As you know, I’m in the process of getting myself professionally fit on my road bike via a virtual fit with Victor from Bicycle Lab.  I am having Victor guest post today to share his wisdom on setting yourself up properly on your bike.  The results of my fit will be posted soon.

7 Tips to Make You More Comfortable (and Faster)

By Victor Jimenez (the Bicycle Lab)

Though there is no substitute for seeing an experienced bicycle fitter. There are a lot of simple things you can do on your own.

Adjust Your Seat Height

A properly adjusted seat height is the most important aspect of bicycle fit. A rough starting point is with your foot at the bottom of the pedal stroke you should have around a 30 degree bend in your knee.  This will give you a pretty close approximation of your saddle height from the bottom bracket to the top of the saddle.

Adjust the Cleats on Your Shoes

While you can play with this on your own. I strongly encourage you to have the cleat position professionally evaluated. If set up incorrectly you will be waisting power and in some cases cause muscle strain and injury. But if you choose to adjust on your own. The basic idea is to set the rotation of the cleat so that the center lines up with your natural gait.  The fore and aft adjustment is dependant on your style of riding, body asymmetries, among other variables.

Raise Your Handlebars

Yep you read correct.  A higher bar height will open up your torso to hip angle and help with saddle comfort. Lower-back, hamstring, and hip flexibility are key to this positioning in this area. Improve your flexibility and improve your position. Raising your bars is also a good thing to do when you are not riding as much. Your flexibility will change as your fitness changes.

Level Your Saddle

Your saddle should generally be level or the nose pointed slightly up. If the saddle is uncomfortable in this position there may be something else in your position that needs to be adjusted.

Level Your Bars

The drops of your handlebars should be roughly level or slightly up. This helps keep all the hand positions open.

Tilt Your Aerobars Up Slightly

By tilting your aerobars (if you use aerobars) up slightly most people will find a more relaxed position for their upper body. Aerobar set up is a complex issue, because of differences in design and use.  For more information on Aerobar set up, please contact me.

Put Insoles in Your Shoes

Most cycling shoes have no arch support at all. There are many off the shelf brands to choose from or even better get a custom made pair that is molded to your feet.

Victor Jimenez is a bicycle fitting specialist and the owner of Bicycle Lab. Bicycle Lab specializes in one-on-one bicycle fitting and building high end custom road and triathlon bicycles. Classes and clinics on cycling skills and techniques are also offered to individuals, teams and coaches. Bicycle Lab is based in Carrboro, North Carolina. Victor can be reached at victor@bicycle lab or  Go to http://bicyclelab.com and sign up for the cycling tips newsletter.

When I upgraded to my new Trek Madone last April, one of the things I was hoping to get out of it was a spectacular fit that provided me with hour upon hour of comfort to go along with increased performance from the bike.  It’s been a great road bike, and really can’t complain too much about the fit and comfort….but then again, it’s in my nature not to settle.  I have this strange little personality trait where I just have to keep striving to make something better.

So here I am.  One year of riding on my Madone.  Comfortable.  At one with my bike.  Why would I ever think of changing things?  Like they say, if it ain’t broke…why go and fix it.

To be honest, if I would have known of a professional bike fitter when I bought the bike last year, I would have hit them up for a fit.  But, to my knowledge there was no such professional around these parts.  So I had the bike shop give me their fit and was sent off happy enough with my new ride and the way it fit.

Then I met a guy on Twitter.  His Twitter ID was @BicycleLab and he oozed great cycling wisdom from many of his Tweets.  I told him that I wished there was someone doing what he does over here, and he came back to me with some fantastic news.  He told me that if I had a camera, video camera, and tripod he would be able to give me a virtual fit.  Upon learning more….and given the fact that I already considered this guy a cycling guru, I decided to enlist his services.

Victor Jimenez from the Bicycle Lab has over 20 years of experience in custom fitting bikes to their owners.  He started off with a high end retail bicycle shop, and taught clinics on bicycle fit, repair, frame selection, and riding skills to enthusiasts.  Today, Victor focuses on helping cyclists obtain the most out of their sport and is passionately committed to helping the bicycle become more utilitarian here in North America, and worldwide.  Basically, he just truly wants to help people.  Once you meet him, there is no denying that truth.  Bicycle Lab is a small business that offers one-on-one bicycle fitting and mechanical services. They also design and build custom road and triathlon bikes under their own Karma Cycleworks brand.

Okay, so back to the fit.  They say that change is one of the hardest things for us as human beings to adjust to.  That it is the cause of great stress in our lives.  But to get the most out of life, we have to try new things and experience various circumstances and situations.  Yet, so many stay contained within their comfort zones.  Fearing the unknown.  Fearing to make a change.  These same feelings likely play a part in our relationship with our bikes as well.  “I’m comfortable on my bike…why would I want to mess with it?”

I know that my body type is far different than any other guy out there riding a 53” Madone, so why haven’t I tweaked it to mold to my body?  I haven’t been convinced that I have the utter most ideal fit on my bike…and I’m not going to let these questions linger any longer.

I want to see what will happen.  I want to know I am set up perfectly on my bike.  That the fit cannot get any better. The time has come and I’m ready to put it all in the hands of the Bicycle Lab.

Stay tuned…..