Improving Riding Position (More Aero)

Now we are heading into the offseason I am trying to find ways to improve my riding position and become more aero. I have heard core strength training and yoga are good ways to do that. Does any have any suggestions, plans (I heard Dialed Health is a good paid service), etc. that I could follow to accomplish this? I am also considering getting a professional bike fit with a local shop that has RETUL.

@patricksudol as an initial (and free) step you should just prop up your phone and film yourself in an aero position from a couple different angles.

If you are like 90% of people, the way you THINK you look while riding and the way you ACTUALLY look while riding are often very different. Often, you can do a lot to improve your position just by closing that perceptual gap.

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Depending on the fitter, a Retul can make you less aero if the fitter concentrates on getting your optimum power output.

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Good bike fit starts with a good fitting saddle…that will allow you to properly rotate your hips and get lower in front. You don’t need yoga, stretching or core strengthening to do that…

As @Brennus suggested, post a video or image of you from the side on your bike (make sure the camera is horizontal with your body). We can give you a lot of good initial advice without dropping the coin on a fitter. When you post the pic, also let us know what saddle you are using and if it is comfortbale.

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Had the same question at same time of year, two years ago, at age 44, stiff and unflexible as a rock…all I did was to strictly follow text tips, to hold down on drops, whille doing TR plan workouts for the first time… since that winter riding for 2hrs on drops non stop and even with head tube lowered twice, isn’t a problem at all. :astonished:… But also, some say, if you can ride on drops more that 20min at the time, your head tube isn’t low enough… :thinking:

First you hold down for a minute at the time, gradually building up.
I do minimum of stretching after ride/workout, nothing else…and it all makes a ton of difference speed wise.

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Another perceptual gap: what they think improves the ratio of watts/CdA doesn’t always improve the ratio of watts/CdA.

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Ha! Well, @RChung , I think that’s exactly correct! Generally, I’m not an advocate of getting position advice from a collective. My advice to @patricksudol is to first make sure the position he has matches what he imagines it to be in his own mind.

The next thing is to go out and test it! For me, that’s some of the most fun you can have on a bike but most would disagree. :smiley:

Just by way of anecdote, I was helping a club mate fiddle with his TT pos’n…what was fastest for me (using the first knuckle of each thumb like a rifle site while riding down the road) just was not very fast for him. He was faster with the old ‘arms horizontal’ position and a relatively sky high back angle.

So there’s an example where one of us would definitely have been screwed by posting pics on line for advice. We probably would have got the same advice but what’s best for each of us is actually very different. So ya gotta be very methodical when considering such advice.

Every time I go down the road of trying to answer some aerodynamic question only reinforces in my mind that I don’t have a very good intuitive understanding of aerodynamics! :rofl: I think it’s that way for most people. I’m just more self-aware in this one regard.

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