Bike Geometry Important?
835
Member
1367 days
glbrum posted 2 years ago.
one thing, moving the seat back probably won't help with being too far over the bars. The best thing to do for that would be to adjust the length of the bars (if yours are adjustable) or get a longer stem.
1790
Member
1528 days
PrinceofClydes posted 2 years ago.
Dave Scott once showed up for a race without his own bike and had to borrow one. The actual dimensions of top tube - down tube - seat tube, the bike's "geometry" was close but not exactly the same as his own.
By the end of the bike leg he had such tightness and discomfort in his hamstrings that he did not win, in fact, he had a miserable race.
Which demonstrates two things:
1) a highly trained athlete is a fine-tuned machine. Don't mess with the specifics: bike, shoes, goggles, nutrition, even socks! on race day.
2) bike geometry actually causes the athlete to adapt to it, since steel and carbon fibre doesn't mould to your shape over time the way leather shoes will.
In the latter case, the wrong geometry may be tolerable for a while, but as you become a fitter, more powerful human, the stresses of a bad fit may show up as pain in the hip -thigh - lower back area or neck-shoulders-wrists, as your joints become slightly distorted to function on this rigid frame.
At that point you will have invested loads of time and effort into your training and, like Dave Scott did, you will find it difficult to change to another machine, in effect, starting over.
So best to get the best fit your budget allows to begin with. Take the time. It's worth it.
PoC
"Pain doesn't last, chicks dig scars, glory is forever!"
- Shane Falco.
2436
Member
1319 days
Triguy98 posted 2 years ago.
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/techctr/basebar.html
It is important. Pretty darn important. The slowtwitch site has tons of info, go through (it'll take a while) and become edjubicated.
Life is short. Play hard and get dirty doing it.
40
Member
1076 days
donegal1 posted 2 years ago.
Geometry is VERY important. Very very very.
Slowtwitch is the place to go to read up on the subject. Dan Empfield has some great articles. Here's another good one:
I am not clear on how important having a proper bike fit and bike geometry on the bike are. I figure as long I am comfortable and nothing is hurting, all is well. Well, currently I have a road bike with clip on aero bars. That alone, according to my bike shop, makes my bike "unfit." In other words, in order to fit my bike for me, I would have to ditch the aero bars, and thats not happening. I also added a tri-saddle to my bike, b/c I wanted a bit more comfort. When I added this, I noticed I was much further over the aero bars and my hands were hanging over them, so I figured I just need to move the seat back a bit. But it felt very comfortable--it just looks totally goofy with a road bike with a tri-bike complex. Maybe I will go for the trifecta and had some zipp wheels or something....NOT!!
Anyways, I don't feel that I would suddenly be totally faster with correct "geometry" so what am I missing here? I can't afford a tri bike yet, but understand that would be the ideal solution. So for now I am making the best of it.