Bike fit / correct riding position

Dashing in them is quite tricky though.

It's all in the hips

Dammit in heels shocker

http://cdni.condenast.co.uk/1280x1920/Shows/SS2009/Paris/R-T-W/Louis_Vuitton/00540big.jpg

shoework!!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/PSM_V17_D759_Feet_deformed_by_improperly_shaped_shoes.jpg/753px-PSM_V17_D759_Feet_deformed_by_improperly_shaped_shoes.jpg

A rather interesting historical study is from Petrus Camper
See http://petruscamper.com/shoe.htm
PETRUS CAMPER,

VERHANDELING

OVER DEN

BESTEN SCHOEN,

Herdrukt uit het TWEEDEN DEELS N°. IV. van het GENEES- NATUUR- EN HUISHOUD-KUNDIG KABINET van den Heer J. VOEGEN VAN ENGELEN, M.D.

TE LEYDEN, Bij J. VAN TIFFELEN EN B. ONNEKINK.

Koninklijke Bibliotheek 504601.

INTRODUCTION.

"Non multum absuit, quin sutrinum quoque inventum à sapientibus diceret Posidonius." — SENECA.

 It is surprising that while mankind in all ages have bestowed the greates attention upon the feet of horses, mules, oxen, and other animals of burthen of draught, they have entirely neglected those of their own species, abandoning them to the ignorance of workmen, who, in general, can only make a shoe upon routine principles, and according to the absurdities of fashion, or the depraved taste of the day. Thus, from our earliest infancy, shoes, as at present worn, serve but to deform the toes and cover the feet with corns, which not only render walking painful, but, in some cases, absolutely impossible. All this is caused by the ignorance of our shoemakers.
 We bestow reasonable compassion upon the fate of the Chinese women, who dislocate their feet in obedience to the dictates of a barbarous custom, and yet we ourselves have submitted complacently for ages to tortures no less cruel. I say for ages: C. Celsus, who lived before the Christian era, Paulus Ægineta, and Ætius, have described, with great precision, the diseases of the feet caused by ill-made shoes and sandals. It is evident that all the world did not imitate Socrates, who went barefoot.
 The shoes and boots of our time are no better than those of the ancients. I know by experience the difficulty of obtaining easy one...

Just to confirm are you saying KOPS is a good or a bad idea?

For a road bicycle its fine. The science behind it is bunk but the emprical bicycle frame models are bunk too and they derive from a model of KOPS... in other words its "Reductio ad absurdum".. so for road and track bicycles that have been designed for KOPS its fine.. for TT and recumbent bicycles its wrong.. For something like an English Roadster.. or worse still a Pedersen its...

I have some pain in my left knee, along the outside of the joint towards the back of the knee. I understand this could be due to cleat positioning?

Update: I have slammed my stem and pushed my saddle as far back as it can go and it feels loads better. My set back seat post should arrive tomorrow so I'll put some miles in and see how it feels.

Update: I have slammed my stem and pushed my saddle as far back as it can go and it feels loads better. My set back seat post should arrive tomorrow so I'll put some miles in and see how it feels.

Most people on road and track bicycles need a setback seatpost--- even on frames with slack angles such as Merck's Century geometry. The fashion for straight seatposts, I think, came from MTB.
Good seatpins are the Nitto SP72, metal Campa Record (the Record Ti is still a favorite), Selcof, old Dura Ace,.... Modern? Deda Zero-100 and even Metal Stick are very good... I've never used a VanNichols but their Ti post seems a familiar design and the price reasonable...
Carbon.. The only Carbon seatpin I consider is the Ergopost 4.. but that's because its got such massive adjustability..
Low price.. Kalloy.. Crude but strong and cheap as yesterday's chips..

I have some pain in my left knee, along the outside of the joint towards the back of the knee. I understand this could be due to cleat positioning?

I had a similar problem and found this quite helpful.

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/take-care-of-your-knees-part-2-17445/

Moving my saddle down a couple of mil also helped

thanks, I'll give that a shot tonight

Edward, the reason it's "fashionable" because modern saddle have longer rail than their predecessor.

Only advantage of setback saddle is for old saddle, steep seat tube, extra comfort (maybe) and/or odd body proportion.

Not sure saddles have 2.5cm of extra useable rail..as the extra lengthe tends to be spread both fore and aft.

I'll spread you fore and aft

i keep shifting forward on my saddle when riding, it doesn't annoy me or doesn't effect my riding, just wondering why

You have worms.

Fucking saddle worms. They're the worst kind.

I heard that worms crawl out of your arse at night, and go up the arse of anyone else in the bed - could be the culprit, what do you reckon?

checked my saddle, no worms here :(

I hear Proofide is made from free range worms, you don't have a Brooks by any chance?

nope no brooks :)
i ride a concor, seat is horizontal, height is good, just have no idea why i keep shifting forward while riding it

Could simply be two thing - saddle might need to be move forward slightly, or the nose up very slightly if you meant sliding forward rather than shifting.

i adjusted the height a little bit, seems like the problem is gone after short testride, gonna try it tomorrow on a longer ride

I ride a Concor and have had to adjust it so that the nose is a few mm higher than the centre part of the saddle, such that the lowest part of the saddle curve is in line with the back end of the seat post. The nose is still a tiny smidge lower than the lip at the back, but a couple of mm adjustment was enough to stop me from sliding forwards - and has had a significant affect on my comfort on longer rides, especially with shoulders/neck being less stiff.

Edward, the reason it's "fashionable" because modern saddle have longer rail than their predecessor.

I just compared the length of the rails on my Brooks Ti Swift (from the 1990s) with the rail length of my NJS Kashimax... Swift has longer rails.. Compared it to a very modern Fizik Antares VS.. same length as the Brooks but offset forward.. Have a Brooks Pro from the 1970s but from memory it was about the same as the Swift but with a more horizontal rail angle.. San Marco Rolls saddle.. shorter.. Selle Italia SLR.. pretty similar to the Five Gold... Looking at these saddles the rails are not in the same place, have also different angle orientations... different designs also to where one sits and move about... Using a straight seatpin one would be forced to have quite different sit positions, one from the other.. None give me the feeling that I could get away without a setback pillar and, of course, each bicycle that sprouts these... And the bicycles.. all--- including the track machines-- have somewhat slack seat-tube angles around 72 degrees (road a tad steeper than track!).

nope no brooks :)
i ride a concor, seat is horizontal, height is good, just have no idea why i keep shifting forward while riding it

Shifting forward does not mean that the saddle is too back... only indicates that the rider position is off.. My junk commuter, for example, is massively too small for me and the saddle is about 8cm too low.. too foward... I now can ride it but at first I kept sliding forwards.. Now I just push about..