Bike Fit: Optimise Your Bike Position for High Performance and Injury Avoidance
By Phil Burt, Chris Hoy and Chris Boardman
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About this ebook
Do you suffer from lower back pain after a long weekend ride? Do your shoes wear out on one side more than the other? Are you experiencing numbness in your hands, or knee pain?
Phil Burt, Head Physiotherapist at British Cycling and Team Sky Consultant Physiotherapist, has worked with hundreds of cyclists to help them solve these and many other classic cycling niggles. In this book he outlines his methods to help you analyse your position and get the best from your bike. The right BIKE FIT can mean the difference between a good ride and a bad one, but a professional fit can cost more than you paid for your bike. The information is all here. Let Phil Burt guide you through your own BIKE FIT, to ensure your bike and body work in harmony.
Packed with useful diagrams, step by step diagnostics and case studies, this is the must-read for any cyclist keen to get a performance advantage.
Phil Burt
Phil Burt was the lead physiotherapist for British Cycling as they dominated the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, and his work there continues to change the cycling world's thinking. He has been with Team Sky Pro Cycling from the beginning, which in four years went from scratch to winning the Tour de France twice.
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Phenomenal read for any cyclist trying to be more efficient on the bicycle.
Book preview
Bike Fit - Phil Burt
FOREWORD: SIR CHRIS HOY
I love seeing so many people out on bikes, but few things frustrate me more than seeing someone riding a machine that is poorly set up.
When I speak to new cyclists, it is striking how often they complain of a sore bum, or a bad back, or an injured knee. They’ve tried cycling, they say, but find it painful, uncomfortable or both – and therefore not very enjoyable.
I cannot understand it, because I love riding my bike and, unless repeating flat-out efforts on the track in training, do find it enjoyable. But I would say that 99 times out of 100 they are in pain not because the saddle is too hard, or that riding a bike is too strenuous. It is because the bike has not been set up correctly. Similarly, when people ask me for advice about riding a charity event or sportive, perhaps for the first time, they are often looking for training tips. They want to know what distances to ride, and how often.
Before you worry about that, I say, make sure your position is right.
Riding a bike with the wrong position is a bit like trying to run in somebody else’s shoes. I arrived at the ‘right’ position through lots of trial and error but also with the help of some expert advice, from coaches and experienced riders.
I ended up riding the same position for 15 years, and now I don’t need a tape-measure to tell me if the three points of contact – bottom, hands and feet – are correct for me. I can do it on feel. I can hop on a bike and tell you if the saddle is half a centimetre too high or too low.
As a full-time cyclist you become really attuned to your position, and very sensitive to any changes. I remember in the first part of the 2003 season my saddle height was slightly out – it was a tiny bit too high. The change was marginal but it gave me knee problems almost immediately.
The person who has helped me overcome such injuries for almost a decade is Phil Burt. I’ve worked with numerous physiotherapists but leading up to the Beijing and London Olympic Games I spent as much time talking to and seeking advice from Phil as from my coaches.
I can honestly say that he did as much as anyone to keep me in one piece, especially in the build-up to London when at times my 36-year-old body seemed to be giving up on me. As well as being a really nice bloke, he is also a very big guy, so he is able to manipulate my back better than most.
But it is on the subject of bike position that Phil has become an expert. I perhaps wouldn’t have needed as much trial-and-error 15 years ago if I had known Phil then.
It is great that he has now collected his knowledge in this book. My advice to any cyclist, new or old, has always been to seek expert advice from experienced cyclists, coaches or physios, or from a reputable bike shop. But now there is another option, and that is to consult Phil’s book.
I hope it means that when I’m out on my own bike, passing other cyclists – or, now that I have retired, being passed by them – I can admire others’ positions on their bikes, rather than regretting the fact that they could be getting so much more enjoyment from their cycling – and avoiding injury – if only their saddle was the right height!
As I’m sure everyone can appreciate, it is so much more comfortable, efficient and fun to be running in your own shoes.
Chris Hoy, Manchester, June 2013
FOREWORD: CHRIS BOARDMAN
I am a spreadsheet kind of guy, I love understanding things, finding formulas and efficiency gains, so you’d think that bike fitting and position finding would be right up my street.
It’s probably not surprising then that together with my coach Peter Keen, a well-respected, even world-renowned sports scientist, I did indeed study the world of position efficiency while I was a professional cyclist for the best part of a decade. Because the nature of my job saw me ride events from four minutes to 3 weeks in duration, we explored and experimented in many different areas: climbing, long-distance riding, extreme track pursuit and of course time trialling.
For early work on time-trial and track-racing posture, we retreated to Peter’s garage where, with the help of a full-length mirror and an SRM ergometer, we learned just how unknowingly closed-minded we actually were when it came to the topic of positions.
The ergometer allowed us almost infinite movement in any plane and the ability to consider geometry completely free of standard bicycle parts. In fact, apart from having a saddle, pedals and some handlebars, the contraption didn’t even look like a bicycle, which would prove to be a huge breakthrough.
On one occasion, we had embarked on a session to investigate aerodynamic positions. We used the full-length mirror set out in front to monitor my silhouette (or frontal area) with the goal of minimising this while I monitored mechanical efficiency with each change we made. Due to the strange shape of the ergometer, we explored on feel without measuring until we arrived at something we felt looked promising and that I felt I could maintain for the duration of the event we were training for. Only then did we measure things and find just what it all translated to in terms of frame sizes and stem lengths, our usual stock in trade. Had we been on standard and recognisable equipment, our concept of what a bike rider could do would have prevented us from ever exploring, and subsequently finding, the position we had now settled upon. From that moment on, we never measured during a positional session, not until after we had finished evaluating ideas, lest our own prejudices encourage us to ignore more important data.
We carried this philosophy on when studying climbing positions too. This time our goal was to find an efficient and sustainable stance in which to tackle the mountain passes of the Tour de France. For this we pioneered the use of treadmills, first to explore, record and change positions in the lab (at Brighton University) and then to reinforce muscular learning with long stints of many hours’ climbing under heat lamps to simulate the conditions of the great race.
No matter what type of riding you want to optimise your position for, the number of factors to be considered is enormous: personal sensitivity to small adjustment, individual body shape, individual muscularity, the type of bike being used, the type of riding you will do, how long you will typically be riding for, clothing, shoes etc. All of these things and much more influence the overall ‘positional package’.
You will notice the term ‘feel’ cropped up repeatedly in the above narrative and there is a reason for that. In all the time we explored the intricacies of bicycle positioning, we never found the magic formula. Indeed I am now thoroughly convinced that there isn’t a single recipe and never will be. However, what I do think is emerging – and the evidence is in these pages – are solid procedures for coming to educated conclusions and consistently acceptable solutions for a wide variety of riding needs.
Phil Burt has probably spent more time looking at these issues with more of the world’s top athletes and across more disciplines than any other person on the planet.
So if you believe as I do that positioning will always be a blend of good science and good judgement, I think you can feel confident that both can be found between the covers of this book.
INTRODUCTION
I see it all the time: an obviously fit cyclist using a good bike, but riding in a position so bad that it cancels out most of the advantages of the expensive machine and the hours of training.
Finding your optimum position on the bike is fundamental for performance, for comfort and to avoid injuries. But here’s the tricky thing: there isn’t a magic formula. There isn’t even necessarily a ‘correct’ position. A lot of the time it’s about finding the right balance. Complicating things further, is the fact that position matters more for some riders than for others.
If ever proof were needed that bike fitting is not an exact science it comes thanks to two of the British riders on Team Sky. Take Geraint Thomas, a double Olympic gold medallist. A couple of years ago, Geraint rode half a stage of the Tour de France on a spare bike that wasn’t his. It was the wrong size. And he didn’t even notice! Geraint is what I call a ‘macro-absorber’.
On the other hand, Ben Swift, who has picked up several big wins since turning professional in 2010, is highly sensitive to any changes in his position. Put Ben on four different bikes all set up exactly the same to within a millimetre, and, without even riding them he will tell you which one has a new saddle. Ben is what I call a ‘micro-adjuster’.
Geraint and Ben are at two ends of the spectrum, and most people – as you would probably expect – are somewhere in between. But for everybody (even Geraint), finding the optimum position on a bike is important if you want to perform to the very best of your abilities. To macro-absorbers like Geraint, the window is wider – but he is not going to win the Tour of Flanders, or contend at the Tour de France, if he is on a bike that isn’t set up properly for him.
This is why, at Team Sky and British Cycling, we have put so much thought and effort into helping our riders find out the best position for them. Having riders using the best positions definitely means better performances and reduced chance of injury.
It isn’t easy. When Team Sky was set up in 2010 we had to fit 30 new riders, who had been riding 14 different brands of bike the previous year, to bikes made by our supplier, Pinarello. The problem is that a 56cm Pinarello frame is not the same as a 56cm Specialized, Trek or Giant frame – no two manufacturers are exactly alike. The differences may be small (Geraint might not notice; Ben would), but – even for macro-absorbers – they matter.
It therefore became a priority to develop a process for transferring a new rider to a team bike. At the same time, I have worked on a system to find riders’ optimum positions. It has taken four years, but I think we’ve got there.
More people ride a bike now than at any time since its invention around 150 years ago. Riders range in age from the very young to the very old. The popularity of sportive rides (participation events rather than races) is increasing exponentially. The range and type of bikes available has never been so exotic or wide. Our choices when it comes to why, what and how we cycle have never been so varied.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is the way we sit on the bike. We still sit on a saddle, pedal with our feet and hold the handlebars with our hands. Sounds simple. And yet the potential variety stemming from these five contact points – two feet, two hands, one bottom – is enormous. How then do we arrive at a healthy and productive compromise of these coordinates in order to cycle?
Some of us just jump on a bike for transport over short distances. It might not even be our own bike – and a simple saddle height adjustment sees everything alright.
At the other extreme, some riders spend hours and hours pushing themselves to the very limits of human performance. For these people, how those coordinates are arranged makes a very big difference in terms of safety, injury avoidance, comfort and performance.
It is this balancing act – between performance, aerodynamics, comfort and sustainability – that is the crux of good bike fit. But each of these ‘pillars’ of bike fit is specific to the individual. There’s no point being the most aerodynamic rider in a time trial if you can’t hold the position for longer than 30 seconds before shifting around, thus creating turbulence, losing the aero advantage and losing rhythm and power.
When someone wants to ride a bike they form a relationship between their body (varyingly adaptable) and the bike (finitely adjustable). This interface between rider and machine is a delicate balancing act, more delicate for some than others – as my example of Geraint Thomas and Ben Swift demonstrates.
Injury is as, if not more, important a consideration as performance. In training and competition some riders seem to get more injured more often than others. The holy grail of sports medicine is to be able to predict who and why and make changes accordingly. In spite of hugely involved assessments of ourselves from multiple angles, we are still not very close to this goal.
Examining the interaction between rider and bike set-up is another form of assessment. I have now completed a great many – and it’s fascinating. To my mind it correlates well with how the same riders fare on and off the bike in training: for example when doing hard blocks of riding or gym work. The same people who fail to adapt to training or get injured are invariably those who are very sensitive