# Checkout Francois' Bike Fit!



## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

During our ride Francois pointed out that my saddle was too high (which he is right). So I was poking around looking at articles on bike fit and coming up with a "poor mans" high tech plan to refit my bike. I would use Karl's service but my wife is pretty fed up with my bike spending lately and asking for money to do a bike fit right now is out of the question (maybe in a few months).

My plan was to set up my trainer, tripod and digital camera (Rebel XT) and take some test shots and adjust my bike so that my back is straight and my leg has aprox. a 25º-30º bend in it. I found some cool tools for my Mac that would allow me to measure the angles on the screen. To test my plan I was cruising through photos to take some sample measurements based on my reading. Check out this awesome side shot of Francois!










I think he has almost the ideal bike fit. His back is almost perfectly straight and the angle of his arms is at a perfect 90º angle! Look at the slight bend in his leg, it's almost a perfect 25º bend. Amazing! Did you fit yourself or did you use a professional?










I'm defiantly got some work to do with my setup, Look at that hump in my back. My leg in my down stroke is practically straight. Francois even mentioned that I'm pointing my toes to try and reach the down pedal stroke. I will admit that my ass was a bit sore from the saddle by the end of the ride. The night before I was playing around with my seat post on a bike I'm building up and I just put it on my bike before the ride and eye balled the height (which was totally wrong). When I get done with my experiment this weekend I will post the method and results.

(Updated the angles... thx numbnutz)


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## numbnutz (Mar 14, 2005)

that's not a 45 degree angle


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## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

Did you measure it? oops.. your right... 90º


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## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

The angle of his back relative to the ground is about 45º (give our take a few degrees since the photo is not perfectly level) But still... it's pretty damn close.


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## Leopold Porkstacker (Jul 15, 2005)

Wow, that observation is sort of an eye-opener. Surely my setup is a bit more “agressive” (read: fast in sprints, but hard on the back). I’d be interested to see how severe my angles are skewed into next Thursday.

By the way, which app did you use (I’ve been a loyal Mac user since 1984)?

(edits in blue, so as to make clear my intention was that Crankmonkey’s _observations_ were an eye-opener for me, and not looking at pictures of francois’ 90° posture getting me excited. My wife can vouch for this too.


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## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

I was originally using a program called pixel stick. But I was getting some of the measurements wrong. Now I'm using a program called "Screen Protractor" to measure the angles and then I used OmniGraffle to draw the labels and such. Here is a photo.










Btw... I think I measured the angle of his leg wrong it appears to be about 40º (which is why I switched to Screen Protractor). So from my analysis his fit is not perfect but it's pretty close. Probably needs to move his seat up a few cm.


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## K-Zero (Feb 7, 2004)

CrankyMonkey said:


> I was originally using a program called pixel stick. But I was getting some of the measurements wrong. Now I'm using a program called "Screen Protractor" to measure the angles and then I used OmniGraffle to draw the labels and such. Here is a photo.


This thread came at a perfect timing. I recently made a height adjustment to the saddle and all of the sudden I started noticing soreness behind my right knee...so last night I re-adjusted my seat position using the 25-degree rule. Hopefully this will alleviate the discomfort.

Thanks for the info on the measuring apps!

K-Zero


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## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

Cool... Looks good from my amateur eye...  

Here are my results:










and KOPS










I ended up with a 27º bend because that felt was the most comfortable. I also straightened out my back some and got a shorter stem. I was reading on Sheldon 'RIP' Brown's web site and he mentioned that you should always have a slight arch in your back to help absorb bumps from the road. I also set it up so there so my elbows are bent slightly. I'm going to do a few rides with this setup and see how much of a difference it makes. It would be interesting to get professionally fitted to see how much different the setup would be from my amateur attempts.


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## Leopold Porkstacker (Jul 15, 2005)

CrankyMonkey said:


> Cool... Looks good from my amateur eye...
> 
> Here are my results:
> 
> ...


I recognise you now from those two side profile mugshots. Of course it has been established that you live down the street from where I work, and you must work strange hours since you are able to go on rides when I need to be at work. I think when I saw you riding my reaction was along the lines of, “Damn, that’s a big blue Schwinn!”


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## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

Ha Ha... that's what I thought when i saw my bike at the shop. The saving grace for "Big Blue" is that I got it for $584 brand new and I've never had any issues (mechanically) with it since I got it. I do feel like it's not big enough if you can believe that!


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## Cruzer2424 (Feb 8, 2005)

CrankyMonkey said:


> Cool... Looks good from my amateur eye...
> 
> Here are my results:


hahaha. That picture made me laugh.


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## HammerTime-TheOriginal (Mar 29, 2006)

Don't you want at least a slight bend in the elbows?


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

Hey I'm back from Sea Otter!! What's up with all the nerd talk?

Here, I photoshaped you. Sexy-time!

fc


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## thien (Feb 18, 2004)

Quick everybody take profile shots of yourselves on your trainer, so Chris can do a quickfit for you!


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## CrankyMonkey (Jul 8, 2007)

I need to setup another set of shots this week on my new cyclocross bike...


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