It's easy to get caught up in today's world of watts, cadence, Strava times, pre ride, mid ride, and post ride recovery, nutrition and hurt feelings and think that it's an awfully scientific state that cycling has found itself in. It certainly is - might as well swing by the nearest cycling cafe en route to the weekly bring the pain ride to get things adjusted just so, maximizing output.
What's refreshing is to read that in 1986, bike fit, or should I say power optimization, was already figured out. Not only that, it even made sense. Bike fit was bike fit was bike fit, and, still is bike fit.
Take a quick pass at Mark Slate's words of wisdom from 1986 appearing in Mountain Bike, on generous loan to us from Marilyn Price (pretty fun to see her name on its cover) and Trips for Kids / The Recyclery. You can directly apply Slate's advice today and it makes perfect sense, there are those that would argue that a 24" handlebar isn't cool anymore but before we know it, narrow bars will be cool again. Enjoy.
