PERFORMANCE

The anatomy of bike position

All modern thinking about how to fit a human to a bike is reductionist in approach. Take a complex...

All modern thinking about how to fit a human to a bike is reductionist in approach. Take a complex system of interactions like a human being, quantify it somehow and fit it to a bike. Because it's a complex system, break down that complexity into bite size pieces by examining aspects of its interaction with the bike in a narrow sense. The approach might be strictly biomechanical, perhaps measurement based, statistical norm based or whatever. It may have a proprietary name; Fit Kit, Bio Racer and Wobblenaught spring to mind, though there are others.

That is how the world thinks of a bike fit process. It's a succession of steps of narrow focus but without any overarching idea of holistic intent, and that's what I mean by a reductionist approach. The formula driven methods this type of approach engenders are prevalent throughout the cycling world and don't work optimally for large numbers of people in any way that can be shown or explained. I spend a large part of my working life getting results for the people that the above style of thinking has failed.

The two major forces working on a bike rider are gravity and wind drag. That should be self evident and beyond argument. Our pattern of muscular enlistment changes as we change our relationship to gravity, and wind resistance increases as the square of the increase in speed. It follows that how we relate our bodies to gravity and how we equip ourselves to overcome wind drag are the keys to optimal performance. Another necessity is comfort. I would define lack of comfort as muscles being enlisted for purposes they weren't designed for and / or for periods that they can't cope with.

Comfort + Efficiency = Performance.

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