Bike racing has the reputation of being a closed sport. Not necessarily because all cyclists are snobs (though they may be), but more because cycling in the US has been a sport that was difficult to find out about and get started with compared to mainstream ball sports. The people who did discover it found a secret world of Italian racing bikes and pink newspapers, or maybe decided to study French instead of Spanish in high school. Road cycling has always been a special subculture that was hard to crack, and so people were protective of the knowledge they gained, rather than eager to share it.If road racing is a subculture, than cyclocross is another faction subdivided from that: the ...
Get Fit: 4 Critical Bike Fit Measurements
Whether you spend 5 hours a week on your bike or 35, a proper fit can make all the difference. Like many aspects of training for cycling, bike fit is a type of quasi-science, with a lot of folk knowledge and old school adages mixed in with attempts at real measurements of performance changes based on certain angles and lengths. A balance between both is in order, since the science tells us what should be the case, while the real world experience tells us how it actually feels. Either way, there are four primary measurements that we'll focus on here: saddle height, saddle setback, handlebar reach, and handlebar drop. There are many, many other important factors like cleat position, ...
In Position to Win: TT Bike Fit
In the article Get Fit! I outlined my four crucial parameters for bike fit: saddle height, saddle set back, handlebar reach, and handlebar drop. In this article I want to take that one step further and talk about how to use those same guidelines to dial in your time trial position, either on your road bike or on a dedicated time trial bike.When Boone Lennon first pioneered clip-on or "tri-bars" in the late '80's, his initial model and inspiration was downhill ski racers: head low, back flat, arms together and pointed up in front. He almost had it right; it was certainly an improvement, and evidenced most convincingly by Greg Lemond's barnstorming win in the final time trial of the ...