As bike fitters we see many issues simply caused by easy errors in setup. Sometimes just looking at the bike, even without the rider, we can tell exactly what the issues are. Often, these adjustments are made with the best intentions, or to try and solve a problem, but end up causing more harm than good.

In this post we’ll look at four of the most common easy to spot red flags we encounter. Each of these cases can signal more than one potential problem but we’ll do our best to identify the main causes and how it can relate to your fit. In this post we’re going to focus on bikes with drop bars (e.g. road, gravel, etc), but stay tuned as we’ll tackle other bike types in the future.

Though wear and tear on your shoes, insoles and cranks is inevitable, some patterns of wear present clear indications that something is amiss. The location and type of wear on these three items of kit can tell a surprisingly detailed story about what is happening with your riding position.

Wear on all three of these pieces of equipment will typically point to issues in one or more of the following areas:

First check your cleat placement. Many riders are intimidated by cleat placement but it’s actually quite easy to get it right. We’ve laid out our recommended method to set up your cleats here.

Second, you’ll want to make sure you have the right shoes and insoles. As a fitter this can be one of the harder assessments as we can’t readily see or “feel” how the shoe fits you. We can measure foot length and width, as well as navicular bone height (one of the key factors in determining insole selection) but that won’t tell us how the shoe feels to the rider.

To help determine if your shoes and insoles are a good fit for you, start by investigating how the stock insoles (the ones the shoes came with) fit your foot. The stock insoles, being made specifically for that shoe, can give us a better picture of how the shape of your feet compare to the shape of the shoe.

To get stareted,  remove the insoles from your shoes and stand on them, making sure to put your heel in the right place. Now that you’re staring down at your feet, look for your foot overhanging off the front or sides of the insole. Toes off the front indicate your shoe is a size (or more) too small, where as your foot hanging off the side indicates the shoe likely isn’t wide enough. On the other side, if there is too much insole hanging out from underneath your foot, this is a good indication your shoes may be too big.

A well fitted pair of insoles should have light contact throughout the arch and shouldn’t collapse under your weight outside of the shoe. This is often where stock insoles fall short, which is why we often recommend getting a set of supportive non-corrective orthotics. You can read more about this in our Feet Before Fit article.

Third, check your saddle height. You can use our free fit check to tell if you are in range, or our paid version for a more in depth analysis. A saddle that is either too high or too low can force the body to move in unexpected ways, which can often be the cause of lateral movement of your knee and ankle through the pedal stroke.

Though angling the hoods up slightly is the position we generally recommend, raising them excessively simultaneously puts your wrists in an awkward position (contributing to hand numbness) and creates problems with bike handling and your ability to reach the brakes.

To read more about how we recommend setting your handlebars and hoods, check out our Bicycle Hood Positioning blog post.

The most common type of wear we see is at the “elbow” of the handlebar. This almost always indicates the bike’s reach is too long and the rider isn’t able to comfortably reach the hoods and maintain their position.

A secondary cause of this wear pattern can be an uncomfortable saddle  – often caused by the saddle being too high – which results in the rider unconsciously putting more weight on the handlebars to take weight off the saddle.