Your Bike Doesn't have to Hurt You!

We've been the in the bike business for a long time (since 1932 in fact) and the most common complaint about cycling is that it hurts. Okay, that's a pretty general complaint. Your bike can hurt you in many ways (not nearly as many ways as it can help you, but that's for another time). You could fall off your bike and get hurt, maybe you ride quickly up a hill and that hurts, or maybe your butt hurts every time you ride. Three different types of hurt:

1. Physical Hurt - the kind you get when you miss a corner at 30 mph and scrape an acre of skin off your back.
2. Good Pain - the kind of pain that might make you sore in the morning but comes from good hard work. The, "no pain, no gain" kind of hurt.
3. Mechanical Pain - The kind of pain you get because something just isn't right. Pains that fall into this category are pains such as, shoulder pain, knee pain, neck pain, wrist pain, foot pain, and the ever popular butt pain.

We're going to talk about Mechanical pain here. The reason I call it "mechanical pain" is that it comes from your body mechanics being off (not that your local mechanic just charged you $50 for a new chain). Believe it or not, your bike should not hurt to ride. Your neck shouldn't hurt, your shoulders shouldn't hurt and your butt shouldn't hurt when you ride your bike.

Yesterday I went to Innovative Fitness here in Seattle to do a quick clinic on bicycles for their instructors. Innovative Fitness is "a personal fitness company on a mission. Leading the industry by example, our philosophies embracing lifestyle management while incorporating a team approach differentiate Innovative from professional trainers worldwide." One of the great things that they do down there is train for events. So, you go in, tell them that you want to do the STP (Seattle To Portland Classic) and they'll set you up with a schedule and workout to accomplish your goal. Cycling continues to become more and more popular so the trainers at gym needed a little more information on cycling and bicycles to better serve their customers.

So I started my clinic by asking a few questions about their clients. It soon became known that the chief complaint among their clients about riding their bikes was pain. When I told them that it didn't have to hurt to ride your bike even they looked at me like I was trying to sell them an affordable house in Seattle. They wanted to believe it, but they needed some proof. So I broke it down for them.

There are just a few reasons that you have Mechanical pain on your bike (quick disclaimer here: there are two kinds of butt pain on your bike, the kind that comes because you are a new rider, and the other from one of the things listed below. If you are a new rider, as long as the other things are covered, you just need to ride more):

1. Fit
2. Form
3. Prior Injury

The number one reason, fit is the most important of the three. In fact, pain from numbers two and three can be reduced through proper fit. Fit is the most factor in purchasing a bike, new or used. Every day we get asked, "what's the best bike for me?" and the answer should always be, "the one that fits". If you go to a reputable bike shop, and stay away from the big box stores that have a few bikes, you know that you will get a quality bike. So you just need to buy a quality bike that fits you. You could pay $200 and get a great bike that fits and love riding it. Or you could pay $2000 and get a great bike that doesn't fit and never ride it. The $2000 bike might be better, but it doesn't matter if you don't ride it because it hurts.

So how do you know if your bike fits? Well first off, it won't hurt to ride. But more specifically there a just a few things you need to know and then you'll need to have a good bike shop and be able to work with the salesperson there. You should look for these things in a fitting a bike:

1. Stand Over Height - Once a key factor in bicycle fit, stand over height is less important than it used to be. It's still important, you definitely want enough room, but with the advent of sloping top tube styles of bikes a good stand over height is easier to achieve. Nonetheless on a road bike you want to have at least an inch between you and the bike when you are straddling the bike and standing on the ground. You should have at least 2 inches with a Mt. Bike. (Pains that are addressed by stand over height: knee pain, butt pain and well, falling on the bike pain.)
   
2. Saddle Height - Very important and one of the most common fit mistakes. I am convinced that everyone remembers that on their first bike they could touch the ground with both feet will sitting their bike seat. This might have worked for your old BMX or Stingray bike but it doesn't work for your new mt. bike or road bike. Today you need to have a little more balance and when you are sitting on the seat you'll be able to touch the ground with your feet but only with your toes. As you sit on the saddle (this will be easier if someone is holding you up) you should pedal backwards until one of your feet is at the very bottom of the peddling motion. Once it's there stop and make sure that your foot is parallel to the ground. When your foot is in this position you should have about a 10% bend in you knee. No more. No less. Adjust your saddle until this is achieved. (Pains that are addressed with saddle height: knee pain, butt pain, thigh pain, foot pain, neck pain, back pain and you'll go faster with the proper saddle height as well!)
3. Reach - Reach is described by the distance between your saddle and the handlebars. It is possibly the most important fit characteristics and unfortunately the hardest to describe and measure. This is where working with your local bike shop really helps. Determining the correct reach (and any fit characteristic really) comes from a dialog between you and your salesperson. But these are things you should look for. When sitting on your saddle in the most comfortable position you should be able to reach forward and hold on to the handlebars with a comfortable bend in your elbows (5%, maybe 10%). You should also have a nice "ready" or neutral back posture. You back should not be hunched, nor should you be too stretched out. And your head should be in a position so that you can look down the road or trail with out putting stress on your shoulders or neck. (Pain that is addressed by reach: neck pain, butt pain, shoulder pain, arm pain, hand pain, wrist pain and back pain.)
   

Again, unfortunately we can't tell you what is correct, we can only ask you how you feel, look at your posture on the bike and make suggestions. You will end up telling us if the bike fits you or not. But if you work with a sales person knows how to fit you'll end up with a bike that fits. If it fits you'll ride it, if it doesn't fit it will hang out in the garage.

Check back soon when we talk about custom fitting and other professional fitting options.