Bike Fit and Turbo Trainer Set Up

I know it’s a bit of a luxury having a bike specifically for use on my Turbo Trainer, but it is over 20 years old! The other issue with it is that it isn’t easy to get it set up exactly the same as the bike I use on the road. If I simply put my road bike on the turbo trainer then my position on the bike would obviosuly be exactly the same as it is when I riding on the road. Using a different bike, with very different geometry means that this isn’t the case. This also means that if I train exclusively on the Turbo Trainer over the winter I am not necessarily training my muscles to work they way they need to work on my road bike.

Bike Fit

With this in mind I decided to use a clever little app on my iPhone called Bike Fast Fit. Essentially it records a video of you on your bike and then allows you to make various measurements from that video. It has some preset angles that you might want to know and some useful tools for making these measurements and therefore dialling in your bike fit.

Bike Fit App

Bike Fit App

I first popped my road bike onto the trainer and made various measurements using that. Adding little blue stickers to myself helped get things accurate. I then put my turbo training bike back on and made some measurements using that and sure enough, they were all quite different.

MeasuermentTurboRoad Bike
Hip Angle116.2°118.6°
Knee Max Angle134.7°143.0°
Knee Min Angle72.375.5°
Knee Over Bars6cm4cm
Seat Over Bars11.6cm12.8cm

The idea now was to make some adjustments to the bike I use on the turbo trainer, re-record the video and see if I could get the bike fit measurements closer to those of the road bike. That’s what I did, first just by simply raising the saddle a little on my turbo trainer bike. This got the measurements closer,  but I’d gone a little too far. Next then was some fine tuning and before long I had it about spot on.

Here are the measurements as they stand after some fine tuning.

MeasuermentTurboRoad Bike
Hip Angle118.8°118.6°
Knee Max Angle142.9°143.0°
Knee Min Angle75.4°75.5°
Knee Over Bars4cm4cm
Seat Over Bars12.9cm12.8cm
Seat tube Angle86.5°85.4°
Shoulder Angle81.4°81.4°

Here are some screen shots to prove it.

Hip Angle

Hip Angle

Hip Angle

Knee Max Angle

Knee Max Angle

Knee Max Angle

Knee Min Angle

Knee Min Angle

Knee Min Angle

Knee over Pedal

Knee over Pedal

Knee over Pedal

I think that is close enough for the time being. The Bike Fast Fit app certainly made things easier to correlate, but it did take the best part of a day to do. Hopefully now though any training I do on the turbo trainer over the winter will directly benefit my performance on the road bike as the bike fit should be similar. The next job will be to sort out my bike fit whilst on the aero bars.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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