Fitting Your Bike to Your Body

Fit, fit, fit. A lot of emphasis is placed on proper bicycle fit … and well it should be. Awkward or incorrect positioning on a bike causes discomfort and detracts from the overall riding experience. Finding your comfort zone allows your body to work more efficiently and eliminates pain.

Athens Bicycle offers personalized fitting so your bike suits your needs and takes into consideration your riding style. Our customers usually fall into one of three categories when it comes to questions about bike fit.

1. I’m thinking about a buying bike – are there different sizes?

Yes. The bike brands we carry offer between four and eight sizes in every stock model. This is one of many important factors that separate specialty bike shops from big-box stores like Wal-Mart (quality of parts and service are other major factors). With all of these sizes at our disposal, we can help you select the size that is best for you. For example, a 6’2” man won’t be comfortable on the same size bike as his 5’1” wife. Our staff is trained to help you identify the correct size based on your body and your cycling goals.

Do our bikes cost more than a Wal-Mart bike? Not really if you take into account the service package we provide with the sale of a new bike, the superior quality and, most of all, the years of experience and first-hand knowledge we use to help you find the right bike.

2. I know what size bike I need but want to be properly fitted to my machine.

So we have determined that a 6’2” man won’t be comfortable on the same size bike as his 5’1” wife. But will that same 6’2” man be comfortable on the same size bike as his identical twin brother? Maybe. It depends on their bodies. Just because you are the same height as someone else doesn’t mean that you’ll be comfortable on their bike. Factors including flexibility, fitness, cycling goals and body geometry (inseam length, arm length, torso length, etc.) come into play when determining proper bike fit.

This is where our measurement jig comes into play. Working with Bikefitting.com we carefully take your measurements and run them through a computer program that suggests ideal positioning for your body. This information, along with a conversation about your specific goals, will help us achieve a comfortable setup on your bike. Your positioning and reach, as well as the placement of your foot and knee in relation to the pedal, are just a couple of the things we'll observe. We’ll then adjust your bike – and perhaps suggest that you swap out some parts – until we achieve a comfy fit.

The cost of this service is $60, and it is available in conjunction with new bike purchases or a la carte with the bike you already own. If you are purchasing a bike from Athens Bicycle that is more than $1,500, the service is free.

3. I want the ultimate in performance and comfort. Help me build the custom machine of my dreams!

The Bikefitting.com measurement system is a great starting point for the custom conservation. Since people’s body geometries vary so much, a custom frame is designed around your specific measurements – maximizing your comfort and efficiency.

The fit of a custom frame is optimized even before you jump on the bike, helping to address fit issues that stock frames are sometimes unable to do. For example, let’s say the measuring process determines that your body geometry differs radically from what most stock frames are designed for. Maybe you have back pain because your arms are short compared to your torso, and all the reaching is tiring out your back. A custom frame can take these things into account and build a bike that caters to your body’s geometry.

We can fine-tune other variables during the process to create a ride that is built specifically for what you want to do. One customer of ours, a pilot, wanted a high-end road bike that he could easily travel with. Independent Fabrication built him a steel road frame that breaks down into two pieces in just a few moments.

Ordering a custom bike entails the same fitting procedure described above, in addition to extensive discussions about frame options (disc brake mounts, location of cable routes, pump pegs, etc.), desired ride quality (which will affect the thickness of the tubes used to build the frame), custom paint choices and much more. The custom brands we offer are Independent Fabrication, Lynskey and Waterford.

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