Struggling to find relief on the bike? You're not alone, I hear from hundreds of cyclists every week that are having a hard time finding answers to their bike fit problems. That's why I offer online bike fit consultations.

Is this a bike fit?  No, not what I would consider a "complete" bike fit, anyway. A true bike fit requires hands-on physical assessment, and there really is no substitute for visiting an expert bike fitter in person. But I understand that not everyone is going to be able to make it to my studio and have found the online consultation to be very useful in solving many issues on the bike.

From simple saddle questions to more complex deep dives into ankle mechanics, there are more ways than ever these days for us to share information and data through video calls and high quality digital video capture. Most clients send short clips of themselves on their bike for me to evaluate, and since the advent of high quality digital video devices, this option is open to nearly everyone. (Some of the best video I've received has come from clients cell phones and GoPros)

This will make use of my DIY Video Bike Fit series.

(Overall, this generally costs in the $100-$200 range, but there are more details below.)

Follow these steps:

1. Watch at least the first two of this DIY Video bike fit series

   • https://bikefitadviser.com/perform-a-not-so-basic-bike-fit-part-1-hardware-software-and-setup/

   • https://bikefitadviser.com/perform-a-not-so-basic-bike-fit-joint-landmarks/

   • https://bikefitadviser.com/not-basic-bike-fit-part-3-bike-fit-joint-angles/

   • The first helps you set up the hardware while the second will teach you how to note the landmarks on your body, which is really helpful on my end when analyzing things. The third is superfluous if you’re paying for an online consult, but if you’d like to learn more, then there it is.

2. I want you to take a short video of yourself on the trainer from both sides — right and left sides. This is the only way we’re going to get a complete picture of your mechanics.

   • Keep the videos short — 25-45 seconds of you pedaling at your typical cruising cadence is plenty. Plus, as the videos get longer they get to be much larger files. If you follow these directions, your video files should be less than 125 MB

   • No need to record at more than 60 fps. I know some iPhones or GoPros will do 120 fps or even 240 fps, but this is overkill for our purposes, and quite frankly, these videos just take up too much space

   • In addition to taking short videos from each side, I'd recommend taking a video from the front, so I can see how your knees track, as well as just a photograph of the bottoms of your shoes so I can see your cleat position.

   • Important tip about recording the videos from the sides:

     • Pay particular attention to the alignment of the camera that I talk about in the first article and video — if the camera is too much towards the front of the bike it will be looking back at you and we won’t get accurate measurements of your leg motion; too low and looking up, too high and looking down, too far to the back of the bike and looking forward all produce sub-par data.

3. If your video file is a .mov file I need you to convert it to .mp4 as they are much smaller generally and easier to deal with.

   • I use this website to convert files from .mov to .mp4: https://cloudconvert.com/mov-to-mp4

   • Couldn’t I just convert it? Well, yes, but this is time I should be spending analyzing your videos since that’s what you’re paying me for. If I have to spend 20 minutes trying to convert a video file because when the .mov file was uploaded in portrait, all the editors want to open it in landscape and the image is distorted — I don’t want to have to charge you for that time. I can do this all more efficiently if they’re all converted already to .mp4

4. Once you have the video recorded, I'll send you a secure Dropbox link to make it easy to upload these video files to. I’ll also send you a PayPal or Venmo invoice for the initial $100

   • Then I can analyze, provide a written summary of what I see going on and what we need to change or do. At any point in the process, we can always do a video call/Skype conference as needed as well. 

   • Many clients go back and forth more than once, meaning they shoot video, I analyze, send them a report, they make the changes and then ride for a few weeks and then shoot more video to refine things - kind of rinse and repeat. We can take it to whatever level of detail you'd like.

   • I’ll send you an additional invoice at the end if we go over the $100 initial fee

Shoot me an email if you have any questions, or just get going on making those videos ...  Best, John