Send Us Your Fit Numbers: How to Measure Your Bike in Five Minutes

To measure your road bike fit numbers you need a tape measure, a spirit level or a straight edge, and about five minutes. Three measurements do most of the work: saddle height from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the saddle, saddle setback from the bottom bracket, and reach from the saddle nose to the centre of the bars. Send us those and your rental is built to your position before it leaves the workshop, rather than adjusted around you on the pavement.

Why We Ask

We can set a saddle height from your inseam alone using the LeMond formula: inseam in centimetres multiplied by 0.883 gives the distance from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the saddle. It is reliable, and it is what we use when a rider has no numbers to give us.

Measuring your own bike is better, because it captures the position you have already adjusted to over years of riding, including everything a formula cannot know. If you have taken your bike to a professional fitter, those numbers are worth more than any calculation we can run.

Step 1: Measure saddle height

Run the tape from the centre of the bottom bracket, where the cranks turn, along the seat tube to the top of the saddle. Take it to the middle of the saddle where you actually sit, not the highest point of the nose or tail.

Write it down in millimetres. This is the single most important number you can send us, and the one that decides whether day four is comfortable.

What goes wrong: measuring to the top of the seat post rather than the top of the saddle, and measuring along the seat post rather than following the line of the seat tube. Both give you a number that is out by more than you would expect.

Step 2: Measure saddle setback

Hang something with weight on a piece of string against the saddle nose so it falls vertically, or stand a spirit level upright against the bottom bracket. You want the horizontal distance from the tip of the saddle nose back to a vertical line through the centre of the bottom bracket.

Write it down, and note whether the nose is behind the bottom bracket, which is normal, or ahead of it. This is the number that determines where your weight sits over the pedals.

What goes wrong: measuring on a bike leaning against a wall. Get it upright, in a doorway or a turbo trainer, or the vertical line is not vertical and the number is meaningless.

Step 3: Measure reach to the bars

Measure from the tip of the saddle nose to the centre of the handlebar, where the stem clamps it. A straight tape along that line is enough.

That single number tells us how stretched out you ride, which is the difference between a bike that feels like yours and one that feels borrowed.

What goes wrong: measuring to the hoods rather than the bar centre. Hood position varies between brands and setups, so the bar centre is the consistent reference.

Step 4: Note the extras that matter

Three things take ten seconds each and save real time at handover:

• Bar drop: the vertical difference between the top of your saddle and the top of your bars, and whether the bars sit below the saddle or level with it.
• Crank length, stamped on the inside of the crank arm.
• Saddle model, if you ride something specific and have had trouble on anything else.

Step 5: Send them to your concierge

Once your booking is confirmed, your concierge gets in touch to ask for your fit measurements. Send the numbers in that thread, or send a photo of them written down. Include your height and inseam either way, since those give us a cross-check: if your measured saddle height and the number the formula produces are far apart, we would rather ask why before the bike is prepared than find out at your hotel.

What We Can Adjust, and What We Cannot

Saddle height, saddle fore and aft, and saddle angle are adjusted before delivery and fine-tuned with you on site. Bar height can be changed within the spacers on the steerer. Cleat position on rental shoes is set neutral by default and moved on request.

Frame size is the one thing that is fixed once you are on the bike. The fleet runs six sizes from 48 to 61, which covers most riders, but if your numbers sit between two sizes we would rather talk it through before you book than hand you the wrong frame. Message us with the numbers and we will tell you which size we would put you on.

Stem length is the other constraint. We do not carry a full range of stems for every bike, so a reach figure well outside what the frame was designed around gets managed with saddle position rather than solved outright.

What Happens With Your Numbers

They go into your booking record and drive the pre-delivery setup: saddle height set to your figure, pedals fitted to your system, tyre pressures set to your weight. At handover you clip in, we check it against how it actually feels, adjust, and send you 50 metres up the road to confirm.

That is the whole point of the exercise. The more you send in advance, the more the delivery becomes a fitting rather than a drop-off, which is covered in full in what a week with us looks like. For the rest of the kit that arrives with the bike, see what is included with your bike, and if you ride Shimano at home, understanding SRAM Force AXS is worth ten minutes before you arrive.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you measure your bike fit before renting a bike abroad?

Take three measurements from the bike you ride at home: saddle height from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the saddle, saddle setback from a vertical line through the bottom bracket to the saddle nose, and reach from the saddle nose to the bar centre. Send those with your height and inseam.

What if I do not have time to measure my own bike?

Send your height and inseam and we will calculate saddle height using the LeMond formula, inseam multiplied by 0.883. It is a reliable starting point for most road cyclists and gets fine-tuned with you at delivery. Measuring your own bike is better, but it is not required.

Which measurement matters most?

Saddle height. It is the single biggest factor in whether a week on an unfamiliar bike is comfortable, which is why we never guess it and will always ask again if the inseam is missing. Setback and reach refine the position; saddle height decides whether your knees are happy on day four.

How much can you adjust at delivery?

Saddle height, fore and aft, saddle angle and bar height within the existing spacers, all on site during the 30 to 45 minute handover. Frame size is fixed once you have booked, so if your numbers sit between two of our six sizes, message us before booking rather than after.

What if the bike still does not feel right on day two?

Message your concierge. A position that felt fine on the first ride can be wrong after a few hours in the saddle, and it is a ten minute fix. We also check in during the rental, on day three or four of a longer booking and day two of a short one, specifically to catch this.

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