Bike Fitting – pedalnorth

SQLab Saddles for Prostate Problems and Back Pain

Pedalnorth Website — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 16:29:46 +0000

SQlab Cycling Technology – Saddles for special circumstances

The SQlab active-saddle technology

by Robert Thorpe & Til Drobisch (SQLab)

Now that we’ve got you sitting relatively comfortably on your new SQLab step saddle, we want to talk with you about those medical issues which some cyclists unfortunately have, and which can benefit from even more detailed technical thinking from those clever people at SQlab. Their ‘active saddle’ technology was designed to aid cyclists with back pain caused from spinal issues and other factors. The technology enables a physiologically correct co-movement of the pelvis and thus prevents discomfort in the lower back.

It’s worth understanding that, in addition to 24 cranial nerves, humans have 62 other spinal nerves. More than half of all spinal nerves pass through or past the pelvis. This can bring on those significant pain issues that we mentioned in our earlier saddles blog with SQlab. However, all these nerves within the spinal area can after trauma, or simply due to our lifestyle, cause us back pain that is debilitating. Add to this the movement of a bike, and you’ve got a serious pain problem that needs a solution. With Tobias’ own history of spinal injury, this has always been an issue that SQlab wanted to look at and to find a solution to help riders.

In essence, the solution was a new way of constructing a saddle so that it became more than simply a support system for sit bones. After lots of research and testing, the ‘active saddle’ technology was borne.

SQlab’s ‘active saddle’ technology enables the pelvis to move laterally while riding, reducing strain on the lower spine, pelvis, and hips, and relieving the discs and facet joints. This added movement, whilst controlling the stability of the sit bones, makes cycling more comfortable and helps prevent back pain. Let’s look briefly at this in detail.

The active – Technology

The active saddle concept incorporates a unique technology that allows the saddle to tilt and move slightly as the rider shifts their weight, and it moves in just the right way to compensate for that rider motion. This movement helps to reduce pressure on sensitive areas, improve stability, and promote a more natural riding posture. Movement is important for the spinal column, as it allows the spine to flex naturally. The metabolism of the intervertebral discs within the spinal column functions via movement (loading and unloading) – for example when walking… or cycling. On the other hand, constant one-sided pressure, such as that caused by sitting motionless for long periods, has a disruptive effect. That disruptive effect is felt as pain and it can be severe. Importantly, as you’ve already measured yourself and now have the right width of SQlab saddle and are benefitting from their step-saddle design, you have the correct stable base for your own unique sit bones, meaning that ‘active saddle’ technology is one more element to help your now correctly fitted saddle to give you the ultimate in cycling comfort.

Preventing Back Pain

By allowing this gentle and controlled movement, whilst maintaining the stability of your sit bones, the saddle promotes a more ergonomic posture, which can help alleviate tension and pain in the lower back. The dynamic motion also supports the natural curvature of the spine, reducing the risk of strain during rides. It relieves those important spinal discs, as the slight movement of the saddle helps to distribute pressure evenly across the sitting bones and minimizes stress on the spinal discs. This relief can be crucial during longer commutes, longer rides and general cycling. Since its development in 2010, SQlab have introduced this technology across their range of saddles.

Active saddle technology can help sporty cyclists too. In terms of these performance-orientated riders, the active saddle technology helps to reduce back pain on those longer and arduous days on the bike, riding into the hills.

The active system works, because the rails are attached to the centre of the saddle shell, allowing the base of the saddle to flex, when pressure (coming from the body weight) is applied. The flex in the sportive models can be altered by using elastomers with different damping properties (white: soft, grey: medium-soft, black: hard), so depending on body weight you can use the elastomer that allows the correct amount of flex.

The comfort saddles don´t have an elastomer, they have a switch function, which allows even more movement if the switch is turned 90°, but they already come with more flex, because they are focused more on comfort and pain reduction, than the sporty models.

Prostate saddles by SQlab

One other area of bike saddles that we wanted to explore, due in no small part to my own health related issues, is cycling with prostate issues. We won’t suffer you with the details of this potentially serious condition, suffice to say that thankfully, SQlab have researched this and created a specific saddle to help to alleviate discomfort for riders with prostate issues. The prostate sits at the area of the pubic arch, and when enlarged can adversely affect cyclists who are using an incorrectly fitted saddles. Many cyclists have significant issues due to saddle problems and an enlarged prostate. It can lead to you needing medical consultation, and so we’d always recommend speaking to your doctor if you believe that you fall into this category.

Thankfully though, with the correct medical intervention and support, and the right saddle – from SQlab in this case – you can ride pain free and without your enlarged prostate being an issue. Fundamentally, it is essential to reduce the pressure on the prostate to a maximum, and the prostate specific saddle from SQlab does just this!

Removing the pressure and creating comfort

After a prostate operation or in the case of frequent prostate inflammations, it is crucial that the saddle does not exert pressure on the sensitive perineal area. The SQlab saddle models 621 M-D active, 602 M-D active and 610 M-D active provide the best possible relief in the perineal area and are recommended after prostate surgery. Instead of the trademark double-step shape, they only have one higher elevated step, which leads to higher pressure relief on the saddle nose and the perineal area, which includes the prostate.

The SQlab M-D Line stands for maximum relief of sensitive areas and so the 602 M-D® active 2.1 offers the optimal pressure distribution according to medical criteria for trekking and touring bikes. The relief of the perineal area is with 80% very large and usually also sufficient for an age-related, enlarged prostate.

The 602 M-D active 2.1 also gets an improved, lighter saddle shell, an increased adjustment range and the completely newly developed technology for the Comfort active system, which is now adjustable via a switch function. New models from SQlab are also integrated threads for the connection of bags. The new 602 M-D offers more comfort with the same relief and a slightly narrower saddle nose, meaning that every aspect of your medical needs is catered for, leaving you to ride in comfort.

In the next blog, Til and I will be talking about the next contact point for cyclists – handlebars – and the associated issues that need to be overcome. For now, though, we’ve hopefully given you a better understanding of the importance of getting a correctly fitted saddle, and, how using a well-researched and well-engineered brand such as SQlab can benefit your general health as well as your cycling lifestyle.

Visit the SQlab Website

Effective ergonomics and choosing the correct bike saddle

Pedalnorth Website — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 17:00:57 +0000

Effective Ergonomics in Cycling & Finding Your Fit

Improving bike saddle comfort – with SQlab

by Robert Thorpe & Til Drobisch

In terms of the three main contact points for cyclists, the saddle is probably the most important to get right – albeit that they all matter. Most of us spend a lot of time seated – at home, at work and when cycling. Making sure that your bike saddle is comfortable and that it is the correct saddle for you, is more important than we usually give it credit for. It’s important to ask yourself the question: ‘am I sitting comfortably?’ After all, you’ve maybe spent a great deal of money on your bike, and in too many cases the saddle was probably – and incorrectly – low on the list of priorities. Yes, get it wrong and it will cause you pain, discomfort and maybe even some long-term health issues.

Ergonomics in cycling is important; in fact, it’s critical if we are to fully appreciate how our own unique body interacts with our own individual bicycle. Whether you are a simple leisure cyclist or commuter, or a keen racer or an adventure cyclist, we guarantee that you’ll spend time seated on that all-important saddle; and we can guarantee that if it doesn’t fit you properly or isn’t designed around your own body shape and requirements, then you’ll be feeling the pain in all the wrong places.

Thankfully, SQlab from Munich, deep in Bavaria and Germany, have been looking at cycling ergonomics since their inception over 20 years ago. The comfort and health benefits of getting the right saddle fit are critical to their way of thinking; which is why I recently spent a whole afternoon listening to and talking with Til from their technical team. It was enlightening to learn about how each of us use the bike saddle, how we need to use it and how to ensure that our bike saddle is the best possible fit for our own unique body. There’s a science to it, and Til and the team at SQlab have been studying it for over 20 years, developing saddles that are at the top of the curve in terms of innovation and excellence and support to riders of all shapes and sizes.

When we look properly at saddles and finding the right bike saddle for riders, there’s a whole lot of information for us to take in; which is why this blog is the first in a new series that we’ll be writing this year, in partnership with our friends such as Til at with SQlab. This first blog rightly focuses solely on the process measuring and fitting the best bike saddle for you, and why this is important. It covers the issues that can arise, how they can arise and how they will affect you as a cyclist – and so, if you’re sitting comfortably, we’ll begin.

Pelvis

The perineal area must be relieved.
The sit bones are made for sitting!

Don’t saddle yourself with long-term pain

There are some key aspects to think about when saddles don’t work as intended. A cheap saddle or an incorrectly fitted saddle on your bike can lead to neck pain and pain in your hands, as you shift weight around and those important nerves are pinched between the pelvis bones. If most of your contact with the saddle is with the sensitive parts of the pelvic area – those soft tissue points between the pelvic arch – then things are going to get very uncomfortable very soon indeed. SQlab founder, Tobias started to think about how he and other riders were getting pressure from perineal and to sit bones, after his own experiences and a serious accident some years ago, where he crashed and broke vertebra. It required a whole new style of thinking for him, and the ideas that now form SQlab were borne.

In effect, what happens when you sit on a badly fitted saddle is that your pelvic sit bones don’t take the pressure that they are designed for. Instead, to narrow a saddle creates discomfort at the pubic bones and increases the pressure on the perineal area where lots of tissues and nerves exist. The pressure put down onto the saddle by our bodies, needs to be matched for the different sit bone widths we each have, so that the saddle gives pressure only at the pubic bones. Initially, this may feel uncomfortable as the sit bones adjust the feeling. However, after only a short time it feels natural and aids your cycling and general health. This is how Til and the people at SQlab developed their ‘sit fit system’, and it ensures that you, the cyclist, have the best possible way of finding the saddle that fits your own unique needs. Best of all, it’s a simple and easy to understand system, and one that makes perfect sense.

Getting the measure of saddle comfort

There are 3 stages to getting the measurement for the saddle, and whilst pressure mapping is used by many, SQlab have shown that their own technique is generally more accurate, whilst also being quite simple. It’s based on those all-important sit bones and how they protrude and can mark a sheet a paper – yes, that simple! You can visit an SQLab fit partner, or you can get their home fit kit and carry this out home yourself.

For home users, or on a measuring stool with the nub plate on top at your local dealer, sit with your back upright on a stool with the SQlab measuring paper, placed on the stool and pull yourself towards the stool with both hands.

Measure the sit bone distance from center to center and add the value for the respective sitting position (taken from the sheet in the home measurement kit). SQlab add a value to the measurement, based on how upright you sit. This then gives you the right fit saddle.

Select a saddle from the SQlab range, based on your individual cycling discipline and in the correct width.

By doing the measurement this way, only the sit bones point through and make the necessary indication on the sheet. It is quite interesting to learn from Til, that dependent on the cycling discipline you normally ride, the saddle size needs change slightly to take this positioning into consideration. It’s due to the pelvis rotating further forward and using the narrower part of the sit bones in a stretched position and the wider part of the sit bones in an upright position plus having more of the buttocks on the saddle the more upright I am, which needs more support. For example:

Triathletes tend to stretch out forwards extensively;

Road racers stretch out, but not as much;

Other riders are classed between being moderate, slightly bent or upright – this usually being city cyclists.

Getting the measure of saddle comfort

Select a saddle from the SQlab range, based on your individual cycling discipline and in the correct width.

Triathletes tend to stretch out forwards extensively;

Road racers stretch out, but not as much;

Other riders are classed between being moderate, slightly bent or upright – this usually being city cyclists.

Unisex Saddles

The anatomy of men and women is obviously different. For the male anatomy, they have steeper upward pubic bones. Females have a lower pubic arch, although to a large extent, the pubic arch doesn’t really matter, as pressure is correctly placed on the sit bone and not pubic arch, when the saddle is correctly measured and fitted. Yes, different problems arise from men to women; however, they can be solved by the same saddle. Most female specific saddles – from brands other than SQlab – simply constructed to be wider and softer, which is nonsense. It takes us back to that old phrase: ‘pink it and shrink it.’ They deserve better.

Getting the saddle width wrong and the pressure and power goes to the pubic arch area, instead of on those important sit bones. Using the measure technique from SQlab ensures that the correct width of saddle creates space between the pubic arch/soft tissue and the saddle and relives the problem. When you first use that correctly fitted saddle, the sit bone feeling against saddle may be strange. However, this passes in a short time. It’s difficult to show to people, as riders often press onto saddle and think that it’s hard and they feel the sit bones – and ironically, they don’t want to feel sit bones – even for that short time.

Myth of the soft saddle

Soft saddles are only suitable for short distances and up to a maximum of 45 minutes! Muscle and tendon attachments are irritated by soft pads, due to shear forces that occur. Sit bones get used to the load, albeit that the sit bones on a soft saddle are not properly looked after. It´s not really the movement in the pelvis that causes problems, more the shear forces and friction on the sit bone itself, which leads to irritation of the bone and tendons. Plus, the sit bone sinking into the soft material leads to higher pressure in the perineal area because the sit bone is lower than the middle part of the saddle.

We need to get used to hard surface and a hard saddle, as we don’t usually sit on hard surfaces. Our chairs and sofa at home are soft and we like to sink into it. However, on a bike we are moving whilst seated and we need our sit bones to remain stable. Thankfully, once we get used to the hard saddle surface, it’s super comfortable. A soft saddle, conversely, as explained, will not give you that all-important sit bone support, leading to your pelvis being mobile on the saddle and pain being felt after a few minutes riding, and those health issues that we mentioned earlier being caused.

Coccyx pain and saddle shape

This is an issue mainly in female riders. It can move further to the inside. We don’t want the coccyx encountering the saddle at all, and the shape of the saddle is critical to this – alongside the width, of course – because if the sit bones are next to the saddle, the coccyx will be closer to the saddle than if the sit bones are on top of the saddle.

Male riders tend to get numbness due to a higher pubic bone. The soft tissue in the centre of the pelvic area has 2 important nerves in the middle. Having the wrong saddle width places your seated position in this zone and gives this numbness. Taking time to correctly choose your saddle will take your seated position away from this nerve are and place you on those sit bones.

Saddle fitting needs to include the front tilt and the surface of the saddle – curved or flat – as well as the front nose are. A poor tilt of the front of the saddle, even by 1 degree, can make a huge difference. Once you the saddle the width correctly known, the next thing to look at is the tilt. You can test the tilt difference in small degrees and assess how your seated position feels between each small incremental change.

Pressure on the saddle fitting and shape (conventional saddles)

For women, the saddle nose on a conventional saddle can tilt upwards slightly or have a straight cut shape. This leads to pressure for women on the pubic arch. Using the SQlab step saddle system, the lowered saddle frontal area works by reducing the pressure on the pubic arch. It gives the correct pressure distribution and frees up the pelvic area, leading to a more comfortable ride.

Numbness, especially for men, can be caused when a conventional saddle shape has too much pressure on the perineal area. Focusing again on the SQlab step saddle design, the pressure is distributed according to medical analysis, freeing up… yes, the pelvic area and focusing the weighting on those sit bones – voila!

Saddle shape and the Step Saddle

The SQ Lab step saddle concept has been developed with medical experts, measuring oxygen supply in the glands, using various saddles and shapes. What SQ Lab found was that ‘gap’ saddles can cause more dangerous pressure peaks on the inside – especially for women, due to the low pubic bone. There can also be aa weakness around the edges of the gap, causing the saddle to curve upwards slightly, and leading to pressure being incorrectly applied in that important pelvic arch area.

When SQlab examined the ‘wavy’ saddle concept, the results were really interesting. The curve reduces the area available for the sit bones and the curved area can also interfere with the wrong areas of the pelvis, causing discomfort and potentially causing nerve pain and other associated problems elsewhere on the body – which we’ll cover in future blogs with SQLab.

Dealing with the unique SQlab ‘Step saddle concept’, it gave far better results in research, which is why it is the chosen design for all SQlab saddles. Fundamentally, the built in lower frontal area of the saddle allows for a better sitting position for our shape and for our sit bone stability, without interfering with other pelvic areas. It gave far fewer problems for more cyclists – and that’s what we all want on the bike. Finally, for now, let’s look at how saddle shape and structure affect the pressure points and those important sit bones and how they are positioned on the saddle.

Pressure distribution

Let’s look at the various saddles on the market, against the SQlab step saddle.

Regular saddle – High pressure in the perineal area and prostate.

Gel saddle – Pressure in the perineal area, increasing with longer riding. Gel moves upwards!

Cut-out saddle – Dangerous pressure peaks in nerves and vessels -good values in blood flow tests.

Step saddle – Pressure distribution according to medical criteria and saddle with a stepped structure, designed to fit more naturally and to give stability to the sit bones and to reduce contact areas elsewhere in the pelvic regions. High scores in blood circulation tests

Hopefully, you now understand why we’ve gone into so much detail about saddle shape, width, fitting and structure. That seemingly simple accessory to the bike is more important than you thought, and it’s important that you get it right. Getting properly fitted for a saddle can form part of an overall bike fit, or you can utilise the SQ Lab home measuring kit – available from their website.

In the next blog, I’ll be writing about prostate saddles and the new SQlab ‘Active Saddle Technology’, which enables a physiologically correct co-movement of the pelvis and thus prevents discomfort in the lower back. For now, though, off you go and get yourself measured for a more comfortable and healthier cycling future.

Road Step Saddle

Gravel Step Saddle

MTB Step Saddle

The next blog talks about the SQlab active saddle technology and saddles to help with prostate problems. Clink the link HERE to read it.

For more information about the SQlab step saddle concept:

Visit the SQlab website

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Choosing the best road and offroad cycling shoes

Pedalnorth Website — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 13:06:22 +0000

What are the world’s best cycling shoes

It’s time to ask the question about wrapping your feet in excellence

By Robert Thorpe, with images by Robert Thorpe & Diane Vilarem

As cyclists, comfort is important to us, whatever bike we’re riding. Whether it’s a commute to work, a road ride for leisure, a club ride, or an off-road adventure by gravel bike or mountain bike, we want to be as comfortable as possible – from head to toe. That includes are main contact points: the feet, our bum and of course our hands and across the arms and shoulders. If we can get these three elements correct, then we’re usually onto a winner in achieving that golden trilogy of cycling – comfort, performance and style. When we feel good and we also look good, we can take on the world. Bikefitting now allows us to achieve this without the old-fashioned trial and error technique. People like those very clever scientists at SQLab in Bavaria have been developing systems to analysis the hell out of cyclists, and in doing so, helping thousands of them to ride in comfort and increasing their cycling performance. As for the style – well, that’s up to you and your own choices .

Our feet are the most critical of the three contact elements, as they’re in more contact with the bike than any other. They not only provide some stability, but they also generate all-important forward motion. They’re connected – hopefully – to our legs and to our hips and upwards, meaning that how our feet operate on the bike can also affect lots of other aspects of our bodies, and ultimately our cycling comfort and performance. The question arises then: what are the best cycling shoes in the world? Is their one answer, or are there several options… in truth, I don’t know. However, I have my own thoughts. Even then, though, we have to break it down; what are the best road cycling shoes, the best gravel biking shoes, the best triathlon shoes and the best mountain biking shoes. We ride so many different styles of bike these days. Add to all of this that we’re all built differently, and we each have our own unique feet – wow! It’s probably a question that has a a different answer for each of us.

Finding the best cycling shoes for road cyclists

Okay then, so on a positive note, we’ve already noticed that if you have N+1 bikes and for different styles of riding, you now need N+1 to work for your cycling shoes too. Yes, your feet operate in different ways and on different terrains for each of the three styles given, meaning that you need at least three new pairs of cycling shoes – result! Pause first, however, as it gets even more complicated. The trouble with trying to find which are the best road cycling shoes in the world – or indeed the world’s best gravel biking shoes – is that brands don’t often want to tell you how good their cycling shoes are. It’s a bit like the Heineken advert: “probably the best lager in the world!” In short, they can only usually say that they’re probably the best cycling shoes in the world – even though, in your eyes, they definitely are. Brands are rightly cautious of making claims, and rely on the consumer – you and I – to tell them how good their cycling shoes are.

How we measure the quality is also variable too, depending on personal preference. However, one element that is standard in reference, is comfort – and it’s probably the most important aspect too. If you can find the most comfortable cycling shoes in the world, then you’re onto a winner. Once you have comfort on your side, then hopefully performance will follow – style is then down to the designer and to how you mix and match things.

The best road cycling shoes will need to fit you in length, width and volume, hold your heel neatly and comfortably in place, allowing you to maximise power transfer. The shoes will need a stiff and strong carbon sole to create that power transfer, and the lateral movement will need to be curtailed, as the upper wraps itself around your strangely shaped feet. That’s a whole lot to ask of a cycling shoes; but if you can achieve it, then you’re on your way to finding the world’s best road cycling shoe… for your own unique feet! Yes, remember, as we said before, we all have feet that are different in shape, size, volume etc, which is why brands like Lake cycling shoes make probably – that all-important word – the best selection of road cycling shoe size options in the world. Their road cycling shoes are built on a variety of shoe ‘lasts’, giving different shape coverage, and then they have different width fittings, alongside a whole spectrum of sizes for length. They also measure your feet properly too, looking at volume, which when taken with a full bike fit from somebody such as SQLab, will then bring in custom insoles to refine that fit and give your feet some much needed foot love.

The issues with finding the best gravel biking shoes

Gravel biking is a tricky one – it’s created to cause a number of problems. After all, mountain biking has developed to make riding the technical trails more comfortable. Suspension, wider wheels, dropper posts, better grips, all work together to increase the flow and to take away the ‘shake, rattle and roll!’ However, gravel biking brings it all back, as you take your drop handlebar steed back onto the dusty trails and ride as fast as hell, without the refined tech that now adorns the best mountain bikes. Finding the best gravel biking shoes is also a tough one, as you first need to decide whether you’re a micro-adventurer, bikepacking your way across the land and hiking and biking at various points; or, are you a need for speed racing snake, who needs a gravel biking shoe that’s not too dissimilar from a good road cycling shoe, but which has better ventilation and a rubber sole on top of the necessary carbon, giving that all-important power transfer, whilst also providing maximum grip when you have to put your feet down. Security on the pedal is crucial too, when the terrain gets loose and technical. The clip needs to be firm, allowing your feet to hep in controlling the rear of the bike in motion.

When it comes to the ultimate fit and how the gravel biking shoe wraps your feet, then there are of course, various options. Some brands use straps, laces or BOA dials to bring the upper around the shape of the foot. Ultimately, laces are the most adjustable, and on a gravel bike, will ensure that you don’t get any dials clogged with dirt – although, if you maintain and clean your cycling shoes properly, this won’t be an issue. Again, it’s down to personal preference, and adjustability on the ride too. Lake cycling shoes already design and create gravel biking specific cycling shoes, such as their MX20G, which has the laces, alongside a mesh style upper for ventilation, and the robustness of a mountain bike shoe, with added protection in key areas.

Yes, finding the world’s best gravel biking shoes isn’t an easy task, because of those variables. However, once again, getting a professional bike fitting session will help you on your way, and allow specialists such as SQLab to be able to fit your feet to how you ride, and to add those all-important custom insoles. All that you then need to do, is to ride into adventure, hopefully having found your own version of the world’s best gravel biking shoes!

Mark Hanson, Paceline Cycles (Retailer), shoe fitting

Foot love for cyclists – on and off-road

finding the world’s best mountain biking shoes is even more problematic. Do you ride cross country, enduro, downhill, urban downhill. Then, add to this that brands feel unable to shout out, “hey there, our cycling shoes are the best in the world”, for fear of being challenged, then it can simply be a case of trial and error. Maybe we ought to allow cycling shoe brands some room, and let them say – as Heineken do in the lager stakes – ‘probably the best cycling shoes in the world!’ We’d all at least have a starting point then.

We’ve talked about fitting and form and use of cycling shoes, and maybe we should touch on the quality of the finish, and how much work and research goes into producing some of the best cycling shoes in the world. Did you know for instance, that pro cyclists have feet that are generally narrower than the average cyclist. Yes, having spent much of their formative years on bikes, they haven’t been weight bearing as much on their feet, and so shoes designed for the pro peloton are likely to not fit you properly in terms of width. We’re now deep into that personal preference and unique feet area again.

The quality of the leather, or the fabrics used in the uppers is also important. Leather is more expensive generally, but which sort? Kangaroo leather is lighter and still has that ability stretch and form a fit around your feet in time. Clarino is hard wearing, and the new mesh weave uppers by brands such as Lake, allow for air – and water – to move in and out of the upper, keeping your feet comfortable on the trail, all ride long. Ultimately though, whether you’re looking for the best road cycling shoes in the world, or the best gravel biking shoes, or the best trail shoes for mountain biking, it’s truly up to you. You have unique feet and your own unique style.

What you can do to help you to make the right choice, is to get a professional bike fit and have your feet properly measured too. Then, look around at the brands that specialise in comfort and performance, and who can add that final touch of style. Only then will your feet love you, and you’ll start to benefit from wrapping your feet in the your own choice of the world’s best cycling shoes.

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Buying a bike that fits you properly

Pedalnorth Website — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 19:16:44 +0000

Get with the programme

Buying a bike that fits you properly

By Robert Thorpe, with images by Fiona May-Aylward & SQLab

When you first get into a car – especially a new car – you set the seat so that it’s in the perfect position for you. These days, that includes lumber support, and the height of the seat, as well as the distance. The steering wheel is adjusted upwards or downwards, as well as distance-wise, ensuring that you’re comfortable and better able to control the car. The seat-belt is also adjustable, and the mirrors allow your own personal perspective on the world around you – so, why do people simply walk into a bike shop and choose a bike off the shelf, without looking more closely at the necessary refinements for their own unique body?

Yes, all too frequently cyclists will pay large sums of money for bike and then, not have it fitted correctly for them. In time of course, they may change the stem, the handlebar width, the saddle and even in rare cases, they’ll the saddle position fore and aft. And yet, all too often cyclists will come back from a ride with aches and pains all over the body and put it down to having had a hard ride, when in truth, it may simply be down to the fact that in too many ways their bike simply doesn’t fit them properly. It may look shiny and stylish, and yes, it may have been ridden in the Tour de France by some well-known pro rider. However, if you haven’t had a professional bike fit, and you’ve spent a few thousand pounds on the bike – well, to some extent you may not have bought wisely, I’m sorry to say.

Identifying our uniqueness

Bike fitting isn’t some mumbo jumbo nonsense like reading the tea leaves, or playing with tarot cards. It’s a whole new science that’s based on evidence and how the human body performs. Thankfully, we’re all built differently and unique. Imagine a world filled with people like Donald Trump – God forbid! No, we all have our own idiosyncrasies. His uniqueness is in painting his face orange like the ‘You’ve been tangoed’ man from the old adverts, and mine – well, I walk on the outside edges of my feet, which affects the insoles I use in my running shoes. Yes, for many years, runners have known that they perform better by having a properly carried out analysis of their running style. Me, I’m an over-procrastinator!

No, in all seriousness, as cyclists, we need to take the same level of care as runners do when buying our sporting equipment – bikes, cycling shoes and even the clothing we wear. Lake Cycling Shoes from the Netherlands and the USA, have probably the widest range of cycling shoes available in the industry, with ranges designed on various shoe ‘Lasts’ – the bedrock of every shoe footplate. They’ve got over 390options of sizes for cyclists, a work closely with their retail partners and bike fitters across the world, to measure your had-working cycling feet properly. Comfort and performance is an investment for them – as is their innovation and excellence.

Finding your perfect fit

Other brands such as SQLab from Bavaria in Germany, have developed software to properly analyse each and every cyclist, in every aspect, including the pressure points when seated on the saddle. They then point you towards the right products for your own bike, such as saddles, stems, handlebars, and grips. From a clothing perspective, they even measure the width of your hands and provide gloves in width fittings as well as general sizes.

Bike fitting has come along way from the days when an experienced retailer would watch you walk across the shop and then size you accordingly. Brands create gearing and crank lengths to support individual needs, and there’s now a whole range of saddle and handlebar options – all designed to give you that same feeling of comfort and performance that you get when you switch on the heated seats in your extremely comfortable Audi Q5. Yes, a good bike fitter will ensure that you and your bike are ready to take on any adventure on 2-wheels.

Man & machine in harmony

If you’ve been riding for a while and haven’t ever previously considered a professional bike fit, then do so. Those minor aches and pains may not be related to the ride itself – they may be able to be alleviated. Ultimately, once your bike fits you and becomes a part of you – man… or woman, and machine in perfect harmony, you’ll be increasing the smiles on all of those amazing cycling miles. Isn’t that what we all want to achieve.

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Benefits of a professional bike fitting session

Pedalnorth Website — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 16:35:22 +0000

The Benefits of a professional bike fitting session

6 Key reasons to correctly size your bike

There are a number of ideas why all keen cyclists – and regular commuters by bike – should get a professional bike fit from a bike fitting expert. Most of us simply walk into a bike shop and try a bike for size without actually knowing what a correctly fitting bike feels like. The retailer frequently just tells you the frame seems fine, and then off you go – only to feel pain and discomfort on subsequent rides and not know why.

Whilst professional bike fitting studios are a recent addition to the U.K. cycling scene, in parts of Europe and elsewhere they’ve been common for some time. Brands such as SQLab and Selle Italia have also been analysing cyclists for many years, and developing a range of products that can help to personalise your own bike. Yes, a visit to a professional bike fitting expert should be something that all cyclists have done at some point, so let’s briefly examine the 5 key areas that a professional bike fit will analyse for you.

Ultimately, whilst there are three main points of contact between the cyclist and the bike, not getting these elements right can adversely affect other parts of your body. After all, we’re simply a muscle-laden skeleton, with all parts inter-connected. When we sit on a bike, we need first of all to know that the saddle is in the right position for us, so let’s start your professional bike fit information by sitting down, shall we!

Saddle Height

All cyclists should know their own saddle height. The correct saddle height depends on your leg length, hip flexibility, and frame size. If your saddle is set too high, then your hips may rock when you pedal and be painful. This in turn can also lead to pain in the neck, the shoulder and especially lower back pain. Conversely, if your saddle is set too low, then you might begin to feel a pain in your knees. Saddle height is something that you can carry out yourself, and there’s lots of advice online. However, a professional bike fitting expert will look at this alongside a number of other issues. For instance, the position and style of the saddle is also important.

Saddle Choice and Saddle Position

If you look at the rails beneath your saddle, you’ll see a series of marks. These show how far the saddle can be moved forward and backwards. If your saddle is too far back, you might well experience posterior knee pain. Conversely, if the saddle is tilted too far downward, you may slide forward on the saddle and have to push back harder with your arms; and if the saddle is too far forward, the load on the handlebars is increased, which may result in pain, pressure, numbness and tingling in the hands or wrists, and some pain through the shoulders and into the upper back and neck.

Add to this, the discomfort of having the wrong saddle, and you’ve got a whole list of issues that can arise if you don’t use a professional bike fitter to help you out. In terms of the saddle being the right one for you, top brands have systems that bike fitters can utilise, that measures your sit bones and the pressure mapping of how you sit, allowing the professional bike fitter to advice you on the best saddle for your own body and style and riding. Along with the saddle being in the right position and at the correct height for you, then you’ll already be feeling the cycling benefits.

Remember too, that a comfortable cyclist will also perform better!

Crank Length

One of the most common areas that cyclists fail to understand is the crank length. In truth, there are also few retailers who give the right advice on this. It’s often luck rather than judgement that gets it right for you – which is why you should have a professional bike fit to find out the correct crank length for you.

The length of your cranks can affect your thigh to torso and your knee flex angles. This in turn cab then adversely affect and impact on your pedal stroke, also causing some pain and discomfort.

Cleat Position and Insoles

Once you’ve got the crank sorted, a bike fitting analysis can also tell you the correct cleat position for your cycling shoes, and the right float for the cleats. We’ve got lots more advice on cleat positioning, here on the Pedalnorth website. Bike fitting experts will analyse and measure your feet properly; looking at the length, the width, the volume and the foot shape, including the arches and bridge, they’ll view how your pedal action works, before recommending the right insoles for your cycling shoes too. Remember, the standard cycling shoe insoles are simply that – standard. Your feet are unique, and how you use them is too. A professional bike fitting expert will fix any issues with this critical contact point between you and the bike.

Handlebar and Handlebar Width

The third and final contact point is no less important, and a professional bike fitting session will look at several issues. If you book a bike fitting analysis, they’ll look at shoulder width, arm length, hand size and width and how you naturally hold onto the handlebars. For example, cyclists with small hands might benefit from using handlebars with a shallow drop. The shape of the bars can be chosen too, to give that extra comfort; and using the right spacers on the fork, along with the correct stem, will all add to that feeling of comfort when cycling. Most importantly, the professional bike fitting session will ensure that the width of the handlebars is correct for you, reducing the likelihood of shoulder and upper back pain.

Ultimately, it’s not simply about performance when looking at a professional bike fitting session. If you cycle to work regularly, or if you ride frequently for leisure, there are so many factors that you can get wrong and feel pain due to not having the bike correctly set-up for your own unique self. Thankfully, brands such as SQLab and Selle Italia have been examining and analysing cyclists for over 30 years now, and have a range of products that can improve your cycling performance and comfort. The first step to more smiles along your won cycling miles is however, to get yourself a professional bike fitting session.

Why not take a look at the following websites and see how they can benefit you today:

SQLab website

Selle Italia website

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SQ Lab and the Appliance of Science in Cycling Excellence

Pedalnorth Website — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 20:17:53 +0000

SQLab: Defining the science in sport

Innovation & Excellence in cycling, for everyone

by Robert Thorpe, with images by SQLab & Ben Thorpe (banner image & 2/5/6)

SQLab is probably one of the most established and long-term technical brands within the cycling industry, that you really ought to have heard of. Since it’s infancy in the early days of the mountain bike revolution of the 1990s, when SQLab founder, Tobias Hild developed products for the MTB downhill sport, under the brand name ‘Amazing Toys’, they’ve been analysing, researching and creating performance products to help cyclists across the world. It was during these early days that this first iteration of SQLab designed and created the first step saddle and handlebar grips with a lock function, and in doing so, set the standard for innovation and excellence that still defines SQLab today.

SQLab is unashamedly technical and scientific, as it’s team of scientists and researchers continually strive to make cycling more comfortable and healthier for everyone, maximising performance along the way. Indeed, their name is taken from Greek mythology; Asclepius (German: Äskulap) in ancient Greek mythology is the healing god of medical arts. With his magical healing power, he is believed to be a master of the art of healing like no other. A typical representation of Exclepius is a bearded man leaning on a snake-entwined staff – like the SQLab logo of today. The snake (colubrid) eventually became the symbol of medicine, and to this day can be seen used in this context in many medical and pharmaceutical facilities.

At SQLab, with their team of medical specialists, they place a strong emphasis when developing products, on the need for ergonomics and the health aspects in cycling. As a result, they’ve hence adapted their brand name to the God of medicine in modified form, and symbolically use a snake-entwined saddle to complete their recognisable and iconic logo.

The sit bone measurement innovation

Having survived those heady days of mountain bike development as a cycling genre, by 2002, this group of scientists and cyclists were the first saddle manufacturer in the world to develop a system for measuring the sit bones and determining the optimum saddle width, depending on the sitting position of the cyclist. Maybe the ups and downs and bouncing of trail riding was the driver – who knows! However, this industry-leading idea became established globally over the next few years, and in the current climate of high-performance cycling, it’s now unimaginable to buy a saddle without first having a sit bone measurement. From the heart of Bavaria in Germany, SQLab were setting the standards for innovation, by taking a scientific approach to provide cyclists with comfort and performance in perfect harmony.

Setting the standards for excellence

By early 2003, it was time for the current company, SQLab GmbH to be officially founded, in Frundsbergstraße in Straßlach near Munich. A single-family house served as an office, with two office containers being as a warehouse, and the development laboratory was initially housed in a small wooden house. However, despite the limited space, these very clever people were using ground-breaking technology in new ways, developing technical ideas into solutions and products to help in analysing how cyclists can be more comfortable and perform better on the bike.

Highly sensitive pressure measuring systems were being developed and used in those early days of the new SQLab company. The scientists and doctors were pressing the button that would lead to an analytical future on 2-wheels, as the SQLab founder’s mood energised everyone into a mood of creativity and excellence. The real test laboratory, however, is and always has been the Munich Isar trails directly in front of the door, where all the products of SQLab and all competitors are constantly tested and new ideas refined before they later hit the cycling industry headlines. In the years since these early days, riders such as Hans Rey of mountain biking fame, and World Champion Road TT rider, Hanka Kupfernagel have benefited from the exceptional comfort and performance of SQLab research and technology. Ultimately, if we are to maximise performance, comfort comes first.

Getting to grips with cycling

It’s not only the saddle however, where SQLab has been developing and innovating for riders. One of the other important contact areas, the handlebar and our hands have also been analysed in minute detail, measured and subsequent products created in order to aid cyclist comfort and performance.

From developments such as the SQLab 711 Grip in 20011, which didn’t require metal except for the clamping screw, and which resulted in is less weight, better grip and unprecedented comfort and grip, all the way through to their recent Performance Line Grips (and other products) which show how Ergonomics can win races, SQLab have remained at the forefront of the cycling industry for their scientific approach to cycle accessories. The current Performance Line products are weight optimized and made from the lightest materials available, like Carbon & CFK, Superlight Foam, Silicone rubber compound and Titanium Screws.

Science, survey and significant improvements to performance

Winning numerous global industry awards along the way, by 2015, the new SQLab surveying system was introduced, taking the bike fitting and analysis science to all cyclists, and not just the elite riders of the World Tour. The new and technologically advanced measuring stool with knobbed plate in a new, modern design was introduced. The good old measuring cardboard was now obsolete and replaced by this new burl plate, with its special measuring paper. From now on, one sheet of paper was sufficient to determine the exact sit bone distance, and it created an even more accurate measurement result, using the pressure point technology that SQLab had become renowned for.

In the brand organised iQLab seminars, retailers are taught the technicalities and learn how to read the measuring paper. In addition to the sit bone distance, pelvic malposition can also be detected with the technology, meaning that cyclists can sit and ride in perfect comfort – all ride long. Using this and other technological innovations, SQLab continues to go from strength to strength, using computer tech and its latest software to measure and analyse data from cyclists, allowing this amazing company to continue to innovate with world-leading products for cyclists. Products such as the new edition of the Innerbarends in 2017, and new slimmer and more defined cycling short pads, to ensure that everything is done to sit you comfortably on their exceptional and world-leading bicycle saddles.

Riding into the future, with SQLab comfort and performance

These days, a full technical clothing range is a part of the product options produced by SQLab, along with specialist insoles for your own unique feet and cycling shoes. It means that whatever your cycling needs, be it on tarmac or trail, SQLab have got you covered from head to toe – literally! SQLab is a brand where detail matters; they are one of the few cycling brands in the world to measure the width of your hands, providing cycling gloves in width fittings – and their bike fitting technology in now used in over 23 countries across the global cycling community.

Over the next few months and into the future, we’ll be talking in detail to the very clever cycling scientists at SQLab and bringing you a series of articles, blogs and reviews to better inform you about how technology can help every cyclist, at every level and in every genre of our amazing sport. Whether you ride for fun or to compete, SQLab is without a doubt a cycling brand that needs to be at the forefront of your mind. After all, as a cyclist, you’ve been at the forefront of their thinking since 1992, as they’ve measured, analysed, researched and thousands of cyclists in their quest for innovation and excellence in cycling.

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The Positive Benefits of a Bike Fit and the Science of Bike Fitting

Pedalnorth Website — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 16:21:45 +0000

The Positive Benefits of a Bike Fit

The Science of Bike Fitting

For too many years than anyone cares to remember, cyclists have usually walked into a bike shop and chosen a bike ‘off the peg’ from display, only to find that when riding the bike, there are numerous different aspects of the bike that need to be changed. The new science of bike fitting works to overcome this, allowing cyclists to be able to create their own perfect bike and to have a bike fit that creates a bike that’s as unique as we all are. It’s a revolution in custom cycle sales, and is giving cyclists something special from day one – those bike fitting marginal gains that we dream of.

Bike fitting that’s as unique as you are

Yes, bike fitting looks at every aspect of how we are built, how we move, how we sit and and how comfortable we are when cycling. Bike fitting should be as normal for us as cyclists, as stopping to enjoy coffee and cake is. However, the new science of bike fitting is still developing, as we start to understand the positive benefits, despite World Tour riders and teams using it for many years. We may want to ride the same bikes as the world’s leading cyclists, yet we still don’t fully comprehend how those bikes have been individually created by a series of quite detailed bike fitting sessions by a group of very talented and technical bike fitting experts. Complete with all the data required, created from numerous measurements and lots of detailed analysis about our bike contact points, these bike fitting experts weave their technical magic to make cyclists more comfortable and more performance orientated than ever before.

Brands such as SQ Lab from Germany, and Selle Italia in Italy, know the importance of every cyclist getting an individual bike fitting, and they’ve developed a range of products to support how we all use the bike contact points – hands, saddle, pedals, differently. This new bike fitting information area of the Pedalnorth website aims to guide you through the complex detail and science of bike fitting, making it easier to understand, and ensuring that you are better informed yourself when walking into the bike shop to choose your own next bike. In effect, we ant you to have your own perfect bike, created from your own unique bike fitting session.

Points of contact

Pedals and Cycling Shoes

Bike Fitting looks predominantly at how we make contact with the bike and how we move once in contact. There’s a chain of that contact, from the soles of our feet and our cycling shoes connected to the pedals, all the way up our lower legs, our knees, our upper legs and hips to our seat and the saddle – the second point of contact. A qualified bike fitting expert will initially look at your body and its detailed measurements, and how you look and move both on and off the bike. This initial chain is particularly important, as it’s critical to get the foot contact – your cycling shoes, cleat position, shape and volume of your foot and the bike crank length etc – right. Getting it wrong here will cause issues and pain in the legs, the knees and the hips.

Yes, bike fitting is a science, and it needs to understand how you move and you each part of your body interacts with the bike. That’s why a professional bike fitting session is so important and how it can make such a difference to your cycling performance, comfort and even your health. It can reduce or potentially remove those twinges and pains that you might feel when riding an ill-fitting bike – which, unfortunately too many cyclists are.

Are you sitting comfortably

In reality, there are only 5 different shapes of buttocks – your gluteus maximus – everything else is just added flesh we’re afraid to say. Importantly though, how your own buttocks make contact with the bike saddle, and how it effects your cycling action is another critical aspect of the science of bike fitting, and it’s something that the expert bike fitter will look at in detail. Yes, bike fitting needs to both look at your bottom, and also at how it sits on the saddle when pedalling. Pressure points are examined by the bike fitting expert, and the measurements and patterning allow them to help you to fit the right saddle to your bike, maximising your comfort and performance in those most critical of bike fitting areas – your buttocks! We’ll be looking at this – and yes, buttocks – in far more detail, as we and our friends at SQ Lab talk you through the science and benefits of a individual bike fitting session.

Performance & Comfort

Holding onto the ride

The third and final bike fitting contact point that we’ll be looking at in some detail is the hands and handlebars. How many of you go into a bike shop knowing the width of handlebars that you need? How many of you know the design and stem requirements – not many, I’d say. You simply wait until you find out that the bike is uncomfortable to ride, and then consider a bike fitting session, or simply trying a different sized handlebar. Using the SQ Lab system of analysis, you can even get the width of your hands measured, and they’ll recommend the right bars and even the right width of cycling gloves – now that’s a detailed bike fitting session. And, with bike fitting partners all over Europe and elsewhere, using the SQ Lab system, you’re always close to finding that perfect balance between performance and comfort.

There’s lots more to consider in a professional bike fitting session, and it’s something that we want to look at in detail, creating a series of informative blogs and articles to help you to understand bike fitting. This new area of the Pedalnorth website will work with experts to look in detail at the science of bike fitting and how a detailed bike fit from a qualified bike fitting expert can dramatically improve your own ride -from top to toe. We’ll be speaking with bike fitting experts and looking at the development of bike fitting as a science, the benefits of a professional bike fit and why it should be something that all cyclists look at. After all, when you live a cycling lifestyle, don’t you deserve to ride in comfort.

A tailored bike fit is ultimately the best way for all cyclists to gain that perfect perfect balance between performance and comfort on the bike; and brands like SQ Lab have dedicated many years of study into developing one of the very best bike fitting systems in the world – so let’s take a look at the detail, science and benefits of all aspects of bike fitting. The days of taking an ‘off-the-peg’ should be consigned to history, for all of us.

Bike Fitting Blogs

Choose a technical blog below

Innovation & Excellence in Cycling

SQ Lab Cycling – Maximising Performance & Comfort

Pedalnorth Website — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 20:30:11 +0000

SQ Lab Cycling – Maximising Performance & Comfort

Innovation & Excellence in Cycling Science

Words by Robert & Images by Ben Thorpe

None of us are the same – literally none of us. If 2 twins ate the same things, walked in exactly the same footsteps, and grew in the same way, their foot pressure measurements would vary, due to how they actually walked. And yet, we all seem quite happy to walk into a bike shop and take a new bike straight of the stand, accepting that the contact points – the handlebars, the saddle and the cranks are all perfect for us. They’re not, and in truth they very rarely are; which is why the majority of cyclists are riding in discomfort or not able to perform to their maximum.

Visiting Euro Bike this July was enlightening for me, seeing SQ Lab taking centre stage, with their appliance of science, in helping cyclists to find their own perfect fit on the bike. I’ve worked closely with Hutch, from Lake Cycling Shoes for over two years now, and he’s educated me on cyclist’s feet. He’s also pointed out the benefits of a detailed and accurate bike fitting, and I’m sold on it. These were also points that already interested me, and I’ve frequently advised cycling friends that the pain between their shoulders may be down to handlebar width; or that the wrist pain may be a result of incorrect handlebar shape and positioning of the levers.

SQ Lab – Science Quantified for Cyclists

Talking with Nina from the SQ Lab team, we spent a long time being shown through their software and how it analyses the smallest details right across the cyclist’s body. From their normal stance, how they sit, to the width of their hands and how they place them onto handlebars, SQ Lab are interested in every aspect in their quest to deliver the optimal ride for every cyclist.

Their saddles are probably the most scientifically designed in the industry and forgo any unnecessary elements in structure or design. They function purely how you need them to, becoming a part of you and maximising your ride position based on how your body is actually shaped and the correct measurements of your sit bones, including the pressure that they put down being accurately mapped. All of this in turn, informs the bike fitting expert how your feet operate on the pedals and allows them to correctly analyse and adjust this further element. The body is a complex structure that works in unison, and SQ Lab showed the visitors at Euro Bike, the importance of understanding the relationships at each and every point of contact, and how our skeletal structure and individual biometrics operate with the bike.

Are you sitting comfortably

SQ Lab take detailed saddle measurements using width of the sit bones, ensuring that you are properly supported. Failing to have the correct saddle width can lead to numerous problems elsewhere, as well as pain when riding. SQ Lab provide all saddle models in 4 different widths, ensuring that, whatever your own measurements, you’ll be sitting comfortably all ride long. Their ‘step saddle’ concept also creates relief for cyclists in the important and sensitive seat areas of the body for both sexes.

Strong foundations for the perfect ride

Their scientific and quantified processes take extensive measurements of your feet too, looking at base joint positions so that they can accurately assess the correct cleat placement for every rider. Along with other measurements and analysis, they’ll also recommend cranks and crank lengths. In terms of your hands and bike grips and gloves, SQ Lab take detailed measurements here too, and mark out the correct fitting for handlebars, grips and gloves, even providing cycle gloves in various width fittings –something that no other brand matches. Their ergo bars are designed to match how you use your hands and how they grip onto handlebars, optimising comfort and performance.

When looking at the feet and legs, it’s not simply the arch and sole that gets analysed; SQ Lab also measure and analyse your leg structure and natural stance. It’s critical to know whether you have a perfectly straight leg stance, a slight bow at the knee, or knock knees. All of this affects how your pedal action operates. They’ll bring all of this information together and create the perfect cycling shoe insoles for you; ensuring that your comfort and performance is maximised at this critical and hard-working contact point.

Quality counts – because only the best will do

Once SQ Lab have examined you in nearly as much detail as a gloved physician – but not quite – they’ll show you the right products from their industry-leading products of saddles, handlebars, stems, insoles, pedals and lots more, including their range of high-performance, high-quality cycle clothing. Only then can you ride away in comfort, safe in the knowledge that you’ve finally found the perfect fit for your own cycling needs.

It’s too easy to simply walk into a bike shop, or to look online and to purchase what seems like a great offer. Too frequently though, a large percentage of cyclists are riding incorrectly fitting bikes, with issues that are adverse to their fitness, maybe even their health, and most certainly affecting their cycling enjoyment. The contact bikes of the bike are individual to each of us, and we need to take due regard to ensuring that they’re correct for our own biometrics and physiology. SQ Lab are focused on doing this for us, and they’ve developed a quite remarkable system for doing so. Plain and simply, they measure every aspect of you and how you use the bike. Even the cycling kit that the brand produce is kept to necessary designs, with the right amount of compression in the right areas, and the right fabrics in the right place.

In short, SQ Lab typify German excellence in science and technology at its very best, and they’re a brand that all serious cyclists ought to look at when choosing a bike, or upgrading – or simply to ensure that you’re maximising comfort and performance.

Attending shows such as Euro Bike can be daunting, tiring and taxing, as we wander seamlessly between the multitude of stands. However, SQ Labs provided not only a bright, open, well-laid out and professionally looking place to rest a while. They also provided us with new insights and knowledge regarding the contact point comfort science within cycling. Over the next few months, we’ll be speaking in more detail to Nina and the team at their base in Bavaria and seeing how Ben and Nadezhda can benefit fit from the unique SQ Lab appliance of cycling science.

In the interim, why not take a look at the SQ Lab website yourself and find your nearest SQ Lab partner. Isn’t it time that you treated yourself to the perfect ride – with German engineering excellence, in the application of cycling science.

Visit SQ Lab

The Appliance of Cycling Science

A few thoughts on bikefitting

Pedalnorth Website — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 14:17:27 +0000

A few thoughts on bike fitting

by Steve Smales

WHY BIKE FITTING...
Steve Smales is an experienced cyclist and cycling sport International Official. Having ridden at a high amateur level for many years and mentored young riders, he gives his thoughts on why bike fitting is important

The story goes that about three years ago I made the decision to make the switch from rim brakes to discs for my cross bikes. Purely because I was too tight to get my race wheels re-rimmed after four hard seasons.

Becoming frustrated at being unable to find a pair of reasonably priced cross bikes that didn’t have the current, in vogue, ridiculous, long head tubes that make one like a galleon in full sail, I rang my good friend and renowned authority on cyclocross, Simon Burney for a bit of advice. Simon asked me to send a photo of me on my race bike.

I struck lucky.

Unbeknown to me, Simon was in esteemed company at the time. Simon was with the legend that is Nick Craig (he’ll cringe as he’s so modest). Simon’s text response destroyed me. “Nick wants to know why yer racing on a kids bike?”

“What do you mean a kids bike?”

“It’s too small, you’re cramped”

I was devastated. My position had evolved over the preceding 40 years. I knew my seat height to the mm, what shape handlebars I had on all my bikes. Every detail…and all of a sudden two of the leading experts in the sport had told me it was wrong from a photo on a phone. Simon told me to go to see a guy called Shoz (Andy Shore) at a bike shop called Windmill Wheels, who would sort me out.

What a bind… Wyndham was a 280 mile round trip. Over a hundred quid for someone to just give advice. After all, riding a bike is well, just riding a bike isn’t it… why is it so technical to adjust it – no comments please Nick

If I was really, really honest. I only went to not piss Simon off. It really grips me when people ask me for advice and then ask others until they get the answer they wanted. So off I went down the A1, muttering to myself about taking half a day off work and the price of diesel. I’d travelled the world with cycling and people seemed to just jump on their bike and ride them, and I’m sure that they’d never thought about getting a bike fit done while cycling the streets of Verona or Montpellier!

Anyway, upon arrival, I found a small, modest bike shop that had some really nice stuff for sale and met Shoz. I was taken upstairs to what was almost a loft conversion; just a space with a bike fitting jig and a sofa. Andy took 5 mins to chat and then we did nothing much more sophisticated than sit me on my bike and pedal on a trainer. A simple measurement of my body angles using an app on a iPad, a tape measure and laser level – and SHIT loads of experience

Saddle needs to go down 40mm – “YOU WHAT?”

“You’re probably over using your calves riding… likely to injure yourself”. I’d just recovered from a completely severed calf muscle that left me in a cast for six weeks!

Bars too wide. Ditch the 44’s, 42’s for cross, 40’s on the road – “No!”

Stem too long, 20mm too long – “Are you joking?”

“Your left cleat needs to go back roughly 7mm, your feet aren’t both the same… look at this” I looked down, I could see it clearly when someone pointed it out to me. In fact, there was only one dimension right on the bike.

I came home having not been sold anything other than advice. I needed a pile of parts to make many of the changes… this wasn’t about this – it was all about sending me away with a sheet of A4 paper with some handwritten numbers on and the knowledge of how to consistently measure my bikes for myself.

With around seven bikes – oh yes, a mere seven, to implement some of Shoz’s changes fully has taken some time. That’s a lot of handlebars, stems etc. But last week, I finally started to roll out the 40cm wide bars. Roughly this time last year, I rode 260 miles in 16 hours for a local charity with some people from work. I literally could have turned round and ridden back because I was so comfortable. My numbers are strong and I feel so at one with the bike.

I cannot comment on other fitters, what I had was simple, straightforward and there was not the slightest hint of over technical gobbledygook or attempts to blind me with science in an attempt to justify the fee.

But what I will say is in forty years of cycling it was the best hundred and twenty quid I’ve ever spent. Nothing comes close.

End of; now, off you go and no excuses.

Bike Fitting – pedalnorth

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