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RSI guy !HjbWRiSTJ.
I missed the bicycle measurement thread. It had answers how to properly fit the bike to anon, and anon missed the replies he intended to read 10 hours later when work ended. Can you graciously repost everything or what was important after this pic for me?
>> Anon_Nymous !!1eBwI1IGkKw
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>> Anonymous
just go to a local bikeshop and the sales people there will most likely be more than willing to help you find a bike that fits both your body and your needs
>> RSI guy !HjbWRiSTJ.
Yeah, I have that done already, been biking for 10 years on 2 bikes. Then I posted this image, and the immediate reply this morning was "that's a horrible way to size a bike". Which was followed by a long paragraph with several replies. I had to go to work in second, and bam, 10 hours later it's gone. That's all I'm interested to recover.

I bike daily, I have slight knee problems, but not really.
>> Anonymous
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haha! that was me who posted yesterday. i saved it in a txt file because i figured i might end up reposting it at a future time.

1. to properly use a bike, you need clipless pedals. people who don't use them are retards and i see them getting injured all the time. for a mountain bike, get some egg beater pedals. for a road bike, go with time rxs pedals, or look keo pedals. clipless pedals are important because they keep your foot stationary on the pedal itself (fore/aft, left/right). this helps reduce knee and, to a limited extent, hip injury.

2. if you're going to bike far (moar than 2 hours), get a road bike. even if you "follow" this guide, it's difficult to accurately follow it unless you put a camera on a stand and start taking photos of yourself so that you can measure angles and shit (this is how a professional fitting is done by a bike shop or physiotherapist). your bike might be the right height, but it can be too short/long, etc., and if you pay for a professional fitting + buy new pedals + buy a stem, that can cost you $300-$350 right there, which is expensive than a piece of shit MTB.
>> Anonymous
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>>32053
also, *most* bike shops have are lousy when it comes to bike fitting. many will just check to make sure your knee cap is right over the pedal axle. they won't take a look at any of the internal angles at all.

at any rate...

1. you start with foot placement over the pedal. the balls of your feet should be right over top of the pedal axle. with clipless shoes/pedals, you will be able to adjust this pretty much perfectly. clipping into your pedal will keep your foot EXACTLY where it should be. this is why clipless pedals are so important.

2. next step is your "fore-aft positioning". basically, you want the tip of your knee cap should be right over top of the PEDAL axle (this is the GREY LINE in the picture), when your crank is in the 3pm position. doing so will involve moving your seat (saddle) back and forth. METHOD: get a piece of string and tie a weight to the end of it to make a plumb bob. you hold the top end of the string right against the tip of your knee (knee cap) and you let it dangle downards. move your SEAT/SADDLE forward or backwards so that your knee is correctly positioned above the pedal axle.
>> RSI guy !HjbWRiSTJ.
>>32113
Thank you anon. Any idea where those pic degrees come from, how rigidly they're intended to be followed, etc?
>> Anonymous
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3. next step are the internal angles. this can be a bit tricky. you can drop your pedal/crank down to the 6pm position. you basically want to set up an internal angle inside the knee of about 150 degrees. IF you have really good (and i mean real fucking good) lower back flexibility, you can raise your seat up further and stretch this angle to about 155 degrees. i would suggest that you do not do so, however. the problem with this is that you will also increase the internal angle between your upper body and your legs, which you want to be around 90 degrees. don't let this angle go above 95 degrees, either. these angles are crucial to minimizing strain on your knees while maximizing power output.

4. the rest of the internal angles have to do with upper body comfort & support of your body weight. you want the angle between your upper body and your arms to be at least 90 degrees. if you're a pro cyclist, you can do an angle of up to 110 or 120 degrees. you are not a pro cyclist, however, so for a couple years, run that internal angle at 90 degrees. you will achieve this angle by GETTING A SHORTER OR LONGER STEM. the stem is the green thing that i've highlighted. it attaches your handlebars to the steering tube (the fork, basically). you can also get stems that are "angled". a combination of changing length & angle will get you the proper internal angle between your upper body and your arms.
>> Anonymous
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this is an extra bit that i figured i'd write now...

5. if that doesn't get you in the right position, there are things called 'spacers' that you can place beneath the stem to make it higher up. see the attached picture... circled in red.

>>32125
#3 - for the upper body, having a right angle (90 degrees) makes it so that you get skeletal support holding up some of your body weight. it basically means that you end up using your arms a lot less. on long rides - like 4-5 hours or more - this is an important consideration. pro bike riders ride so much, though, that they develop the muscles necessary to hold themselves up in positions closer to 100 or 110 degrees for very long periods of time.
>> Anonymous
>>32136
Who the fuck is that girl? Sauce plase!
>> Anonymous
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>>32125
#2 - upperbody/legs angle... generally speaking, the more flexible your lower back, the more you can deviate from 90 degrees (plus or minus - so, 85 or 95 degrees - it doesn't matter). if you make this angle smaller, you're going to start losing power (automatically, you will begin relying more and more on your lower back muscles than your quads to push down and it will put more strain on your knees as you decrease this angle). if you *increase* the angle, you will start losing some power in your pedal stroke, but it really won't hurt your knees much, if any. this is why a lot of cyclists may tend raise their seat a lot... raising the seat makes this angle bigger, relieving pressure on your knees. so, my best advice is to increase this angle instead of decreasing it... but try to be as close to 90 degrees as possible.
>> Anonymous
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>>32125
#1 - inside your knee. basically, this has to do with both injury and power. if your leg has an internal angle of, say, 160 degrees instead of 150, you'll probably start losing some power in your pedal stroke. if your leg has an internal angle of say 170-180 degrees, not only will you lose substantial power, but you also risk harming the joints in your knees. because your ankle is basically a hinge, it's possible you could hyper extend your knee(s). if you're doing 90-95 rpm/minute (<--that is pretty close to an optimal number of pedal strokes/minute, though it could vary within a range of 85-100; i ride at 100 rpm, for example), that can be A LOT of potential stress on your knees on a long ride.

on the flip side, if you make this angle too small (like anything below 145... 150 is almost a bare minimum of an angle here), you're going to start getting a lot of pressure on your knees, once again. so basically, 150-155 degrees is where you want to be. 160, tops, if you have really flexible hamstring muscles that can still engage efficiently when your leg is that extra 5-10 degrees straighter.

>>32147
she's a triathlete. it was posted on the forum i frequented. some guy's wife.

triathletes are fucking hot :)
>> Anonymous
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>>32157
that picture was taken at the ironman world championships this past year, in hawaii.
>> Anonymous
>>32162
That jersey looked like it was moulded on her. Vaan Daaaammmm!
>> Anonymous
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>>32176
whoops, it's not a triathlete.

haha

i thought i had posted this picture.
>> Anonymous
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also, der kaiser is a maestro of EPO, HGH and just generally being awesome.
>> Anonymous
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>>32176
moar where that came from.
>> Anonymous
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>>32215
>> Anonymous
>>32176
paint
>> RSI guy !HjbWRiSTJ.
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>>32113
ok i'm saving all that for review later, i can only really digest the first point now. it seems to me quite clear my knee-joint pain is entirely unbalanced due to the nature of pedaling with plain flat pedals, that don't connect to my various plain and normal boots and shoes.

i have big quads but at the cost of constantly recurring knee pains. pain is small and manageable, but always there. i've been mostly ignoring this pain for all this time, i wonder how much worse it can get if i continue this way.

i don't want clunking cleats or "heavier, stiffer" shoes. please share your thoughts. i like hopping on and off my bike extremely casually, going around the city as my main mode of transportation, usually in an half-hour or so bursts of riding, locking it up outside every store.
>> Anonymous
>>32959

You can buy 'casual clipless' shoes, probably from Shimano or Nike are the most popular/widest range of sizes.

Even if you ride 90% on the pavement, you don't need road pedals, A good pair of Time or Frog or even Eggbeaters will do you good. Above all, it's your preference is what i'm saying
>> RSI guy !HjbWRiSTJ.
>>32980
casual clipless looks ok in google images, but i'll have to feel them too now for... uh softness of sole i suppose.

eggbeaters look freaky, diverging from what i'm used to for a decade. i thought that's only for mountain biking. i have a hybrid, never wanted to be limited to a road bike, but i travel more like 99.9% on roads, just lots of short bursts trips under a half hour. going to work for 8 hours now. hope your around later, not then, but generally before this thread vaporizes.
>> Anonymous
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>>32225
you mean he didn't get those legs without... stuff?
>> Anonymous
clipless pedals are fun...once you manage not to fall with them.
For short trips I would not recommend them, since it takes some time till you get used to the motion of snapping out.
Your knee pain has nothing to do with the pedals, more with size of frame and correct position of the saddle.