"There must be something wrong with this bike... my wattage doesn't match what I normally see on my road bike with a PowerTap. 🙁
A common complaint that many of us are hearing, now that our clubs are offering power meters.
The answer could be as simple as; "it's because our Indoor Cycles have a different saddle than your road bike."
Now I'm not saying that that's the only reason for the discrepancy. There are multiple factors that affect how you produce power and what ultimately gets displayed by the console. A few months ago I wouldn't have believed you, if you tried to convince me that (beyond the level of comfort you feel) a bike's saddle design could add or subtract to the power I could create.
I believe it now.
Back in March I had a professional bike fitting on my new VeloVie with none other than the Bike Fit Guru Chris Balser. I figured that I had a few dollars left because of the incredible deal I got and, with one kid graduating for college this Friday, why the heck not?
I was a bit naive about what all was entailed in a 2 hour fitting. I thought Chris would be super focused on getting my seat height exactly right, maybe futz with the tilt of the handlebars. Stuff like that. Nope. For close to an hour we tried out different saddles, 11 in total. That's right, Chris had me ride on a trainer, trying 11 different saddles, to find the perfect saddle that (his words) your ass can find easily. Here's what we finally decided on... a Fizik Kurve.
Impossible to tell just by looking at it - my butt knows where it belongs.
What we were looking for was more than a comfortable place to sit my butt. Actually comfortability was third on Chris' list of criteria for a saddle. The first was; "can your ass find it?" and second was; "how much power do you make with it?"
Both the "find it" and "power" go hand in hand. I've forgotten which number (of the 11 saddles) this Fizik was, but I knew the instant I sat on it... or better said, my butt knew the second it sat down. It just felt right and I wasn't sitting on it, I was kind of in it. That's when I understood what Chris was talking about when he kept saying find it. There wasn't any question where on the saddle I was supposed to sit, I just sat down and I was right where I was supposed to be. No working my way a little forward or backwards. I just sat down.
Once my butt found its home I made more power! The trainer I was riding was connected to a power meter that displayed both my left and right leg's power, on a flat screen hanging in front of me. I was pedaling an easy gear at 90 rpm and making around 40 watts. Each saddle change I road in the same gear/cadence. Chris was watching me to see how stable I was and the balance of power between each of my legs.
The differences we saw were considerable, as much as a 20% or more variance left to right. Once I was sitting on the correct saddle for me I was able to maintain a nice even flow of power with my butt happy that it found its place.
Everything that can be changed or adjusted on my bicycle affected my power. Stem length, handle bar height, saddle tilt, height & fore/aft and cleat settings all made a difference that could be observed. Some were positive and some negative. Chris explained how our bodies adapt to the settings on our bikes. Some changes, that could be ultimately be helpful, often require time as our muscles and the nerves that control them adjust to the new settings. During this adjustment period you could/will appear less powerful.
So it stands to reason that hopping off the bicycle you're ridden for thousands of miles and on to any of the Indoor Cycles with power, you'll see a difference in wattage. The tendency is to blame the accuracy of the power meter - now I understand that there are mutiple other reasons.
A fitting with the Bike Fit Guru is actually split between two days, with a couple of hundred miles in between. Getting those miles has been a challenge with the miserable weather we've had this spring. Part two of my fitting is set for June 10th and I'll be doing a full report on everything I've learned about the correlation between bike fit and power production.
John is a member on the AFS (Association of Fitness Studios) Advisory Council.
Holding certifications from; Schwinn, Heart Zones, Team ICG and Life Time Fitness, John's held regularly scheduled cycling classes between 1998 and 2015 when he moved to Florida.
When the weather permits, you'll find him riding and leading outdoor groups by himself or with his Tandem partner (wife) Amy.
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wow, who knew? I probably should invest in a bike fit. I shelled out enough macaroons on the bike so even though I’m not hung up on wattage, it probably would make me more efficient and thus ride like the superwoman I know I am! 🙂
John,
Which one of the Fizik Kurve did you get?
Snake, Chameleon, or Bull?
I got the CHAMELEON – truth be told I only tried that one.
Sandra I’m feeling that I work more efficiently and feel better = can go faster, longer. Chris explained how being properly fitted means the bike adapts to you, vs. you adapting to the bike – with the resulting loss of efficiency and discomfort.
Someone needs to invent an exercise device that replicates the added weight of your helmet and the need to hyper-extend to look forward while riding in the drops. My neck is constantly sore 🙁
John, to your point of your butt just knew. Was it really that simple or did your butt just know when the power numbers got impressively better?
Truth be told my bike fit – also well north of two hours – did not incorporate any saddle changes. 🙁 I was told, “ride this (also a Fizik) for awhile it is a really good race saddle.
But Saddle changes did need to happen before I found one (a Sella Italia) the my butt could tolerate for long periods. I did my century on this new saddle last Saturday and was happy enough with the comfort over the time it took.
Still there is a bit of searching every time I get back on it. I would like to find the saddle where my butt just knows.
John,
Out of curiosity – if you go to the fizik site you will find that the Kurve saddle has three different models and the way they (fizik) recommend you select the saddle is by following the test on this page – http://www.fizik.it/spineconcept/# – and clicking on the spine concept test on the lower right corned of the page.
Could you tell us if the saddle you have matches the result of your test?
Thanks!
That is interesting Alan. Comparing myself to the three examples; I’m a Snake. I can palm the ground wearing my shoes with LOOK cleats – so based on this there may have been a better solution for me. My longest ride to date has only been 2.5 hours and it seems good so far.
Wow you guys…and I just ride whatever is on my bike. What is wrong with me? I need to ‘tech it up!’
I don’t know Amy. I finally got Marianne riding my old and way too small for me road bike. I just put on a set of wheels, lowered the saddle (A Sella made for men) to her needs, quick lube job and off we went. It was her first ride on a road bike. Broke her in with a nice rolling 15 miles.
She never once complained about the saddle.
Me, after my Century last week I’m still searching. How comfortable are the seats on a Harley? 😉
I think this discussion is important because it touches on ergonomics. Ergonomics is something often ignored that may have an impact on how you ride. The saddle, along with the handlebars and the pedal system are the spots where we interface with our bicycle. And as such are very important for you comfort and efficiency.
And given the dizzying array of options for saddles, handlebars, shoes + pedals we must ask each other these questions in order to try to narrow the amount of options and weed out “gimmicky jazz” from real useful information.
So, in reading the description of the two types, the chameleon and the snake, do you feel that you are missing anything by not having the “correct” saddle? Or is this just a marketing gimmick?
Thanks John!
Alan I wouldn’t call it a gimmick so much as a clever way to help a potential customer feel confident enough in their choice that they will make a purchase decision. I’ve read that marketing people call that “paralysis of choice” = when faced with too many potential options, our brains tend to shut down and we don’t make any decision.
Actually, creating that simple test is beyond clever, more like brilliant.
But no, I don’t feel like I have the wrong saddle as it’s in the middle = safer choice. And my butt likes it 🙂