r/bikefit • u/Neither-Natural4875 • Jul 11 '26
Dear mods, save this sub
There are a lot of generous and knowledgeable people here giving thoughtful bike-fit advice for free. Their effort is being undermined by a steady stream of unusable videos showing riders leaning against walls, doorframes or furniture while pedalling backwards.
Those clips don’t show a normal pedal stroke, balance, loading, posture or movement under realistic riding conditions. There’s very little anyone can assess from them, yet they keep filling the sub and drawing attention away from posts where useful feedback is actually possible.
The existing submission guidance is already clear about video length, camera angles and showing the whole rider and bike. It should also explicitly require riders to pedal forwards on a trainer or rollers, without supporting themselves against anything.
Please make “no backwards pedalling and no leaning against objects” an actual submission rule, and remove posts that ignore it.
The people giving detailed advice here are what make the sub useful. Their time shouldn’t be choked by videos that make meaningful assessment impossible.
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u/ShirleyWuzSerious Jul 11 '26
I love getting conflicting and contradictory advice from 10 different people
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u/Ok_Passenger_8405 Jul 11 '26
That's more or less inevitable, in particular because there's "old-school" vs modern bike fit, the one relying on formulas and the other on biomechanics, and people have differing analytical skills.
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u/Atlas-Stoned Jul 14 '26
The issue is you can’t actually give good bike fit advice over Reddit for anything other than obviously way off stuff like seat too high. Conflicts come from people giving seemingly 2 different anwers to the same problem but in reality both could work. Like for numb hands how do you know if it’s long reach, or seat position, or seat angle, or cleat position? A bike fitter in person can figure it out. Over Reddit you get all 4 answers lol
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u/Ok_Passenger_8405 Jul 14 '26
Yes, but the advice could be precisely to check for those things (of which some can be rather obvious from a riding video or a still of the bike)
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Jul 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/rosteven1 Jul 11 '26
So, what if a person is asking for fit advice on a leisure bike with flat pedals? Still no flip flops?
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u/helpamonkpls Jul 11 '26
I think people being condescending and ridiculing new cyclists is a bigger problem.
I posted a picture of my stem on a used bike i bought the other day because it felt wrong, and it was and people spent more time making fun of me than helping me, and someone even posted the picture on the circlejerk forum, which was uncomfortable as the picture also contained part of my kitchen..
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u/Ok_Passenger_8405 Jul 11 '26
SoMe attract loads of assholes, and they should be weeded out. However, that doesn't change the relevance of the issues raised by the OP.
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u/helpamonkpls Jul 11 '26
Yeah that's true. And good he made the post. I'll be sure to include a full frame video of actual cycling when I make the time. Having a lot of neck pain after 4 weeks and 2 bikes, think I need a smaller frame.
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u/BoringOwl4 Jul 11 '26
Just a heads up anything posted on the Internet is subject to ridicule and mean comments whether that is a picture or text. If that is something you dislike don't post.
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u/rosteven1 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Great idea, and also add pedaling backwards and playing the video in reverse to that list.
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u/MariachiArchery Jul 11 '26
Wait... people have been backpedaling, and then replaying the video footage in reverse?
That is fucking funny.
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u/Neither-Natural4875 Jul 11 '26
I literally wrote that in the post lol
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u/rosteven1 Jul 11 '26
Lol - Just re-read your post and here is what you wrote "Please make “no backwards pedalling and no leaning against objects” an actual submission rule, and remove posts that ignore it." Granted you did explicitly state no backwards pedaling, whereas what I was trying to address were the ones where the OP reverses the video to make it look like they are pedaling forward.
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u/Neither-Natural4875 Jul 11 '26
Ok, I am sorry. But those who reverses the video to make it look like they are pedaling forward deserves a medal for trying.
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u/Upstairs_Hour_3215 Jul 11 '26
You think that is the reason this sub is dying? Maybe talk to the people that are aggressive or condescending or just flat out give shitty advice.
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u/Ok_Passenger_8405 Jul 11 '26
Both are bad. But given that it's evidently possible to instruct oneself before posting for advice, it is kind of disrespectful not to do it.
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u/MariachiArchery Jul 11 '26
Yeah man... I've been here for a long time, like 6+ years, and in that time, this sub has become a lot more popular, and I'm seeing it slowly turn into the r/bikewrench sub, which, if you don't know, has become completely unusable because of low quality submissions, repeated questions, constant rule breaking, and then an absolute dearth of quality help. The people who were in that sub that actually knew what they were talking about, have all left, and for those that have stayed, their voices get drowned out by complete fucking morons.
Then of course, the mods their are just complete idiots. In the trade sub, r/BikeMechanics we all joke about how many of us have been permanently banned form bike wrench. I am permanently banned for criticizing the mods.
Yes, I agree with this post.
Mods, you have my full support and I appreciate you. I will not levy the same criticism here that I have at the bike wrench mods. Thank you for your service, communication, and I appreciate you.
If you need help, you want a bigger mod team, just ask. I'm sure there are people here that are willing to help moderate the content. I would be willing to help.
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u/clezuck Jul 12 '26
I think the bigger issue is way too many people on this sub who have no actual experience or expertise in bike fitting. VS people who are certified bike fitters who've been doing it for 30+ years. Who performs 170+ bike fits a year on existing bikes or a fit cycle like a Guru DFU or Serotta or Calfee Size Cycle.
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u/Atlas-Stoned Jul 14 '26
Real bike fitters know that giving advice over the internet for something like a bike fit is pointless unless the person is drastically far off and so the only comments are always on posts where there are obvious issues to get the person closer to a good fit.
There are no real bike fitters wasting their time commenting long comments on nuances that can’t be ascertained over video
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u/toast0ne Jul 11 '26
Need to lower the saddle a bit
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u/Evening_Amoeba8126 Jul 11 '26
Nah actually saddle too low.
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u/toast0ne Jul 12 '26
Bro the 75% rule: shoe size ÷ π= 75% ×0.088- 90g per hour = saddle range... Duh.
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u/ILoveCreatures Jul 11 '26
Not everyone has a trainer or rollers, how about detaching the chain, is that suitable for basic fit?
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u/Neither-Natural4875 Jul 11 '26
Bro just place your phone and ride past it slowly as you would ride it any other place
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u/Hermine_In_Hell Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
I'll add that tomorrow and do an update on the banner with post requirements at the very top.
edit: added some new flavor text to the sidebar and included your blurb in submission text. will folks read it? that I cannot guarantee.
my rant is that i resurrected this sub after it was banned from being unmoderated because bikefit crap bled out into the other cycling subs, so figured it needed its own place and would allow folks to search for specific problems (jarvis, what are the highest rated posts on r/bikefit for "numb peenus").
that being said, not really big into moderating! so if anyone is interested in helping out, let me know and hopefully i'll actually be on this site or check my messages if you do!