weird situation being that I broke my growth plate in my femur when I was younger. Surgery was done on the other leg to close the growth plate also. What that left me with was a 18mm ish leg length discrepancy and femurs that are overall 2 inches shorter than they would have been. I have had 2 fits done. I've also done A LOT of experimenting myself both before and after. Even with my short femurs, I do seem to need/prefer a slacker seat tube angle. Maybe the fact that my saddle height is 2 inches lower than it would be and my femur/tibia ratio is out of wack. I suppose a 2 inch lower saddle height is going to bring the saddle forward quite a bit. I also now run all 155mm cranks. If riding clipless, I stagger my cleats so help with the leg length discrepancy as this is what I naturally do on flat pedals. Ive tried different length cranks but only in more commercially available sizes. 175mm is way too long for me so doing 165 short leg/175 long leg didn't really work for me. Maybe if i can get my hands on 145/155 it would help. I think the longer tibia/shorter femur leads to a more closed hip angle at the top of the pedal stroke versus normal/long femur.
That all being said, I never stuck with either one of my professional fits. Both were quite a bit too aggressive. I've also had 2 custom bikes, both of which I sold for being too long. At my fits they did recommend a slacker seat tube angle as on that bike we were already saddle slammed back on a 20mm seat back post with a 73STA. I find that if I start getting back there the interaction of my legs and the cranks feels better but the center of gravity starts getting too rearward and handling suffers. I'd recommend really making sure you find a fitter who understands what your riding style is and what you find more comfortable. A fit for putting down a lot of power through the pedals and one for cruising around town or less aggressive riding is not going to be the same. -Dan Still haven't figured it out. On Monday, January 27, 2025 at 8:13:57 PM UTC-5 Ted Durant wrote: > On Monday, January 27, 2025 at 1:54:59 AM UTC-5 [email protected] wrote: > > I'm curious about the collective opinion regarding professional bike > fitting, and pose these questions as one who has been riding for 50+ years > on mostly drop bar road bikes, without ever having been "fitted"... > > 1. Have you been professionally fitted, and did that result in a > noticeable improvement in comfort? Enough that you would advocate for > others? > 2. I have three or four bikes, set up different ways (Homer with drop bars > as my "road bike", All Rounder with Albatross bars for "adventure", > etc)....if one is "fitted" to a certain bike, does the "fit" apply to > different set-ups? > > > I've also been riding pretty seriously for over 50 years, and I have spent > a lot of time researching fit recommendations and playing with my position > on the bike. I have never paid for a "professional fit", and the horror > stories I read and hear unfortunately outnumber the success stories. Most > of the success stories I hear/read seem to involve people with particular > issues. Most of the horror stories seem to involve people getting very bad > advice. I don't consider myself to be in the special needs category, at > 168cm (66") tall and 57kg (125lb) weight. My annual mileage over the last > decade has been in the 3000-7000 range. My longest rides are 600km. Last > year I rode 177 times, 159 of them outdoor, mostly pavement with some > gravel and dirt thrown in occasionally, an average of 54km (34mi), at an > average speed of 26.0 kph (16.3 mph). I include all that because I think > bike fit has to take into account what type of body you have and what type > of riding you do. > > My riding position has been dialed in and tweaked over the years. In > response to some Achilles tendonitis, I lowered my saddle a bit and found > some relief, and never raised it back (until recently). I like riding with > the tops of the bars pretty close to saddle height, and deep drops with a > fair amount of reach, so when I change hand positions I have a wide range > of body positions. This has served me well, but I have always had some low > back issues that I attribute to a childhood sledding incident. > > I tried a _lot_ of upright bar positions on a few bikes, including a > Cheviot, and never found any that I liked for anything more than fifteen > minutes. That changed when we got a Hubbuhubbuh. I really like the upright > position on that bike, but it doesn't translate well to my drop bar > position (other than saddle height). > > Recently I was measured by a bike builder. According to his measurement > and the popular formulae, my saddle height should be in the neighborhood of > 740mm. I've been riding at 700 and even a bit lower. He also wants my > saddle pushed back, recommending a 71.5 degree seat tube angle. > Interestingly, the STA on the Sam Hillborne is 71.5, and I like that bike > so much I bought 3 of them. I'm not convinced the laid back STA is why I > like that bike so much, but it's interesting. Since that finding I have > brought my saddle height back to 715mm, where it was 10 years ago, and I am > very happy with it there. I tried as much as 725 and started to feel some > strain at the front of my knees. One VERY important detail here is that I > ride binding-less (flat) pedals with a forward foot position, and a neutral > foot angle (not a toe dipper or an exaggerated heel dropper, though at > 700cm I was dropping my heels a fair amount). Not fully forward to > mid-arch, but well forward of "ball of the foot over the pedal axle" > standard advice. With binding systems I slam the cleats as far back as > possible. The experts don't seem to agree on how much to adjust saddle > height for a given change in foot position, but it seems reasonable to me > that where I place my feet could easily require 5-10mm lower saddle height. > For what it's worth, the Rivendell recommendation is to put your saddle > height at PBH - (10 or 11). Mine is exactly PBH - 11. > > Side rant - a popular formula is that saddle height should be (1.09 * PBH) > - crank length, i.e. pedal to saddle top should be 109% of PBH. And, yet, > another popular fit metric is to put your heels on the pedals and you > should be able to pedal backwards without rocking your hips. Set your > saddle to 109% of PBH above pedals, and let me know how that works out for > you! By my math, in order to be able to pedal backwards with your heels on > the pedals and not rock hips the distance should be 100% of PBH. What am I > missing?? > > With regard to different types of handlebar setups, I find that the > upright position on the Hubbuhubbuh feels compatible with the more rearward > saddle position, which makes sense given Grant's evolution toward both more > upright riding and slacker STA's. But the saddle height, for me, stays the > same. > > Also, when I got my first Sam, I put a 1cm shorter stem on it than the > geometry would have suggested to get the same handlebar reach as my other > bikes, and because of the Sam's geometry the tops of the bars are right at > saddle height. It didn't take me long on that bike to ask why I hadn't > tried a shorter stem until then. I've had a couple of vertebral compression > fractures in the last five years, probably losing about a cm or half inch > of height, so shortening the reach makes sense. It has increased comfort > with no apparent cost in speed. My torso position is the same; just my arm > angles have changed. The difference is especially noticeable in my > shoulders and neck, though my lower back seems to complain less, too. > > Also, last year I tried 165mm cranks (vs 170, 171, and 172.5) and I like > them very much. And I recently found that I'd been tipping my saddle back a > bit too much. > > So, sorry, that's a long rambling way of saying no, I haven't had a full > pro fit done, but I've spent a lot of time researching, thinking about it, > and trying different things, and I'm happy with how that's been working out > for me. There is a huge amount of advice online. I have found formulas to > be useful as starting points, but the most helpful advice for me has been > descriptions of what to look for as you change dimensions. > > Ted Durant > Milwaukee WI USA > accumulating a pretty good collection of stems and handlebars that I'll be > putting up for sale this spring! > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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