I’ve realised; after watching a video of someone setting up their brakes at mm perfect distance from grips and at a angle measured (by smart phone) to exact angles, and likewise shifter and dropper at equi-distance from grips, and handlebar measured to be perfectly equal either side, and at “just so” rotation. Then seat post insertion to mm precision, that although it all seems very worthy, I just can’t be arsed, and I do everything by eye and feel…

are you OCD or mleh, good enough…?

I set it by eye and then take my tools on the first ride and adjust as I go until it feels perfect. My body/mind knows what’s right.

To adjust my bike requires a tool, to adjust my body position requires nothing…

Not quite perfect, judged by eye, always works for me. I just don’t buy into a few mm or 0.5° here and there making enough difference that my body won’t cope and adapt.

I’m pretty sure all my bikes are set up different. Bar shapes, lever angles, even saddle. Thing is, the bikes aren’t used for the same sort of riding so I wouldn’t necessarily want them identical. I have, however been standardising on grips, pedals and saddles on my MTBs.

^^^^ this. Same grips, saddles, pedals on similar use bikes. I do also have a wee book with key dimensions on each bike, plus suspension settings etc. Makes it very easy when replacing parts, or sorting out a new bike.

As an example, I have been hankering after a new gravel bike with dropper and was looking at a Whyte, but the numbers told me the dropper option wasn’t going to fit me due the known spacing from BB to saddle rails I need for that type of bike.

Eye/feel.

I once served a lbs customer who had to try different spacers under his TT bike stem – to the mm.

Tit.

What the others have said basically… I’m precious about my setup, but not so precious that the vernier caliper and an angle finder come out. I know what feels right quite quickly, and take a multi tool with me on the trails. First ride on a brand new bike I ALWAYS do on my own for precisely this purpose… I expect to stop and fiddle with the setup, air pressures etc. and don’t want to inconvenience anyone else unnecessarily…

I’ve noticed I can feel really subtle differences, so it saves a load of adjustment faffing on the first few rides if I precisely copy the set up of my other bike that’s already been tweaked. That won’t necessarily mean there’s zero fiddling but it hugely shortens the process.

I do like having similar grips, brake levers and pedals. My two MTBs also have the same bars, same length stems, very similar head angles, reach and BB height.

Close enough is good enough.

Having said that, all my saddles on various bikes are the same shape (or as good as – Charge Knife vs Fabric Scoop Shallow for example), I always use the same grips and pedals, and try to make sure brake levers have a similar enough profile.

I don’t measure anything though, but I do have a very good ‘eyeball’ and any fine tuning is done by feel on the test ride up and down the street.

I thought I had my bikes set up as near the same as possible by just suck it and see.
However in this era of short rides I have been riding my bikes in turn so they all get a go! One unexpected result has been that my knees have been killing me. I assume my set ups aren’t as identical as I thought so time to get out the vernier

I’m fussy it seems. All my bikes, it turns out, are set up pretty identically despite that never being the intention. Small things like lever angles matter too.

I think it’s just how I’m wired. When I saw a dental crown specialist recently to sort out a botched crown, he suggested that I’m one of the 5% of his patients who he’d class as hyper vigilant, who notice very small changes in their mouth.

That said, I managed an entire three-hour ride with a broken saddle without noticing. Or more precisely I noticed that my backside hurt and my seatpost felt too low – the shell had snapped – but not actually why. Doh.

Not arsed on the MTBs – move around too much.
Road is different, though. I don’t do long road rides routinely, but if I do saddle height and cleats have to be spot on. Get aches and pains otherwise.
The TT bike sees the measuring tape come out, goes without saying. Position is half the sport and you need to keep track of what works (which can be counter-intuitive sometimes).

I’m fussy it seems

I have a memory of riding with you Jon where you changed your STEM half way round the ride 🙂

After being ‘Jedi’d’, I set up brake levers at a certain angle. The only other thing I care about is moving the shifter / dropper lever far enough inboard to stop them stabbing my thumbs.

I’m quite sensitive to saddle height (and to a lesser extent fore/aft position), but that’s down to a dodgy knee. I do that from feel though. Everything else can be pretty much there or thereabouts.

I like it to feel right but close enough is usually close enough. When I build a bike it’s set up by eye and a quick go down the street to see if it’s there or thereabouts and I’ll take a multitool with me on the first ‘proper’ ride on it, usually in case I’ve forgotten to tighten something up properly…

I once served a lbs customer who had to try different spacers under his TT bike stem – to the mm.

Tit.

Why would you not want to get your body out of the way of the air as much as possible on a TT bike?

I do it by eye/feel as the geo is never all identical on any 2 bikes, but 5mm out on saddle height is noticeable. Bar height tends not to be so important, but a TT bike might change that.

outside face of my brake clamp is 45mm from my grips and they are at an angle of 30°

but if someone moved them without me knowing im not sure id tell the difference!

Last night I got the tape measure out, and my shifters and brakes are all over the place, but if I moved them, I’m pretty sure I’d notice…But I know after 5 mins of riding I wouldn’t.

Less folk than I thought reporting stuff needs to be mm accurate though. Impressive slackness!

I measure from the end of the grip to the brake mount, and do the ‘look over the bar’ thing to check if they’re level. And I use the fork crown to line up the bar.

I have just adjusted my levers up a fair bit so they’re not far off horizontal now, forcing myself to ride like that and if they’re too high i’ll drop them a tadge.

I use a ruler for grip to brake lever distance & like them to be at about the same angle. If I was super picky, I could set them up differently for each ride (depending on steepness of terrain, etc). That’s just ‘cos I ride one bike for everything at the moment.

I know my bars are squint though, they have been for the last few rides, I just CBA/forget to fix them.

One thing I have noticed though, I’m missing my 4 pots (back at Shimano for warranty again) while alot of my riding is with a tagalong.

I have a memory of riding with you Jon where you changed your STEM half way round the ride 🙂

Well, obviously…

I’ve recently gone from a MK1 Soul, 26″ wheels to a Giant Trance 29. Not only would it be impossible to replicate my old position, I would be missing the benefits of the newer geometry. It took a few rides to get used to, then fine tune, my new position. And then I found what I’d been missing.
I always have my brake and gear levers tightened just so they can be twisted with a bit of effort. Not only does it mean I can get them just how I like them it also means that if they get hit they won’t break.