Fitting a Bike

A lot depends on the type of riding that you are going to be doing. If you are going to be doing a lot of technical single track riding a small and nimble bike is going to be you best bet, a larger and longer bike will be less manoeuvrable but faster and better for more cross country situations. 

THE most important thing to remember is crotch clearance, at a bear minimum it should be 2 inches but remember that most times you crash you will bend your knee ... more is better if you want to have babies.

SEAT POST HEIGHT

Many new riders have problems with this because it feels unnatural at first. Place the heal of you foot on the pedal and you leg should be straight when the pedal is in the 6 o'clock position .. dead straight no slight cheating bend in the knee. This means that when you place the ball of you foot on the pedal and the pedal is in the 6 o'clock position there will be a little bend in your knee, the right amount to stop all those terrible knee injuries ... clever or what. You should now find that when you pedal you have little, preferably no hip movement. If you do find that you are moving your hips downwards when the pedal is at the 6 o'clock position move the saddle slightly downwards, best method is to ask a friend to watch you ride away from you.

Saddle Position

With you pedals in to 3 & 9 o'clock position you should find that the hinge of your knee is directly above the pedal if it's not you should adjust the saddle position so that it is.

Stem

Placing your elbow on the nose of your saddle lay your forearm down straight (with the earth below) and there should be between 2 and four inch's of gap between you finger tips and the handlebars. When you sit on the bike you need a little bend in the elbows, this allows you to absorb impacts and react quickly, if you have problems with any of the above you will need to change your stem.

Bike Shop

Making sure that your bike fits you is how you can tell a good bike chop from a bad one, a good shop will give you a proper fitting service ... a bad one will just let you buy the bike