illustration of bike fit

[shootingstar]

For a road or hybrid bike.

For people who haven't done any cycling in decades, I never recommend a mountain bike as their return-to-cycling bike. These are women who don't go on trails, much less even hike at this time.

[NbyNW]

Dahon has a page that shows how one of their bikes can be adjusted for a comfort/upright position vs. aggressive/"sporty". It's not terribly technical, but for someone just getting into cycling, it has some nice profile pictures of how riders look with their bikes adjusted differently.

I imagine the same fit/position principles would apply to whatever type of bicycle a new cyclist would be looking for.

http://www.dahon.com/support/properfit.htm

[VeloVT]

Bikesport Michigan has some excellent photos comparing good positions with bad:

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/karma.shtml

All of these pictures and fit comments are regarding riders on tri bikes (with aerobars), but they illustrate positioning issues that apply quite clearly to road bikes as well. If you are showing them to others just keep in mind that tri bike geometry tends to encourage a more forward position on the bike, so the rider's position vis-a-vis the bottom bracket may look a little different than an ideal road position for that rider.

[madscot13]

I don't know if this is the best one out there but it is what I have tried to follow.

http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html

[ilima]

I don't know if this is the best one out there but it is what I have tried to follow.

http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html

There are no absolutes with bike fit. For example, this chart (which is pretty nice with lots of illustrations) has you adjust seat height first. Then several steps later, fore/aft adjustment. In reality, the two are intertwined. If you have the distance from the bottom bracket correct and then you move your seat back you'll have to lower it to keep the BB distance constant.

Because of this interrelationship between seat height and fore/aft position, there isn't a single KOPS position but rather a series of them. Some will work better for some people. I moved my saddle position back and down a bit from where I'd had it and found it improved my climbing.

Another aspect is that 'fit' isn't an absolute and that as you get accustomed to riding, you will need to adjust your fit.