Purpose of this bikefitting diary

Since I started road cycling 3 years ago I became aware of the multiple challenges I was facing. I was far from being fit for the sport and carried some problems from running, but as aerobic conditioning improved I started to deal with structural limitations that most of the time were interrupting my training progress and dropped motivation.

This lead me to seek advice and had 2 different bike fits with which I left unsatisfied. After studing myself and thanks to great online resources like Steve Hogg's and Bikefit James videos, I started being more aware of how body should function on a bike and what's wrong with most bike fitters' methods around. So I started to make my own experiments and adjustments in an informed, methodical way. I've also read a lot about muscle imbalances from a movement assessment perspective. So kind of started a self fitting business with myself as the only customer. I'm convinced that is worth the time, as long as being aware of your body performance and limitations, not relying solely on third parties, can lead to a better  experience as cyclist and complement any training plan. For example, flexibility alone may vary through the season as fitness improves or training load increases, even in the same ride is good to know what are the causes of tightness or soreness in any muscle and know what to modify in either position or bike.

I live in Blanes, Girona, Spain. Girona is well known among cyclists because of nice roads, weather and cycling community. Cycling culture is strong since has been a favourite place for Pro's relocating along the team structures. But sadly there's no bike fitter available that I  trust in after those two past experiences. Since I made more progresses this way I want to share my experiences. I won't criticy anybody's way of doing ot professionality, unless that my explanation requires a reference to a past position for comparison and indirectly identify as "wrong".
What follows is a gathering of my experiences thrown as a technical diary in the quest for a more confortable and eficient possition on the bike. I'm sure that my case is not complex, pretty common and can be of help to anyone experiencing recurring discomforts ... at least to motivate you to look at the resources I'm using. Feel free to ask and share your experiences to. Safe riding!

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G8 2620 Insoles for arch support

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G8 2620 is a quality insole system for arch support specific for sports that don't have natural contact with the ground, i.e. gait movement (cycling, but also skiing, hockey...). I won't go into the details of why insoles are needed for most of the cyclists. There's a short way to put it: The importance for using arch support for cycling is independent of your foot arch shape or the need of support for walking. Increasing plantar pressure triggers the central nervous system and increases foot proprioception. This CNS awareness is essential to avoid compensatory responses and asymmetries. Better support, leads to better foot and upper chain stability, reducing injury risk. Performance comes latter. I follow Steve Hogg's guidelines to reach a "mildly intrusive" level. These difer from what G8 states in their including leaflet, so pay attention to this. I don't notice any difference between two feet. So I set them equally on both. With Level 2 arches I feel a...
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Handlebar position and lever angle

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One of the most frustrating experiences with past bike fits was the focus on fitting you on the hoods position only. If you find confortable reaching the handlebar with an upright position, open hip, saddle on the forward side, there's no much you can complaint to the fitter afterwards, and it's likely that you won't develop injuries by pushing hard because in that position you won't be pushing hard anyway. But this confy, upright position comes with some implications: no glute activation and poor balance with either hands or sitbones loading most of the body weight. The relationship with the drop position is problematic at least since the torso has no space to extend and, independently of your ability to tilt the hip forward, you will feel crushed, when the reach to hoods has been shortened that much. Finding a balance is very complex, and there are a lot of things to sort out, both with body flexibility, fit position and bike components. But anyone trying at road cycl...
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