Just watched this video. Interesting.

I’ve ordered an £8 Goniometer from Prime to see just what my knee angle is on the bikes. Optimism is 25 to 30 degrees apparently? Not even heard of a Goniometer before this.lol

Anyone used one before?

Or try the Bike Fast Fit app. It’s very good for angles and lengths. Static measurements tend to be less reliable.

You’ll need a turbo or rollers though.

Dammit, this site making me spend more money.

Now how about this – Surely there is a crap ton of money from STW to collect affiliate revenue on goniometer sales alone haha. Add to that bike fit app downloads and other relevant bits. Current Ads are not great, sure there is potential for you to rake in more revenue than current. We all want to support the forum and all so I am actually pro advertising where it’s actually useful.

I’ve been tinkering with my saddle position on the road bike in recent weeks, by raising and moving forward. I got to the point where last week, after coming back from short blasts, I was hobbling a tiny bit around the flat for the rest of the evening due to a bit of a niggle on my left knee.

Simply using a good old protractor and some assistance from by better half, measuring hip-knee-ankle angle at bottom dead centre, I had gone back to approx 25 degrees which caused me agro last summer.

What surprised me was the tiny adjustment to get approx 30 degree bend… Just 5mm saddle drop!

Only a short hour ride after recent adjustment, but no knee issues when I got back.

£8 doesn’t sound a bad investment for more accurate measurement though.

Not even heard of a Goniometer before this

At a guess… checks the alignment of your gonads? Sounds like a useful thing!

n0b0dy0ftheg0at, yeah, amazing how such a small change can make a huge difference.

Charters TiRed, I’ll look into that too.

Nicko, at 51 my ‘nads are definitely out of alignment.lol

At a guess… checks the alignment of your gonads?

That’s an orchidometer, actually…

DrP

I have a size 25 nad and one at 15.lol

Doc says it’s unusual but normal. Scans confirm I’m just well endowed…. in one nad.😁

This is the one I got.

@TiRed
Is that app is on Apple only matey?

Reads poopscoop’s first post..

Reads poopscoop’s second post…
..hesitantly scrolls down to see WHAT one he’s got…
Is relieved.

DrP

Is that different to a ‘gonnae-no-meter’?

Last time I used a Goniometer was for rock core logging! That’s a weird crossover.

@Poopscoop yes sadly that’s the iOS only app. I want to try it but not buying an iPhone just for that.

Used to use a big one in a shop for doing bike fits, stick on dots on the knee, hip and possibly ankle were helpful for lining up with.

Trying to get an accurate stop is difficult.

I preferred using dots on the person, videoing them riding, then pausing the recording and measuring the angle, as it is a freeze frame of a dynamic action, rather than trying to pause a dynamic action to measure.

Hopefully that makes some kind of sense.

Also bear in mind rules are a good starting point, but many people do not fit in boxes, have anomalies, old injuries, varying levels of flexibility etc etc

nixie
Subscriber

@Poopscoop yes sadly that’s the iOS only app. I want to try it but not buying an iPhone just for that

In this day and age it’s a bit mad to not get it out on android too.😳

@bigyan yeah, that does make sense and as ive got a turbo I can do that pretty easily, good idea.👍

many people do not fit in boxes

Boxes come in different sizes

I am a bike fitter, and started my career using the goniometer. The problem is that a difference in heel lift has the same effect as raising or lowering your saddle, so it’s hard to be even sort of accurate. So much better now with motion capture.

If there is an app or so you can use to freeze frame video, that is much better.
You will see about 5 degrees more bend under load than static, so aim for 30-40* in a freeze frame, rather than 25-35 for static.

As far as personal variation, I have never had a client who needed to be outside of that range, and I can’t imagine a (Realistic) situation either.

^^ Some great info there, thanks!

Blimey, I must be lucky. I’ve only ever relied on “heel grazing the pedal while leg straight” method and never had an issue.

Yes, you are lucky.

I found this MotionSys while browsing youtube videos about bike fit. I haven’t tried it yet, but plan to when I have some time to mess around with it.

Strange. Bike fitting was barely a thing even 25 years ago. Folk I’ve ridden with haven’t had saddle height issues either. Maybe t’internet makes it more visible.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VMkEBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=phil+burt+goniometer&source=bl&ots=pOaR9HWIHc&sig=ACfU3U29mfs8YQ1iDKszDSYJ_VJFY7ZnYA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiEs7bJ2qvqAhVTtHEKHQcyDfEQ6AEwD3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=phil%20burt%20goniometer&f=false

So did you find the angle measurement put your saddle position way out, going on your typical ankle position at bottom dead centre?

Is that app is on Apple only matey?

Yes I believe so. It is, however excellent. I run it on an iPad and now my iPhone.

Sample screen shot with knee bend. This is one frame from a video that you scroll through to reach bottom of stroke.

When doing it properly I use orange dot stickers on the lumps and bumps. This was just playing on the trike, but you get the idea.