Bike Fitting at Loue Bicycles - Initial Fitting

Although I have been riding bikes for quite a number of years now, I have never gone for a proper bike fit. I have always adjusted my bikes based on my feeling and advice from experienced cyclists. So far it has worked pretty well, with the handlebar and saddle positions more or less optimum.

However, on faster or longer rides, I will tend to feel uncomfortable, as if some setting is wrong. The hamstrings or calves will feel stretched, even though the saddle is not too high. Generally it is OK to ride but I just feel like it is not optimized.

That is why I decided to go for a proper bike fit, to see what is the issue. A better position will improve the efficiency of my cycling, more than any equipment upgrade. Based on recommendations, I went to Timothy of Loue Bicycles for a Classic Dynamic Bike Fit.

There is a 3 month waiting time, so I had to wait patiently after booking a bike fit session. Apparently each bike fit takes quite a few hours, so there is only a limited number of bike fits that can be done each day.

The day has arrived! Loue Bicycles is located just above the F45 gym at 11A Lichfield Road.

Brought my Focus Paralane road bike there, to get it fitted properly for road riding. Removed all the accessories to make it easier for adjustments.

Here we are!

With the bare minimum components necessary, even the mudguards have been removed.

I have never gone for a bike fit before, so I was not sure what to expect. Before I started pedaling on the bike trainer, Timothy started by analyzing my body posture and balance while barefooted. This will help to find any issues with flexibility or motion limitations.

Since I was using MTB SPD cleats, he also reset the cleat position to a more efficient and stable location.

Apparently my cleat position was too far forward, which can lead to ankle instability and calf strain during hard pedaling. A better position is to place the cleat slightly behind the joint of the big toe, which will improve the pedaling stability.

To do that, he pasted a tiny magnet on the joint of my big toe, and then I wore my shoe with the magnet attached to my foot. From the outside of the shoe, he used another magnet to locate the magnet on my foot, this transfers the toe joint position to the outside of the shoe.

Then, using markers, he traced the position of my toe joint all the way down to the bottom of the shoe, where the cleat will be fixed.

Using markers to indicate the position of my toe joint, and trace it all the way down to the bottom of the shoe, where the cleat is.

The cleat is set slightly rearward of the toe joint, for better ankle stability and pedaling efficiency.

See how big the difference is! The new position is shown on the left, while my old cleat position is on the right. I think it shifted by almost 20 mm.

Only then did I get on the bike and start pedaling, with the new cleat position.

The new cleat position felt different, as a 20 mm change is very big. However, it felt better, as the ankle is really more stable, due to the shorter distance between the ankle joint and the cleat. To think that I have been cycling with a poor cleat position for such a long time!

The bike trainer is placed on a movable platform, which can swivel 360 degrees. This is because there are cameras at the sides, while the Retul bike fit sensors are on another wall. By swiveling the platform, the cameras and sensors can view and measure all around the bike.

Timothy noticed that while I was pedaling, my right hip was swiveling forward. He actually predicted this earlier, when I did a plank posture on the floor. He noticed that my right hip dipped downwards quite a lot compared to the left side.

True enough, this natural asymmetry of my body causes my right hip to swivel forward on every pedal stroke. When the hip swivels forward, it effectively shortens the distance from the saddle to the pedal. The result is that the saddle height is too low for my right leg, while it is too high for my left leg.

Picture from the rear, showing how my right hip swivels forward on every pedal stroke.

This asymmetry is made worse by the saddle, which he says does not provide me with enough support. I have been using the Selle Italia SLR Kit Carbonio Flow saddle for many years, and I have a titanium rail version of it on my other bikes as well.

Although this saddle shape is nice and are super lightweight, they are not wide enough for me, at just 130 mm wide.

By placing a pressure sensitive mat on my saddle, it can map the pressure points exerted by my sit bones. Here is how it looks like below.

Pressure map on my Selle Italia saddle, with more pressure on the left side compared to the right side.

The saddle pressure points correlates with the observation from the camera, where the right hip swivels forward. Since my saddle height was set (unknowingly) at the mid point between my right leg and left leg reach, it means that the saddle is actually too high up for my left leg. On every pedal stroke, my left leg has to overextend in order to reach the bottom of the pedal stroke, which is why there is higher pressure on the left sit bone. This was the discomfort that I felt, but I could not explain what it was, without the cameras and sensors showing what is going on.

Apparently most people have some degree of asymmetry, so it is quite normal. From his experience, it is difficult to correct body asymmetry, as the body tends to revert back to what it is used to under high load or stress. It is more sustainable to adjust other parts to suit the body asymmetry.

For a start, I need a saddle with better support, which means a wider saddle. Somehow I had already felt that the saddle might be one of the causes of my discomfort, which is why I had already bought a new saddle, but did not fit it on the bike yet.

This is the PRO Stealth Superlight Saddle, which is the lightest version of the Stealth saddle. Everyone I know who has tried the Stealth saddle has high praise for it, which is why I got one as well without even testing it. A separate review of the saddle will be done subsequently after more riding.

PRO Stealth Superlight Saddle, with a monocoque carbon shell integrated with the saddle rails.

Since I had already brought the saddle to the bike fit, Timothy helped to fit it onto the bike, and also adjust the saddle height. After some height and angle adjustments, the saddle pressure was checked again.

This time, the saddle pressure is much more balanced between the left and right side, as shown below. It is amazing how a wider saddle can improve this asymmetry between my left and right pedaling strokes.

With the new PRO Stealth saddle, the saddle pressure is almost equal between the left and right side (right view is with the new PRO Stealth saddle).

Using the side camera to help optimize the saddle height and position. This has to be done before moving on to the handlebar position.

Although the PRO saddle has much better support, it still does not completely solve the asymmetry caused by my right hip rotation during pedaling, as there is still a slight leg length difference. There is another adjustment that Timothy did to the cleat, which I will explain in the next post.

For this bike fit, we started with the cleat positioning, followed by the saddle position. This pedaling platform has to be set correctly before we can move on to the handlebar position.

With the saddle height adjusted, next is to adjust the height and reach of the handlebars. Based on what Timothy sees, the height of the handlebar is OK, but the reach can be longer. I had also bought a longer stem, in anticipation of this issue. It seems like I roughly knew what was wrong with my riding posture, but without an expert analysis, I could not quite highlight the exact issue.

By swapping the stem from 80 mm to 90 mm, the reach is better for road riding. 

PRO PLT Stem, 90 mm long.

So far, the saddle has been changed to a wider one, while the stem has also been changed to a longer one. During handlebar adjustment, he also asked why I used a 38 cm wide handlebar. It was strange as I was sure I was using a 40 cm wide handlebar as I always did.

Upon measurement, we found that although the handlebar is labeled at 40 cm, it is 40 cm wide only at the drops. At the top where the shifter hoods are, it measures about 38.5 cm. There is some flare on the handlebar which explains this difference, which I have never noticed.

I can either keep this slightly narrower handlebar for better aerodynamics, or change to a proper 40 cm handlebar next time. For now, no problem to continue using it.

Finally, after the bike has been adjusted to be optimum for me, it is time to record down the measurements, so that this same measurements can be transferred to other bikes. I thought he was going to measure the dimensions one by one to record them down, but it ended up being much more high tech that I expected.

With the Retul sensors on the wall recording the position of the probe, he started tracing the position of critical points on the bike. Using the probe, he followed the sequence on the screen to trace the required areas on the bike.

For example, to log the centre of the bottom bracket, he inserted the tip of the probe into one of the chain ring bolts, and turned the crank one round to mark the centre of the bottom bracket. Next, he traced the profile of the saddle, and this automatically gives the saddle height relative to the bottom bracket. Other measurements include tracing the shifters to give the handlebar height and reach, etc.

This is basically measuring the entire bike using a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM), where the key dimensions of the bike is traced and recorded.

Bike geometry definitions

And this is my bike fit data! All these measurements are automatically calculated based on the probe tracing of the key bike components.

I was very amazed by the CMM measurement of the bike geometry, it is so much easier, faster and accurate than manual measurements. With this data, I can transfer the same setup to another bike for the same bike fit.

Summary of changes:

1) Cleat position shifted rearwards by about 20 mm

2) Saddle width changed from 130 to 142 mm

3) Stem length changed from 80 mm to 90 mm

4) Saddle height adjusted based on new cleat position and saddle

There are other changes, which I will explain more in subsequent posts.

5) To get better insoles with more support for the foot arch

6) Cleat shim added under left cleat

It will take some time to get used to the new bike fit, but it should get better once I ride more in the new posture. The whole session took 3 full hours, 1 on 1 with Timothy. I learnt a lot and now I know the value of a good bike fit. There is no point getting the best bike if you don't fit well on that bike.

To be continued!