Road Bike Comfort Tips - Asking the Right Questions !

The perfect fit is a bit the holy grail of cycling. Unfortunatly there is no universal receipe, it is indeed a very individual solution.

A bad fit can throw you off cycling, render your riding a total nightmare or completely compromise your performance. Actually, given enough time, persisting to ride in a poor position will certainly cause injury. Finding a good fit typically needs some experience with how various position changes does effect your body and comfort on a road bike. Comfort is the number one consideration. However, your body will also take some time (and many rides) to adjust if you are a new rider or if you're trying a slightly more aggressive position.


This article attempt to address various situations by asking the right set of questions so you can try a solution or another. However, only YOU will ever be the judge of what works or not.

A) For hands, arms and upper back comfort. Ask yourself :
- Does your handle bar size fit your shoulder size ?
- Is your glove padding too soft ?
- Does your bar tape absorb vibrations ?
- Does your handle bar tilt or horizontal position lets you slip forward ?
- Are your shifters too low/high and stretching you too much forward/backward ?
- Is your saddle tilted downwards causing you to slide forward ?
- Is your saddle too in front, pushing too much weight in your arms/hands ?
- Is your handle bar too low ? Is your neck tired after long rides ?
- Is your handle bar to near ? Do you have enough knee space when standing while climbing and sprinting while out of the saddle ?
- Are the drops too deep or too shallow ? How long can you stay in the drops ?

B) For legs, lower back and feet comfort. Ask yourself :

- Is your saddle too high ? causing you to rock your hips or toe tip ?
- Are your cleats too much on the left or right of your feets ? Do you feel unequal pressure on the left or right of your knees.
- If you tend to toe tip have you tried to shift your cleats backwards to allow to push harder and leverage your heels.
- Do you have enough space in your shoes ?
- How tight are you strapping your shoes?
- How much flexibility are your cleats giving you ? Do you knees feel any pain ? ( read about spd vs speedplay)
- How happy are you with your saddle ? Are u tilting your saddle up or down ( that's sort of practice will push more weight in front or back and cam cause other back issues). have you tried or read about ISM models ?
- Have you tried various short and padding ?
- Is your crank size matching your leg size ?

This list will grow and be updated regularly, feel free to add to it via the comments section. Remember this is a list of question, not recommendations. Comfort is an individual thing. Only you will be able to tell the difference.