Essential Knowledge Guide

Setting Up Your MTB
Opening Remarks

Setting up a mountain bike is a somewhat slow process.  There are a number of steps involved and the rider is often required to actively ride the bike to tweak it.  This is why most bike shops do not do it for you.  It simply takes far too much time.  Some shops offer what is know as a "fit kit".   It isn't free and is essentially the same thing you will learn to do here.

I suggest you print these articles.  You will need to take them with you to your favorite off-road riding spot, along with some tools, to take full advantage.

Virtually every aspect of the biking you do is VERY dependent upon your bike being set up properly.  Setup affects handling, power and comfort.  This series of articles will also address the recent hubbub about bike riding having a potentially disastrous and permanent affect on men.  I do not pretend to be a research scientist.  However, I can say for certain that an improperly set up bike DOES cause numbness of the groin.  Even in women.  If you currently have numbness problems, please let me know if this article takes care of it for you.  It has for everyone I have ever set up a bike for.

BUT!  Before we can start, we need to make sure we have a good foundation to build upon.  I am referring to foot placement on the pedal.  You don't see this very often, but I want to say this anyway, just in case.  What you see to the left is NOT the way to pedal a bike.  Pedaling with the arch of your foot drastically cuts your pedaling power because you cut your calf muscles out of the loop, which are important muscles.  You also can't "spin", which we will talk about in the Intermediate Techniques section.  You lose most of your ability to do just about anything while standing up.  Worst of all, you also will have every bump you hit translated directly through your ankles and into your knees which will result in pain and possibly permanent damage.

Instead you should be like this. The middle of the ball of your foot should be dead center over the axle of the pedal. The ball of your foot being the widest, meaty part right behind your toes and before your arch.   This allows you to use your ankle and foot as a pivot point, absorbing shock, providing balance and helping to keep your feet on the pedals on rough terrain.  It also brings in your calf muscles to increase your riding power and endurance (spinning).   If you haven't pedaled this way before, it will feel strange at first.  You'll come to appreciate it fast enough.  For those folks with clipless pedals, you don't get much of a choice in foot placement, so you are probably okay.  At least for the purposes of this article.  Clipless pedals are a curse all of their own.

One more thing.  Everything depends on your using your seat correctly.  Your behind has two large bones that you sit on.   We'll call them sit bones.  Whether on a bar stool, folding chair or bench seat, you always sit on them.   Bike seats are no different.  To the right is my seat and how I sit on it.  The yellow dots are my where my sit bones sit.  The yellow lines are where my legs rub the seat (that is what riding shorts are for).  The horn of the seat is marked with a red X.  The horn isn't for sitting on.  While sitting upright on your bike, you should feel like your seat is pushing you forward just a little, since you are supposed to be leaning forward while riding.   If you think your seat tilt is a major problem, skip to the very last article and read that section.  Then come back here and start again.