Finding The V-Locus is something of an extension of the Goldilocks Principle; bars set somewhere between Sit Up and Beg and a face-plant, saddle height somewhere between speed skater and Baryshnikov, and reach somewhere between a unicycle and the Batpod. This is art more than it is science, a process of iteration and refinement. And everyone knows “iteration and refinement” is the formal way of saying “we’re making this up as we go along.”
We are in the midst of a Sit Up and Beg Epidemic, and with that comes an emphasis on the rare rider who looks completely natural on their machine. There is a sense of ease that belies the power the rider generates; the position must allow for balance between opposing forces experienced while riding on two wheels, not to mention the sophisticated coordination required to coax a system of muscles that can only push or pull into generating power through a perfectly circular pedal stroke.
Cyrille Guimard is known to be a kind of grand master of il posizione, having been responsible for developing all three of the dominant Grand Tour riders of the late seventies and eighties. These three riders – Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, and Greg LeMond – shared a common theme: their positions on the bike was so beautiful it has been scientifically proven to have cured infertility in women who watched them race, indirectly accounting for the baby boom in the 70’s and 80’s.
Of the three, LeMond stood out as being the most perfect, pioneering the use of the wind tunnel to refine his position to maximize the balance between physiology and aerodynamics in order to wring the most V from himself and his machine. He had the advantage of living in an era when frames were tailor-made like a suit on Savile Row but he used it to great effect, tweaking seat tube angles to maximize use of his long thighs and stretching his top tube to account for his long reach reach. In America at least, it’s easy to pick out riders who took a page out of his book on positioning, riding long and stretched out positions and mashing gears heels-down at 60rpm while gently rocking their shoulders. It brings a tear of joy to my eyes whenever I see it.
In our day of cookie-cutter carbon frames, we’re often left to refine our position through stem length and seatpost setback, but that’s no excuse for allowing us not to Look Fantastic and natural on the bike. Take heed of the Apostle LeMond and don’t stop tweaking until you have found your V-Locus.
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Sorry, here's the pic.
@frank
My VMH discovered her true match is the Fizik Arione that graced my bike for the past year. Out went the fat, cushioned Specialized stock monster, and in went the sleek, narrow Arione, more fitting her petite 44kg frame. My mother just replaced her well-worn Selle Italia SLR for the naked-carbon, 95g Selle Italia Tekno. Both completed a 600km weekend pain-free two weeks ago. Just goes to show that "women's" saddles are bullshit.
I've come to realize that, in a way, a good position is all about the saddle. I rode with the for two years Arione and while I thought I was happy, it took me a spell on a Cobb 170 to realize what I was missing out on. I've found myself spending hours comfortably in the drops hammering with a flat back, whereas I previously had to lift my arse every once in a while to get things moving again. Now I only need to find a prettier saddle that fits as well...
@tessar Your velomihottie rides with your velomimommy? That's really cool. Seriously. Sounds like you have a great, active, cycling family. And your mom rides a naked carbon saddle? She must be a total velominatus. I'm pretty sure my mom hasn't looked at her bike, other than to move it out of the way for her rubbermaid bins of wrapping paper, in years.
Had the LeMond book of Bicycling back in the '80's and based my position on that. When I got back into cycling in the mid aughts, I was able to dig up LeMond's bike fit formulas on the interwebs and match it up to newer bikes and equipment. Once things were sorted, it felt like a sort of homecoming, much of the muscle memory was still there. And I've had a couple of professional fits since then, but both only made minor adjustments, saying that the position was pretty spot on already.
@DexterSellers
I know trackies sometimes use clipless pedals with toe straps to keep from pulling out. I guess there will be some riders who feel the need until manufacturers present pedal cleat systems that are fully locked in, ie infinite spring tension.
Wish that I had enough power for that to be of concern.
@sthilzy
I just started focusing on it until it was sort of habitual. It's still not completely drilled in, and spending more time on That Fucking Mountain Bike this season of year, it's probably not getting any more habitual at the moment. But I did a half-dozen days this summer of around 160km, and my whole back feels much better and I can be lower in the drops for longer if I keep that pelvic girdle rotated forward a bit.
With my history of back issues (compression fracture, ruptured disk) I should be doing regular core work, but I don't.
@PeakInTwoYears
I was fighting severe neck and should pain on any ride over 1 hour. At first I thought I was too stretched out and needed a shorter stem, but I have a longish torso and had been fit by a custom frame builder, so that didn't seem like the right remedy. Daily stretching helped, but I was still nowhere near the V-Locus. Somewhere during my interneting I read or saw something about rotating the pelvis forward.
I gave it a try and, for me at least, all the cosmic tumblers fell into place. I could reach my hoods easily, my arms had a proper bend, my head lifted up, my back flattened (although certainly not LeMan flat). I was able to push my saddle back 10mm and drop my stem 10mm.
Core strengthening helps (when I actually do it), but the rotation became habitual because the alternative is useless pain. Anytime I feel the slightest twinge in my neck and shoulder, or I realize my arms are straight while on the hoods, it's a good bet I need to rotate the pelvis a bit.
@sthilzy
Take care. Adopting an artificial position is more likely to result in damage than relieve it. The key really is getting your setup right so that your body naturally adopts a comfortable and effective position. Having a nearly right setup and then forcing something is more likely to create problems than fix them. Every body is different and trying to force your body into the image of someone else is not a good idea.
@DexterSellers
You can see those straps in some of the 89 Tour photos too. They're not attached to the pedals, just around his shoes for extra support/compression.
During the transition to clipless it took a while for shoe design and construction to catch up to pedal technology. You could buy commercially available straps to do the same thing:
I had some Duegis around that time that came with similar straps. If you were using the shoes with clips you didn't need them, but with clipless they kept the shoes from stretching out and the soles from tearing off.
@DexterSellers
It would be a dream to find out for sure, but his shoes were lace-ups with a cover and dual Velcro straps; the toe clip straps we're just for extra support.
and they were Time pedals, not Look.