As someone who's had this problem for decades, I'd say this is all very good advice, especially at 2:55. The one thing I'd add is that you can improve your posture by rotating your pelvis forward, so as to keep your back relatively straight, and upper back even in slight flexion. This takes a bit of practice in learning how to sit slightly differently, engaging the core. I've seen Julian Alaphillipe ride this way in a seated climb.
Francis, I apologize in advance for this being so lengthy but I have to get this off my shoulders. James, Thank you so much to you and Francis for making these videos. No bike fitter in my area, so I have depended on you and Neil Standbury for tips that have worked on my personal bike fitting saga. At 69 years old, you just cannot find info that is common sense, try at home help, for people my age. For you young people out there, this guy knows his stuff!! If you hurt after a ride, then something is wrong with your bike fit. If you cannot sit up without holding the handlebars and ride like you are on a unicycle, then your saddle height and setback is wrong. Twenty percent of weight on the bars...period. Be able to let go of the bars and sit up. If you can't do that, then your fit is wrong IMO. Keep up the good work guys! I love it!!!!
I'm on a full sus xc mtb, but man, these videos help so much. Before I was looking at getting 100EUR+ saddles because my jewels always went numb, but after trying some of your tips I'm so happy with my current saddle. Thanks. Now I have to do something about my hands outer edge going numb, I feel like they are in a bit wierd angle and a slightly narrower bar, or more sweep would help.
Francis, Love the new format. I still want to see some on road adventures but you’re providing a lot of great info lately (and more frequently). Thanks.
I do a fair amount of indoor cycling on Zwift. For me, neck discomfort comes from having the TV I use for Zwifting mounted at a height on the wall typical for normal TV viewing on a couch and not for someone in a bike. One of these days, I will move the mount holding the TV down so that it better simulates the typical, and more comfortable, head angle of a person riding IRL.
Oh yeah man, that really sounds painful. I also only use Tablet and smartphones which I have somewhere around handlebar height or lower so that my eyesight reaches the ground approximately 2-3 meters in front of me
Video idea suggestion: How to transfer fit from bike A to bike B , even if bike(frame) A & B have different geometries. Much appreciated because many of us have multiple bikes right ? N+1 👍
I think James misspoke. He said heavy people and well endowed women would need LESS setback. I think he meant to say MORE, because the previous group (short torso long leg) needed LESS setback.
Thanks Francis...your contribution , putting the ..remote , then the sharpie on the seat ? Exquisite .....ish. sort of. in a way ...Dude..James paused for a nano-second .Oh man
Very informative vid, I've a touch of arthritis in my neck and I changed from the road bike to a felt broam gravel bike, the more relaxed position is a great help.
For me it's just not being on the bike for 6 months :D So if you've just done your first ride this year and feel sore in your traps, stretch it out, do a few more rides and it should go away.
I usually get a headache a couple of hours after I finish a long ride. I thought this was due to hydration, but now I start to think it's related to neck pain and to bike fit. Thanks for sharing those tips. I am curious to know what James thinks about post-ride headaches.
I used to get headaches and it related to a pressure point from a helmet casquette interaction. Might also be worth looking at whether you've got any weird interactions or tight spots in your helmet. Last thing I found caused headaches was colder weather - Particularly for those with less hair, wind chill on the head is a very real thing! If you're not already, try wearing a cap under the helmet to keep your noggin warm. Not saying these are necessarily what's causing your specific issues, but other things you can try!
First try to drink and eat more before/while riding. Sun, heat, exhaustion and similiar things can give you headache too. If you have neck pain then fit your bike. If you still get headaches and there seems to be no obvious reasons I would go to see a doctor. Maybe get an MRI scan. Maybe it’s migraine, maybe it’s nothing, or it can be something serious. I get headache time to time, but I have a capillar condition in my brain where it can bleed just a tiny amount, making my head ache, but it can cause serious problems too, like epilepsy. This was discovered with MRI.
I do also got headache after finish a long ride. Every time the ride is quite intense ( Zone 3-4 on 80% of the ride), it cause headache and I think my problem is fatigue. So lately I ride mostly on zone 2-3 and I got less headache or just some small discomfort on my head, get some sleep and it's gone.
I used to get a headache towards the end of a longer ride (4+ hours) which would then go about 2 hours after the end of the ride. I too put that down to hydration, but no it was bike fit. I am now riding with higher bars and with my head not tilted back I no longer get a headache.
Your last comment about getting an endurance bike makes me pissed off about the bike fitter I went to. Told him SO CLEARLY that I suffer from rotator cuff/hunch back due to my line of work (tools and equipment aren’t ergo), I see a physio and Osteopath to help with a lower back injury + have a daily stretching routine to help yet his advice on a new bike was to get a Trek Edmonda because he just wanted to sell me the most expensive bike they had in the shop he worked out of. I ended up with a Tarmac SL6, and as fun and racey as it is, I cannot spend hours in it on a weekend for a cruise; it is 100% a crit king. Knew I should’ve gone with my gut and got a Roubaix… IN the smaller size I know I need too!
If you’re testing any modifications on your bike then it’s best to ride out on the road and go on a zone 2 effort. Bike fit problems usually appear when you’re doing a decent effort on the bike. Hardly ever appears while going 11-15 mph.
I do use this saddle (Sorry James)but yeah, while the salesman tried to point me to the 155mm one, I was quite happy to go with the 143mm one. Didn't regret my own choice, saddle in the 150+mm range do rub my thights something fierce....
Another great video! Keep up the good work! These video's have helped me so much in the past years. Like so many others I had my saddle set up way too high, too far forward, tilted nose down, ... Because if the pro's do it, it should be good, lol. Now I no longer have numb hands and feet or the infamous 'numbnuts', no more neck pain and I really enjoy riding my bike so much more now. Thanks a lot for that! I don't know if you or James will read this and have time to reply to these very specific questions. But I do have 1 question left that I haven't really found a solution for in any of your videos. I'm sitting completely off center/ crooked on my saddle, off to the right. It's not hurting me, I didn't even know until one of my riding mates pointed it out and took a picture. I still haven't found out what the issue is. Could this also be a result from a saddle that's too wide? Or maybe too narrow? Saddle is no longer too high, my cleats should be set up identical and far enough to the back, and my legs do have the same lenght.
I recently went back to 40cm bars (down from 44 stock), turned the levers inwards slightly and took 30mm out of the stem, and it literally fixed nearly everything for me on my merida 400. even at 188cm, 44cm bars are too wide.
A cause for me is shoulder checking. I'm going to pick up a garmin varia sometime so i stop looking over my shoulder so much to see when a car might try to murder me.
How short is too short for a stem? My bike came with 100 mm stem, i switched to 90 and am thinking i need even less....Multiple bike fitters say my bike is the right size too...
I still don't have an issue with wide handlebars.. maybe it have something to do with my wide 51cm shoulders (armpits) :D Still i run 36cm bars on track, 30-40 on road and on my cross and winter bikes i run 44 And.. as much as you hate it :D i just love fizik airone with slightly nose down position, like 2° everything else i tried caused issues, so after years of trial and error i settled on this and since i never had an issue with saddle.
I'm kind of old and have been riding 44cm bars for longer than I care to figure out. I was recently fitted and they told me I should be on a 42. Why am I now just learning this? Why has nobody ever told me before. Yes. I do prefer the 42. It wasn't a big difference but it is more comfortable. I was very skeptical at first and expected to hate it.
Question to James: I'm thinking about getting the SQlab 512 road pedals. They go with Look cleats and come in various versions. SQlab recommends the +15mm extension for my height (1.95m). Any thoughts or experience on those?
Hello rental bike from last holiday. 44 cm handlebars + saddle slipping back in the rail = horrible neck pain. When do bike companies learn that virtually nobody needs 44 cm handlebars and when does somebody develop a clever system to make handlebars easily exchangeable on rental bikes?
Hi guys Tks for the vídeo! Great info as usual. One question o saddle setback, if are comfortable with your setback, but the stem is too short and this is causing jeopardizing the bike maneuverability, the right way for testing a more forward position in the bike with a longer stem would be to push the saddle forward and raising it at the same time? If so, any recommendations for proportion forwardxraise? Tks from 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
maybe you can talk about prescription glasses for cycling? i have sore neck, but just because i have to lean back my head more then i want in order to see what's in front of me (100meters away or more).
A trait I see on a lot of hipster bike builds is the saddle pitched way back too. My pals bike is like this and I told him it should be level. Oui ou non? To me any pitch seems idiotic, am I wrong?
My helmet did not fit correctly. It came too low on my forehead, causing me to look up too much & strain my neck. Does this sound like a legitimate problem?
My girlfriend gets neck pain 30 minutes after maximum effort rides. Could this be because she tenses up a lot in the upper body and is therefore putting to much stress on her neck?
@bikefitjames5579 Would have slight soreness in the trapezius and rhomboid muscles after a long ride (but not during a ride) be considered a bike fit issue? The soreness is equivalent to my legs after a day of going up climbs.
Okay my problem is I purchased a 2014 Cannondale synapse size 51 because the website says size 51 is for 5'5"-5'11"... I told the bike shop i think i should be getting the size 48 because the webpage shows 5'2"-5'6". The bike shop insisted i am a size 51. I have neck and back problems even after adusting saddle height and reducing handlebar width from 42cm to 38cm and stem from 90mm to 80mm. Am i doing something wrong or is the bike totally too big for me.... Thank you for your time.
Great video and James is so knowledgeable 💯 Am looking for a new saddle that has a pressure relief channel and know one has been mentioned before by James but cannot find it. Anyone have the details please?
They've already done video on numb hands and quite of few points were the same - handlebars that are too wide, saddle that is too forward, etc. It all comes down to excessive weight on the hands.
I quote "Gravity is indeed a real force, but not in the traditional sense. In other words, gravity is not a direct, classical, action-at-a-distance force between two objects. However, in the broader sense, gravity is indeed a force because it describes the resulting interaction between two masses." So you must be more a traditionalist which is fine of course.
Long legs need less setback. Those with short torsos already have issues with being stretched out, but also have very little weight over the front of the bike.
Watching these I’ve learned what saddles the fitter hates - specialized power and fizik arione- how about what saddles are good? Was that a Selle on the bike in the vid? Thx a ton - I’m trying to solve my own saddle issues… not fun 🫠
I've had good results with a Selle Italia Turbomatic Gel Flow, for the reasons mentioned by James (this saddle is long with a wide back to support pelvis but not hinder leg movement), but I think it is no longer manufactured. There has to be a newer model that replaces it.
