A Professional Bike Fitting Will Make You Want to Ride Even More | WIRED
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I've been into cycling for decades—riding with grade-school buddies, kicking around in college, then city commuting in Boston, Paris, Barcelona, New York, and now Seattle. Somehow only in the last 10 years, when I became a volunteer mechanic at a bike-centric Seattle nonprofit, did I think about adjusting anything more than the seat height. Now I’m diligent about making sure I have the right bike and that it’s fit for my body and my riding style.
I wish I could have figured that stuff out sooner, so for this story, I wanted to gather expert advice on the basics of what people should look for and what questions to ask when buying a bike. (My colleague Michael Venutolo-Mantovani has more advice if you’re going that route.) After that, I’d take my own bike to a professional fitter and go deep into the nitty-gritty of bike fit to find out what it means to have a tailored ride.
I start with no bike at all. I walk to meet Rebekah Ko, the community resources director at Seattle's Bike Works, the nonprofit where I volunteer. Ko previously ran the sales floor as general manager at the city's Mend Bicycles, and for the purposes of this story we pretend like I am in the market for a bike that I'd use for transportation and general kicking-around fun. We make sure it’s unlike my own bike, so I won't be comparing the two in the back of my mind.
Bike Works sells new bikes and refurbished older bikes, and after a round of questions about what I was looking for, particularly about how and how often I planned to use it, Ko wheels out a Trek Multitrack 7200, a sturdy hybrid likely from the late aughts. This Trek is upright and handsome and silver and blue, with a short wheelbase, flat bars, grip shifters, and a big, squishy seat, all of which are very different from what I'm used to.
“Hybrids are a soft landing ground for many people looking to get into cycling,” she explains.
She checks for about two inches of standover clearance between me and the top of the frame. She then has me put a thumb on top of my left hip and extend my hand out flat in the air next to it, setting the initial seat height just beneath it. With Ko bracing the bike, I hop on, so she can fine-tune the saddle height, making sure I have a slight bend in my knee with the pedal at its lowest point.
"That slight bend helps make sure we are engaging the larger muscles—the glutes and the thighs—where the power comes from," she says. "It also helps keep pressure off of the knees."
From there, it’s time to grab the bars, which can typically be raised, lowered, and pivoted. We then adjust the brake lever angle to make sure my hands rest on them in a relaxed position.
Ko makes sure I look comfortable, not overreached, without locked elbows or a pinched neck, not scrunched into what some call “meerkat position,” with a straight back and the wrists and elbows very bent like you're peering over the top of them.
After these adjustments, it’s generally a good time for some preliminary stock-taking, as you'll hopefully be spending a lot of time on this bike. So how's your keister feel? If the saddle feels wonky, consider a different one. If it feels good, it’s time for a test drive.
I hop on the Trek and pedal around a parking lot, first noticing that giant squishy seat, which is kind of weird … but kinda fun! It fits the bike’s vibe, and I like it. The brakes are nice and grabby. The whole thing feels surprisingly nimble.
From there, I head up to the street and take it around my neighborhood. It’s a beautiful day, and I feel confident dodging potholes and navigating traffic on narrow streets. I feel secure when I need to stop quickly, and I like the perspective shift of the upright hybrid. For a minute I forget that I am working or analyzing how the bike feels. I’m just happily gliding through my neighborhood on Ferdinand Street, passing under my favorite maple trees.
Returning to the shop, I note to Ko that my knees are a little bowlegged, and she raises the saddle a bit, bringing them back in a more natural position.
At this point a rider should take the whole thing into account. There's a bit more fussing that could be done, but if this is clearly not the bike, it'll be apparent now.
"It takes spending time on a bike to know what you want. It's OK not to know right away. Spend some time on it. Trust your body. Cycling and fit is intuitive," she says, establishing her bar for success. "I want to encourage you to ride your bike."
Going Pro
A professional bike fitting is for a different customer base yet shares a lot of DNA with what Ko has shown me.
For it, I bring my own bike—a steel “all-road” ride with nice, fat tires that's comfortable on both streets and gravel—to Jenny Iyo at the Upward Physical Therapy clinic in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood. Ayo is a cyclist and a doctor in physical thera