WHAT'S NEW IN BIKE

Getting correctly set up on your bike can make a big difference to comfort as well as performance. Phil Burt outlines the latest developments in the art and science of bike-fit...

Like your riding position, the practice of bike-fitting evolves over the years. Since riders began taking a scientific approach to their set-up in the 1980s, biomechanists, physios, coaches and riders themselves have learnt a lot about how geometr y affects comfort, per formance, efficiency and durabilit y. Some of these improvements grew out of deliberate research, others from chance discover y during trial-anderror experimentation.

I worked as lead physio at British Cycling for 12 years, through three Olympic cycles, and saw the impact of many of these changes first-hand – and even played a part in a few of them. My first bike-fit book was published in 2014, and since then there have been so many important developments in the field that I k new a substantial update was due. The fully revised second edition was launched last year. In this feature, I want to share with you some of the headline changes in bike-fit over the past decade so that you can put them into practice, whether it ’s to improve comfor t, ease a niggle, or just to go that bit faster.

1 YOU MIGHT NOT NEED ONE

Not ever ybody needs a bike-fit. That can be a controversial thing to say among my fel low biker-fitters, but it ’s true. There is no exact ideal position for each r ider. Instead, there is a bikefit w indow – atolerance range that some riders stumble into by chance or instinct. Some people’s w indows are nar rower than others, depending on their particular injury histor y, biomechanics and the demands of their cycling. That said, ever ybody stands to make some gain from having a quality fit – you don’t k now what you don’t k now!

If you’re having pain or discomfor t on the bike, book ing a bike-fit is a very good idea. The less straight for ward mot ivat ion is a desire to improve per formance, which requires a bit of thought about the extent to which your position can and should be optimised. Some riders come for a fit just because they ’re get ting older, recognise they ’re not as flex ible as they used to be and want to make sure their bike set-up is going to give them many more years of pain-free cycling – that ’s a wise move.

2 FAR MORE TYPES OF FIT AVAILABLE

There is huge variance bet ween the bike-fits on offer, ranging from the purely obser vational – someone putting you on a turbo in the back of a bike shop – all the way up to wind tunnels, dynamic motion analysis, pressure mapping and all the rest. More technolog y does not guarantee a better bike-fit. For example, I’ve used Retül equipment for years, but it is just a tool – unless it ’s correctly used, the technolog y counts for very little. Far more important is doing your research around the experience