Fitting Bikes: How to Dial in Your Position BEFORE Buying Your New Rig

Cycle Physio has a new fitting bike to help you obtain the ideal position for your road, time trial or triathlon bike PRIOR to purchase. Getting the optimal position for aerodynamics and power output is always a tricky balancing act especially for time triallists, so making use of our fitting bike to determine your fit coordinates prior to purchase is a sensible investment.

What’s a fitting bike? An indoor bike on which we can adjust your position as much as needed, from crank length to aero bar position, frame size and saddle position. Then we can arrive at an optimised position for you for your chosen event and help you make a far more intelligent purchase.

Using the fitting bike to dial in a time trial position

Consider your answer to these questions prior to your next purchase: Can I ride in a long, low aggressive position or not? If not, are there any modifications to a new bike that might let me? What crank size should I use on my road bike? Is this different for my time trial or track bike? What about MTB? This is where a fitting bike comes in.

Here’s how it works: we perform a full 2hr bike fit on the fitting bike and dial in your position. You get to try the different geometry impacting your set-up, comfort and power. I email your positional details and you can then select the bike / frameset you desire in the correct size, with the correct crank length and aerobars. During the pre-purchase fit you can compare options and feel and measure which options best suit you. This will help you arrive at the best position your body can achieve.

Remember you have to be able to maintain this position and

deliver a maximum effort on race day so getting it right is important

Completing the time trial fit once the TT bike has been purchased

Following the pre-purchase fitting bike session, use your report to select your bike and components, and then come back to complete your fit. For time triallists this might include advice about TT helmets and a modern aero cockpit such as that available from Sync Ergonomics (which we have in stock). These finishing touches help to save watts and are a relatively inexpensive way to improve the overall result for your TT / triathlon. For those unfamiliar with some of the traps of buying a new road bike, see our blog here, and for time trial / triathlon bikes see our post here.

Making these decisions prior to purchase is important and can save you from costly mistakes. A modern time trial bike currently starts at more than $10,000. Investing a few hundred dollars in selecting a great choice makes simply sense.