Bike Fit Stuff

Tri Bike Fit Link
I've never done much bike riding other than for easy fun rides. I have absolutely no clue as to how everything should be adjusted. So I've read a bunch of stuff to try to make sense of it all. Then yesterday I worked on making adjustments. I'm going to list the things I did and why.

Keep in mind I don't have a racing bike. This is a hybrid/mountain bike. No dropbars or tribars.

1: Seat tilt, I had the front tipped down (trying to improve comfort to "the area"). That tilt is no good if you are going to be riding any distance. The result of that tilt is you put a ton of weight on your hands as the seat isn't really supporting you with this angle. So I adjusted it back to flat. Sure enough my hands/wrists no longer feel as much weight.

2: Seat location forward and back. I'll have to look for a link about this. The method I used was the plumb line off the knee when the pedal is at 3/9 o'clock. The weight should go through the ball of your foot. That moved my seat back considerably and created a straighter back.

3: Seat Height: This is where I really became confused while I was on the bike. I would power my downstroke and instead of finishing at the absolute bottom of the pedal (6 o'clock) I would be in front of it. I couldn't make sense of that until I read Method 2 of that link above. Which reads.
I don't like to consider 6 O'Clock the bottom of the pedal stroke. I rather prefer it to be that point where the crank arm is parallel to the line drawn up to the greater trochanter (i.e., more or less parallel to the seat post)
So basically you have to tip the clock more closely to the angle of the seat post. Then it all makes a bit more sense. This bit of info also helped me understand why the seat post angle is the big difference in road/tri bikes. I now see how the geometry is going into play. (hope this helps someone else too).
So do I have my seat height set properly. I don't know yet, work in progress.

Also in progress is my handlebar height. If anyone else has a great link of how to setup your bike "properly". (Again hybrid/mountain no dropbars). Let me know.

I also realized I didn't mention that I did buy the Crank Bros. "Quattro Pedals" and the Shimano Tri Shoes to go with. So far so good, easy in/out of the clip once you figure it out.
The other purchase was the "kurt kinetic trainer". This may seem totally stupid to many of you but it's tough to find a safe place to ride here. I don't want to have to load the bike onto the car and drive somewhere every time I want a bike workout.
Also I checked it out on ebay. If it turns out I never use this thing after a year. I can get nearly the selling price back. I bought it from ebikestop.com