Do you think people who fix bikes or are bike enthusiasts know which of these components affect which aspect of riding? I can imagine knowing all the specific names for the parts is difficult but their affect on biking experience seems very relevant. Something that was not so obvious to me.
There are professional "bike fitters" that know how to adjust all these things (those that can be adjusted) and more in such a way you get everything set up the best given your body and goals.
For instance, given a bike and a rider, one can adjust seat height, seat position, stem length, handlebarhheight, crank arm length and possible more things to get the correct reach and stem height. However, all that also has to be adjusted to account for body size (limb lengths), mobility etc, in order to level the hips, get the knees correctly over the pedals, aero position, correct weight on the hands, no chafing in the butt etc. It's really an art to adjust everything at once, as fixing one thing affects the others.
So while a bikefit can cost about $300, it's money well spent if one is serious about the biking (and one has then probably spent ~20x that on bike+gear anyways.. ). I'm about to head out for a ~120km ride today, so I've found a bike fit invaluable.
Professional bike fitting is sort of a sub-discipline of physical therapy, at least in the US. (That might not be obvious to people who haven't had a professional bike fit; it wasn't to me before I did.) To the extent your health insurance covers PT, it covers PT bike fits.
I agree with you a 100%. Your bike should help you maintain good riding posture even when you are becoming road tired. Just be careful about who you pay to fit the bike. Most shops claim to be experts, but I have had bad experiences with some shops. It doesn't show until you've ridden a great many miles.
My friends and I are avid mountain bikers, and semi-frequent road bikers and most of us have a pretty decent grasp on the effect of the main factors that will affect how a bike rides and handles and discussions are often had on the validity and suitability of different bikes geo choices for different kinds of riding. None of us are experts and we couldn’t tell you exactly how a bike would feel just by looking at the geometry, but you get a decent mental model after a while.
Granted, different people are enthusiasts for different reasons, for instance I rely on my bike for getting around town, but will never be a competitive rider. So, the interest in geometry ranges from just being safe and comfortable to ride, up to performance aspects of activities such as mountain biking, racing, or touring.
One hassle is that different makers sometimes supply a different set of measurements, especially inexpensive or older bikes, so you have to figure things out a bit. Also, a short test ride might not tell you how happy you will be after 100 miles. If there are things that you are happy or unhappy about on your existing bike, I suggest measuring it and try to figure some things out that way. When shopping for a bike (or hunting through piles of used bikes, as I've done), bring a tape measure.
An example: if you want to carry saddlebags (panniers) attached to a rack over the rear wheel, it helps to have a bike with long chain stays so that your heels do not bump into your saddlebags when you pedal.
Definitely! I've been riding road bikes for ~5 years now and have "built" the last 3 bikes I've owned. I've become increasingly interested in frame geometry as it relates to bike fit (as opposed to handling characteristics). After riding a few frames and comparing their geometries I've narrowed down an ideal range of measurements for myself based on how I got along with each frame. I can browse a geo chart and be pretty certain whether or not a frame will work for me by checking a few measurements.
Many of these have equivalents on motorcycles, and even if you don't know the terms, you feel the effects, and if you have a bit of knowledge, you'll know that adjusting suspension preload (or, in extremis, raising or lowering the forks in the clamps) affects rake and trail which then affects steering.
http://cycle-ergo.com/ is a site some motorcyclists use to figure out which bike suits their body and preferred riding position.
yes. most people probably haven't read a guide like this, but if you've ridden a good variety of bikes you get a sense for how the bb height affects stability, or how the head tube angle and the trail affect your steering.
some bikes even offer adjustable geometries by moving a bolt to a different position, which really makes it easy to understand how a change in geometry affects the handling characteristics.
I got a rapid lesson in how changing the length of the seat stay to slacken the head tube angle leads to a reduced bottom bracket height. A rock I would normally clear snagged a pedal and I went careening over the bars. A good example of how all of these variables influence each other and how bike fit and geometry is always a balancing act.
In my experience knowing and caring about bike geometry to this level of detail is definitely for the advanced enthusiast. Just knowing it doesn't mean you can apply it either. I knew the terms in the article, I even knew what I personally prefer and how a bike might feel by reading the numbers, but I won't be offering to do anyone's bike fit any time soon!
Broadly, yes. Mechanics almost certainly. Enthusiasts can get away with not knowing some things to a point, but I think you either lose the enthusiasm or pick it up eventually.
