Do you need a bike fit for bikepacking? When it comes to bikepacking, comfort is key. Being able to sit on the bike for long periods and not feel like you’re suffering too much can really help bring in the big miles.

An easy way to improve comfort and get many other benefits while bikepacking is to have a bike fit. 

Many bikepackers often ask, “Do I actually need a bike fit to enjoy bikepacking?” Well, interestingly enough, yes, you will get many benefits from a bike fit, but you don’t always need one for bikepacking.

In this article, were going to be telling you everything you need to know by discussing:

• What Is A Bike Fit?
• What Are The Bike Fit Advantages?
• When Do You Need A Bike Fit For Bikepacking?
• When Don’t You Need A Bike Fit For Bikepacking?
• Bike Fit Top Tips

What Is A Bike Fit?

A bike fit is a process where an expert professionally fits you to your bike or a bike you might be buying. This is typically done by a trained professional in a bike fit studio, but often you will find local bike shops offer a very basic service.

A bike fitter will fit the bike differently depending on the person being fitted, the bike, and the type of riding that person wishes to excel at. 

A proper bike fit will look at many different factors, such as saddle height, reach, saddle fore-aft, and cleat position, and they will even recommend part changes too, such as saddle, handlebars, and stem. 

What Are The Bike Fit Advantages?

A bike fit comes with a huge amount of advantages and more than you might think. Here’s what you need to know:

Comfort

The first thing to mention about a bike fit is the extra comfort you get. It allows you to ride so much further without the need to jump off the bike and stretch or recover. 

Injury Prevention

Next, we have injury prevention. If you are fitted correctly to your bike, then there’s much less strain on the body, and the muscles are working in the proper patterns that they should be. This means fewer aches and pains on longer rides and a quicker recovery.

Performance

Then you have performance. With the muscles working in the correct patterns and your body in a more comfortable position, you can expect that to result in better performance.

If you want to get more speed and distance without extra training or bike parts, have a bike fit. It can even help bike control when mountain biking too.

Pedaling Efficiency

When properly fitted to a bike, you are much more efficient for cycling. Being in the correct position spreads the pedaling load across the muscles, which will give a smoother cadence and a much better pedal stroke with more natural flow to each rotation. 

If you want to learn more about smooth pedal you will enjoy What Is Cadance In Cycling.

When Do You Need A Bike Fit When Bikepacking?

It’s a very interesting question to ask if you need a bike fit for bikepacking because the answer is yes and no.

There are some situations where we recommend investing in a bike fit and others where we don’t feel the need to. Here’s where you will benefit from a bike fit for bikepacking and where you won’t.

If You Get Discomfort

We highly recommend if you get any pain or discomfort when riding, to have a bike fit. We appreciate you are going to get a little uncomfortable after a few hours of riding, but if there’s anything within one to two hours of riding, we highly recommend a bike fit.

Bikepacking can be very challenging and typically requires a lot of time on the bike. If you get discomfort on short rides, the longer rides will be awful. Nothing ruins a good bikepacking trip like discomfort. 

If You’re Going Extreme

If you’re planning a bikepacking trip that will offer a big challenge of long distance riding, then having a bike fit will be important.

When you enter a bikepacking race or plan a trip that will push your limits on distance and speed, you need to be in the correct position. 

Many people go into bikepacking events, which are super challenging, hoping that they will be able to push through a bad fit when it always catches up to them.

Without time to rest or your body functioning perfectly, it just puts such a big load on the body.

If You Want To Improve And Build To Bigger Trips And Races

A bike fit can really help you when it comes to comfort and also performance. If you want to go into longer rides with the outlook to ride bigger and better distances a bike fit is a vital part of improving.

With the right fit, you can train harder, stop pesky injuries, and keep you pedaling the most efficiently you can.

A bad fit can stop progress very quickly and cause so much discomfort along the way stopping you using the bike properly.

When Don’t You Need A Bike Fit For Bikepacking?

Although this might sound unbelievable, I wouldn’t recommend investing in a $500 bike fit in certain situations. Especially when it comes to bikepacking. Here’s when you might not need to invest:

For Short Bikepacking Adventures

If you are new to bikepacking and just going on a short adventure of 30 miles per day, you could get away without having a bike fit. The miles you need to cover will not be extreme, and you will have so much time to recover that you could get away with a very basic home bike fit.

If You Don’t Suffer Any Discomfort

Some people naturally find their perfect bike fit just by trial and error. I did years of bikepacking and ultra racing without a fit, and I made small adjustments depending on how I felt. 

If you already have the fit you require, then why not leave it as it is? Even some racing professionals don’t have bike fits which goes to show sometimes it’s just not required, but this is rare. Having a bike fit to see if it can be improved can be a good idea. 

If You’re Completely Used To The Bike

Over my many years of going to bikepacking races and enjoying multiple long-distance events, I have come to meet many riders. Many of these riders have entered events, never had a bike fit, and still finish in record times. 

They get away with this because they are just so used to the bike and position that their body has adapted to a certain extent, and even a fit could have a negative effect in the short term and cause discomfort.

Do I Need A Bikefit For Bikepacking?

To summarize, you don’t need a bike fit when it comes to bikepacking, but it really helps. Getting in the right position will give you extra comfort and performance and will stop injuries.

I went a long time without a bike fit and adapted my position personally when a bike fit would have really helped get me to where I needed to be sooner. 

Bike Fit Top Tips

When it comes to having a bike fit or not, here are our top tips for getting a decent position. 

Give Yourself A Personal Bike Fit

Suppose you decide to go down the route of not having a bike fit. In that case, we highly recommend starting with getting your seat position right first, then the reach. These are the most important two, in my opinion.

Finally, follow up with all the fine-tuning with saddle fore-aft, cleats, saddle level, and any other measurements required. Gravel bike, road bike, or mountain bike they all need a good fit. To do this you will need…

Plumb Line
Tape Measure
Allen Keys
Level

Proper Bike Fitter

If you plan to have a bike fit, then we recommend going to a professional bike fitter. A local bike shop can charge a premium price, use incredibly basic measurements, and are generally making educated guesses.

Instead, we highly recommend going to a very experienced or qualified fitter to get a proper professional bike fit at a studio.

Understand A Bike Fit Never Ends

A bike fit is a good place to start, but over time, you will make slight adjustments depending on the bike you’re riding or even the event you’re doing.

Getting the perfect fit is an ongoing process and changes over time especially when it comes to multi-terrain bikes such as gravel bikes and road bikes.

Don’t Be Scared To Change Parts

You can highly benefit and improve your bike fit by changing parts. It’s not all about adjustments sometimes. We highly recommend looking at crank size, stem length, handlebar width, and even saddle width. 

A Final Thought

A bike fit can offer so much value to the cycling experience, especially when it comes to bikepacking. The bigger the distance, the more the bike fit can improve your comfort, performance, and efficiency. 

Questions And Answers

Now for some of your commonly asked questions about bike fits and bikepacking:

Can different upgraded parts change bike geometry?

Completely yes! Take a gravel bike for example if you were to change the stem it would completely change the position as far as reach and stack goes changing the gravel bike geometry greatly. 

Why is a more upright position favored in bikepacking?

When it comes to bikepacking, it’s about being in the saddle for a long time. A more upright riding position puts less pressure on the back and can give the rider more ability for control. Gravel bikes tend to have quite upright riding positions just like mountain bikes. 

How long does bike fitting take?

A bike fit from a professional will take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours. They have to take so much into account and the process is different for every rider. 

Should I do my own bikefit?

You can do your own bikefit using Youtube Videos, below is the products that will help you complete this.

Recommended Bikefit Products

If you enjoyed this post you might like Long Distance Cycling Benefits and What Is Bikepacking.

Author

Authored by Robbie Ferri, a distinguished Ultra Cyclist hailing from the United Kingdom. With profound expertise not only in cycling but also in the art of bike construction and collaboration with prominent industry-leading brands.

www.ridingwithrobbie.com
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