Earlier this week I visited Fraser Bicycle and Fitness where Melissa and Chris put me and my bike on a trainer and gave me a bunch of help and advice on basic bike fit issues on the 2007 Jamis Nova that I picked up a couple weeks ago. This is the first drop bar bike I’ve had, so I really wasn’t sure where to start for getting fit right. Thanks to them I’m now in a position on the bike where I’m much more comfortable, something that’ll be pretty important if I ride this bike frequently.
By moving the saddle 5mm forward, switching to a 75mm 11° stem (from a 100mm 6°), and adjusting the bar and lever position they were able to put me in a much better position on the bike. They also gave me suggestions for how to position the levers and bars, including some nifty tricks such as ensuring the axle is obscured by the bar while on the hoods, and nose being over the bar while in the drops. Additional testing on the trainer at home and on a ride around the neighborhood showed that it’s definitely more comfortable, and thus far I don’t notice a difference in steering. (Steering becomes twitchier with a reduction in distance between hands and the steerer tube, but I don’t seem to notice this, likely because I find road/CX bikes to be twitchy anyway compared to my mountain bikes.)
The animated GIF above is intended to show the differing position on the bike before and after fit, and I think it does a decent job, even though I’m probably not as settled into a riding position in the Fixed image as I would be while out on a longer ride. I’m more upright, supporting myself a bit less on my arms, and my forearm-to-hand position is more of a straight line.
While I didn’t get a full bike fit, I was in the room where they do such fittings, and Fraser’s setup is really impressive. They’ve got everything from a full Retül system that allows bar/saddle/pedals to be positioned every which way to a motion capture system to see exactly what is going on when one’s pedaling. It’s a really serious setup. Their full bicycle fits are designed to get everything as ideal as possible.