Harvieu25

As a newer cyclist (in my 3rd year now), my flexibility and mobility is ever changing, as is my fit it seems.
Had more done last summer which was good, and then more work done this past Jan. This last fit has not worked out at all but it has taken me a while to figure this out. Had it done on a new bike and had only ridden the new bike this year until the past couple of weeks in which I pulled out my Merlin which had last summers fit on it. Huge difference in HR at a given power, as in, the same power at a full HR zone less, or 40 watts more at a given HR.

My question is, is it worthwhile to set your fit up for the highest power at a given HR or is this not something most will ever figure out?

Thanks.

redlude97

How are you determining this difference in power? If they are different power meters then their readings may differ which could be the difference. It should be easy enough to get both bikes to fit relatively the same at least in terms of saddle position relative to the BB on both bikes which you can easily do yourself to determine if that is the reason

Carbonfiberboy 

May have little or nothing to do with the fit. Perhaps more to do with your fitness or how rested you were. Different bikes can also transfer very different amounts of a rider's apparent power output to the road. I've ridden fast bikes and slow bikes which fit about the same but deliver different speeds using the same effort. Your Merlin might actually be a faster bike for you.

OTOH, fit can have a lot to do with transferring effort to the road. So there are two things to consider: transferring metabolic energy to the road, and also moving the bike up the road with the least power. I.e. you might put out more power at a given HR while perfectly upright, but a lower position with less power might actually be faster. So the answer to your last question is no.

You want at least 3 things from a good fit: speed on the flat in mph, climbing speed in feet/hour, and endurance in pain per 100 miles. HR vs. power always involves trade-offs and training modalities. For instance HR will always increase with cadence at a particular power. However we usually choose to use a higher cadence than HR indicates as optimum. Higher cadence at lower HR is trainable. Lower resistance at the same HR is also trainable. Lower pain with lower resistance and higher climbing speed is also trainable. The trainability variable is a wild card.

Yes, it's complicated and can take years to sort out.