Do you own several bikes and want to make sure they all fit your your body and riding style properly? We're doing a 4-part series all about bike fit and getting your body more comfortable and healthy on your bike. We're joined by Paulie Glatt from GO PHYSIO who is a Physical Therapist and certified bike fitting professional.
About Paulie Glatt: As a competitive cyclist with a history of low back pain, Paulie has a great understanding of how critical a proper bike fit is to our experience on a bicycle. He rides Road, Gravel, Mountain, Bike Packs, and commutes by bicycle throughout the entire year. His longest race was The Day Across Minnesota, a 240-mile gravel race that he completed in 17 hours.
To learn more about Paulie or to schedule a professional bike fitting, visit GO PHYSIO.
Hey Paulie, I own 4 bikes: Road, mountain, gravel and fat. Do I need to get a separate bike fitting for every bike?
Paulie Glatt:
In general, once you have been fit it’s safe to transfer measurements from road <> gravel and from mtb <> fat. However, this doesn’t always work due to the fact that there are so many variables to consider.
Here are just a few:
1. Are your riding goals similar from one bike to the other? Are you racing crits on your road bike and riding 100+ miles on your gravel bike? If so, then the fit is likely to be different between bikes.
2. Are you wearing different shoes or clothing from one bike to the next? This is especially true when switching from shoes to winter boots because varying sole heights will change the recommended saddle height. Similarly, different crank arm lengths will require different saddle heights.
3. Is the Q-factor (distance between the outside of one crank arm to the outside of the other) different between the two? If so, you may need to consider different shoes/cleats for each bike as the cleat position will be different to accommodate your ideal width of stance.
4. Are you confident in your ability to safely make modifications to your bike? If not, find someone who you can trust to set your bike up properly with the provided measurements.
In general, try to transfer the measurements over and see how it feels. If it works, great! If not, come back in for a fitting. Most fitters will offer a discount to bring in an additional bike within a certain time frame.
