Sizing Your Bicycle

Spring is here and your excited about the great weather. What do you do? You go into the garage, put on your helmet, hop on your bike and start riding. You quickly realized two things, your bike is making a lots of noise and when you pedal your knees are hitting your nose. Fortunately you are a WiseRider and remember the ABC Quick Check and that will help you take care of the noise problem (check out the Tips from Saturn for a review of the ABC Quick Check), but what about the knee problem?

• To determine if your WiseRider bike is sized correctly, you should be able to comfortably straddle the frame while standing flat-footed on the ground. For protection during falls, there should be five centimetre gap between the top tube and your crotch. With some frame designs this may not apply.
  
• To adjust your seat, sit on the seat (which should be level), with your heels on the pedals, your legs should be almost straight at the bottom of the pedal stroke. Some WiseRiders prefer the seat to be a bit lower than normal so that their feet can be firmly placed on the ground when sitting on the seat, this does offer more safety but less power to your stroke.
• When checking the handlebar height, a normal riding position should rest about one-third of your weight on the handlebars and two-thirds on the seat.
• Remember your seat post and handlebar stems must be inserted at least 5 centimetres into the frame to prevent frame damage and injury. Longer seat posts and stems are available if you need to purchase them.