Position critique

I am by no means an expert, so take this as a casual observation:  although it is hard to tell since your pedals are not down, it looks to me like your seat is not high enough, i.e., that at the bottom of your pedal stroke, your leg would be bent a bit too much.  I also suspect that with a slightly higher seat, you could get a bit more aero (back flatter).  You seem pretty upright in that pic.

ETA:  if the seat IS high enough, then you could also consider lowering the bars to get your front end down a bit.


Edited by Experior 2009-07-27 9:40 PM

Your calves and quads are ripped.

I hate you.

Yup, to me (and I know nothing really) the seat looks too low. Everything else looks good.

Dope photo too!

No comments on saddle height as your feet are not in the proper position to judge, but you could slide the bars forward 1/4 to 1/2" to get the proper 90 degree arm to torso angle. It would also flatten your back a little in doing so.

+2 on the shallow shoulder angle but I wouldn't start making adjustments until you're sure that your seat height is reasonable. If your seat is too low, raising it would increase your shoulder angle. But it's impossible to tell from that photo. You need to take a photo with your crank arm down and inline with your seat post. Also, you can obtain more accurate angles from a photo if you mark your hip bone protrusion on your shorts so it's visible in the photo.

I agree with this: can't tell about seat height, if it's ok, then lower your handle bars- looks like you have a lot of risers in there anyway. Either way, you will probably still be too high up front.

if the seat height is indeed correct, you are sitting up really really far.

the first thing i would do would be to slide out on the bars a bit, you are back on them (choking up).

if that doesnt lower things, flip the stem, then slowly remove some spacers.

Thank you all for your opinions. I have included another picture (obviously not aero) here with my foot at the bottom of my pedal stroke, does my seat still look too low?

Thanks again everyone





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position.jpg (16KB - 16 downloads)

Yes, if that is your leg fully extended, your seat is too low. I would go up a couple inches, and take another picture.

It does to me (again, I'm no expert).

Still can't tell much from that photo because you're not on the aerobars and your extended leg's crankarm is not in line with the seat post. IMO, your position is not good and you should either get a professional fit or take some good photos of yourself as I describe above so that you can make some intelligent decisions about changes to your position.

My first reaction in both pictures was that your seat is too low... your legs don't look like they can extend and give the pedals full power. If you correct that, then take another picture, that might call for another change...

my thoughts.


yes the saddle is too low, move it up some and see where it falls.

if you can, get a picture from the side, holding the shifters in your hands (if you cant do this and stay comforatbale on the arm rests something on theb ars needs to move.

from there it would be a lot easier to figure out what else/how far to move it.
ie if that feels ok, then moving the bars up or down from there would likely be all you would need to move. if they are too long/short, then that comes into play as well.

How long have you been riding in that position?  Agree from 2nd photo that seat is low, but if you've been riding that way for months you may want to make gradual changes to allow your body to adjust. And most rec getting proper seat position first before find tuning arm position. 
As you might have seen in TdF coverage, even among top pro cyclists there is some individual variation in optimal/preferred TT position.

I very much agree with your point of incremental change. But, I'm not so sure that the seat is actually "low". When I put the protractor on the photo the knee angle appears to be 130 degrees. But if the pedal were actually in the correct position (crankarm in line with seatpost), the knee angle appears to me to be over 145 degrees which puts it in a reasonable range. Again without a quality photo it's very hard to tell for sure as angles change when a rider gets down on the aerobars.

According to Empfield,

"The angle formed ought to be either 145-150 degrees, or 150-155 degrees, depending on whom you talk to. For road riding, I think 150 degrees sounds pretty good. For tri bike riding I like it closer to 153-155 degrees."

http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/techctr/bikefit.html

Here's a great bunch of info with pictures from the place where I bought my bike:

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/karma.shtml