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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend April 28, 2006 Chris Haynes of Sims Cycle uses his wife, Gwen, as a model to demonstrate how a bicycle can be fitted to a rider. Getting the right fit can make the difference between a pleasurable ride and a painful one, bike shop representatives say. (Mail Tribune / Jim Craven) If you want to ride efficiently and comfortably with minimum risk of injury, make sure to find... A bike that fits you A good bicycle shop can help with the adjustments needed By Bill Kettler Mail Tribune There's more to fitting a bicycle than just making sure your feet reach the ground. Riding a bike that doesn't fit wastes energy, and that's serious when your "engine" produces no more than a quarter horsepower. It's uncomfortable, too, which makes a long ride more like work than fun. It doesn't have to be that way. Most modern bicycles have several components that can be adjusted to help riders feel comfortable and pedal with maximum efficiency. Getting them all just right can make cycling something you'll look forward to instead of a chore to be endured. A bike that doesn't fit is like a shoe that doesn't fit, said Len Tiernan, a former bike racer who now works at Sims Cycle in Medford. "You're not going to go very far if the fit isn't right," Tiernan said. "You buy a bike that doesn't fit you and it's going to end up as a garage ornament." Advertisement Good bike shops help customers get the right fit when they're buying a new bike. They can also help you turn that ornament in your garage into something you'll actually get out and ride. Frame size is the place where fitting starts on a new bike, said Chris Haynes, owner of Sims Cycle. An "inseam gauge" measures the distance from the floor to the rider's crotch to help determine the proper frame size. Despite the device's name, the measurement it makes has no connection to the inseam length of pants. After frame size, seat height is probably the most important adjustment because it determines how much the knee bends every time the pedals go around. Cyclists need to position the seat to avoid straining the knee joint at the top or bottom of the pedal stroke. "Biking is such a repetitive motion you need to be well away from the extremes of the knee's range of motion" to avoid strain injuries, Haynes said. To illustrate that point, Tiernan observed that a cyclist who pedals at a cadence of 80 revolutions per minute bends his knees nearly 5,000 times in a one-hour ride. If the fit isn't right, "you're grinding away at the surfaces in the knee joint and sooner or later you're going to have knee problems or hip problems." The ideal seat height will create an angle between the upper and lower leg of about 25 to 30 degrees at the knee when the pedal is at the "You never want to get anywhere close to the knee locking out" at the bottom of a pedal stroke, said Alex Hayes, manager of Medford Cycle Sport. He said a seat that's too high will cause the rider's hips to rock back and forth on the seat, creating stress that could lead to an injury. Many seats can be adjusted fore and aft to let the rider apply maximum power to the pedals. When the seat is in the right place, a plumb line dropped from the front of the rider's knee will fall right behind the pedal spindle the shaft in the middle of the pedal on which it spins. That puts the ball of the foot squarely on the pedal, the correct place to deliver maximum speed and power. "You see people riding around town with the pedal on the arch of their foot," Haynes said. "If that's where your weight is, you're off balance." When the seat is right, it's time to work on the handlebars. Choosing bars of the right width reduces strain on the rider's wrists, arms, shoulders and back. Bike fitters measure a distance across the rider's shoulders to determine the correct bar width. Bar height can be raised or lowered to prevent the rider from leaning too far forward and putting too much weight on the bars. "The front of the bike is for steering," Haynes said, "not holding up your upper body. You want to support yourself with your core abdominal muscles." Tiernan said when the fit is right, there's a "sweet spot" where everything coordinates and muscles produce power. Haynes put it another way: "Properly fit bikes make you feel like you're 10 years old again." Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail him at: [email protected] . Are you a comfort or speed bicyclist? 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