What is Bike Fit?

Ever feel an ache in your knees, numbness in your hands, or a sore back halfway through a ride—and just assume it’s part of cycling?

It doesn’t have to be.

Bike fitting is the process of adjusting your bicycle to match your body, your flexibility, and the way you ride. When done properly, it can transform your experience on the bike—making you more comfortable, more efficient, and able to ride longer with less fatigue.

For many cyclists, a proper bike fit is the single most impactful upgrade they can make—often more important than lighter components or a new bike.

Why Bike Fit Matters

A well-fitted bike delivers measurable benefits:

• Comfort: eliminate numb hands, saddle discomfort, and back or neck pain
• Injury prevention: reduce strain on knees, hips, and joints
• Efficiency: transfer power more effectively with less wasted energy
• Endurance: ride longer distances without fatigue setting in early
• Confidence: better control and stability on the bike

In practical terms: if something hurts on your bike, it’s often a fit issue—not a fitness issue.

Who Should Consider a Bike Fit?

Bike fitting isn’t just for professionals. It’s especially valuable if you:

• Ride regularly (e.g., 2–3 times per week or more)

• Are increasing your distance or speed

• Experience any discomfort or recurring pain

• Recently bought a new bike

• Want to improve efficiency without increasing effort

For club riders doing longer, steady-paced rides, fit becomes increasingly important as mileage goes up.

What is TBN offering related to Bike Fit?

One of our leaders, Dennis Szilvasy had an idea. Let's have a fitter come to the start of a ride and give people what you might call a "micro" bike-fit. Not a mini one which might take 1 hour, or a full one, which can take as long as 4 hours, but an opportunity to express areas of concern where the fitter can eyeball the person on their bike and perhaps make some tweaks to see if things feel any better on this ride.

Allan Friedman, a relatively new member to TBN with experience connecting fitters to various bike clubs he was involved with in New York City, knew this idea had been successful in other contexts and started working on this project with Dennis and others on the board of TBN. 

Dennis will be leading a first such ride (see margin for the ride listing), but first we thought it might be a good idea to invite several bike fitters to share their philosophies of fitting (there are many different approaches to bike fit), initially in the form of a panel conversation on Zoom.

We will be having this zoom session on Sunday April 26th at 7pm. See sidebar for how to sign up for this, don't worry if you can't make it, you will miss out on the live interactive Q and A opportunity, but it will be recorded and the link will replace this text here. This will set a foundation for the first ride offered by Dennis on May 19th at High Park. 

We will share a list of fitters below in the Toronto area that have forged a relationship of some kind with the club, either by joining this initial session or, offering to join future rides if the first ride is a success. 

• David Thomson of Fit My Ride (Web Site: FITMYRIDE.CC)
• Dr. Alex Ritza of Toronto Corrective Chiropractic (Web Site: dralexritza.com)
• Ayal Rahat, of Kind Human (Web Site: kindhuman.cc) 

Resources to learn more about Bike Fit:

Note from Allan: I will be adding links to resources I have found useful here - if you come across anything you think others in the club might find interesting, please send them to allancycling@gmail.com and they will get added here. And specifically, if you know any fitters that could use a few more clients - and might be willing to offer the club members a discount in exchange for a mention on our web site - please send them our way.