Not a jig persay, but I like to put the bike perpendicular against a wall and measure from the wall to various touch points (eg. Saddle tip, back of hoods, etc.).  Then use the floor for bar and saddle height.  For the saddle angle just a digital angle finder on a flat piece of something across the saddle.

It's certainly not a jig, but I've got a sheet of paper with various measurements I took after a bike fit (like middle of cranks to center of saddle, tip of saddle to center of cranks, tip/rear of saddle to steerer, tip/rear of saddle to each shifter, etc.) and they gets my fit pretty well dialed across my bikes. I use a Specialized Power saddles on all my bikes so it's a pretty easy reference point.

Only measurement that is always a touch off is saddle height when going from road to gravel/cross because my measurement doesn't account for pedal stack height. I usually end up adjusting a few millimeters and it gets me back to where I want to be.

Jules said:

Any solutions for a home-brew bike-fit jig? I've finally got a position I really like on my gravel bike and I'd like to transfer it to road & cross bikes.

First, yes, start with the same spot on the same wall, ideally with the bottom bracket in the same vertical plane.  Maybe put blocks in front and behind the front wheel so it doesn't move.

I'd use two long levels that have measuring marks on at least one side.  You'd also need some velcro and possibly an assistant.  

You should be able to use these for at least saddle position.  First, one that could be situated vertically from the bottom bracket.  And somehow held in place with velcro.  The second would sit on the saddle and reach forward to the first one.  This way, you can replicate both the saddle tilt and the setback--though you'll be limited a bit if you use different saddles on different bikes.

You also should be able to do almost the reverse for reach.  STarting with the vertical level, you'd balance the horizontal level on the bars and have it go from the bars to the vertical level.  This would give you bar height as well as reach.  

Update on my steel bike dreams. I ended up picking up a Force XPLR D1 groupset from eBay for like $500 less than the going market rate. I put a bid in on pretty much a complete/new groupset at the opening bid and made my max bid $50 more, fully expecting to get outbid, but somehow, my max bid was the winner. From the description it was a new bike take off and arrived in a mixture of Red and Eagle XX1 boxes so my best guess is they put one hell of a mullet set up on whatever they're riding. Rather than add another bike to the stable, I decided to put the groupset on my cross bike and to give that some TLC. 

I'm now going down the rabbit hole of looking at new wheels. I'm currently running DT Swiss R470s. They're great/indestructible, but also heavy. I looked at some of the Chinese brands (elite, lun, superteam, 9velo) but there's so much out there it's hard to not have paralysis of choice. SO! Does anyone have any firsthand experience with any of these brands, or a reasonably priced wheel set they would recommend? 

Matty I've had luck with Light Bicycles - they're not flashy and do not do direct to consumer marketing on socials or influencers like some of the other brands (that I can tell anyway). Reasonably priced, solid builds, and looks like they're having a sale starting tomorrow.

I've been riding light bicycle wheels for about 3 or so years now.  They've held up great.  Im sure there are stiffer wheels out there but for the price they are hard to beat.

I just built up a pair of Falcon AR36s on their in-house hub and with the anniversary discount they are pretty much exactly where I want to be price wise/feature wise. Only thing I'm debating between now is rim depth. 36 or 46 for cross/gravel application? Weight difference and price is negligible.

36 for cross 

Matty, in case you didn't put in the order yet make sure you get brass nipples instead of alloy. The durability and strength outweighs the minimal weight penalty IMO.

Good looks! Any other suggestions for parts?

I would opt in for the $6/wheel tubeless tape application, can confirm they do a good job.

Does this mean we're going gravel riding in NJ soon?

It does! Though I don’t actually know of too much gravel near the city (I usually head south towards bedminster and Hunterdon).

The kiddo is starting to get on a more consistent/earlier schedule so I’m testing the waters of get out a bit earlier and riding a bit longer

FYI James Huang, my favorite bike tech reviewer who went indie in substack just reviewed the lightbike xc/gravel wheelset and thinks they're great.

https://nminus1bikes.substack.com/p/light-bicycle-falcon-pro-wg55-review?utm_medium=email&utm_content=post(3) Light Bicycle Falcon Pro WG55 gravel wheelset review

@David Yang Ballpark, how long did it take for your wheels to get made/delivered? I put my order in on August 2nd and the website says they're still detailing the rims (and have been for the last like 3 weeks). I reached out and keep getting told they'll check and then never get an answer as to what's going on.

Rims for track bike was fairly quick, maybe under two weeks for packing and to ship and another two to get it delivered. 

perhaps too late for this order, but in the future I would consider HUNT wheels, which are at similar price/quality range but pre built and ready to ship when in stock 

Yeah, I'll keep pestering them. The update went jumped from layup to detailing so I'm sort of hoping it's just not been updated and it'll go from detailing to building

yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if those site status are not exactly up to date, which ironically could be taken as a good sign: their priority is the wheel 

Finally was able to get a hold of someone. Rims apparently are in painting and unless they get pinged in QC, they expect to be able to ship them out next week

My single rear wheel is still sitting in the assembly line - finally in "rim detailing" phase after... 6+ weeks. Really like the product, but this is pretty rough - can't recommend them at this point. I'm also sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop with tariffs...

On a side note, I finally installed a Wolf Tooth Road Link on my old steel build with an old school DA rear derailleur which only officially takes up to 27t. I threw on another wheelset with a 11-34t cassette and it shifted easily to 39x34. The chain is cut too short for a 53x34t wrap, Might have to add a few links from the spares bin. I haven't taken it outside yet, but hoping to give it a spin this coming weekend to see how it shakes out. Not that I don't love the old school grinding up climbs, but it's officially z2 season on group ride...

https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/products/roadlink

Finally got my wheels about 2 months after ordering.

The wheels themselves seem super well built and pretty high quality. I don't have a spoke tension tool to really confirm anything but they run true and are well balanced. I ended up realizing I didn't have long enough valves, so I put the tires, rotors and cassette on one day, then came back a couple days later to put the valves in and finish setting them up. The tires (not new ones) went on easily both times and tubeless set up was a breeze.

I paid the few bucks to have them tape the rim for me. The tape job was fine, but definitely could have been better. There were some bubbles that I managed to smooth out and one of the wheels had the end of the tape right next to the valve hole. I don't know if this will necessarily matter one way or the other in the long run but I've always aimed to have that on the opposite side of the wheel (I think some wisdom advised this when I first learned how to set tires up tubeless years ago at this point and now it's just force of habit when I tape wheels).

I haven't ridden them yet, but my big take away so far is that the bearings in my workhorse DT Swiss R470 wheels were absolutely TOASTED. The Light Bike wheels spin forever and are dead silent. The DT Swiss wheels can be heard/felt and by comparison don't spin nearly as long. I'm going to try and get out to ride some gravel next weekend and will report back on ride quality but have pretty high hopes.

Anyone watch the Silca tpu video? I was just about to take a big gulp of the koolaid and then went to the site and saw they were charging $40/tube. Not today satan!

David Yang said:

Anyone watch the Silca tpu video? I was just about to take a big gulp of the koolaid and then went to the site and saw they were charging $40/tube. Not today satan!

https://youtu.be/9T2S6droV80?si=g-WCxEBNpmbdUx3j

https://silca.cc/products/tpu-tubes

FUnny thing. $39, which is what I saw on their site, is actually in line with most name-brand TPU tubes I've seen (pirelli, WTB, a few others).  OTOH, you can get the 'ride now' for less than $10, and the Biketube brand for $20.  

I believe I paid $25? 30? for the "un-flat-able" commuter oriented tubolitos a few years back (I flatted them and patches wouldn't hold). Since then I know others on the team have been using them without issue, but anecdotally I've seen enough failures and issues happen especially around the valve.

The Silca version seems to address the shortfalls and if they were competitive with latex tubes (currently around $20/tube for Vittoria) I would have definitely tried them out. But I'd rather get 4 quality latex tubes for the amount they're charging. The weight penalty and rolling resistance numbers are negligible, but the two enticing qualities for me were less pumping before every ride and very small packaging when folded so you can carry 2 spares. But neither of those two reasons are worth double the cost - especially since these are consumables. I realize I am old-man-shaking-fist-at-sky right now, but $160 for 4 tubes ...I'm having an adverse physical reaction just typing that out.

Isn’t this price increase mainly a tariff thing? 

I generally like Silca, and what Josh Poertner has done since he revived the brand.

This video, however, is the perfect example of an industry just trying to sell you yet another thing. 

Tubeless is better, because no flats, altho you totally get flats, our sealant is even better, but only V2, wait wait, our latex tubes are faster, I didn't like TUP, but these TPU are almost the same than latex, because no dyes, don't use them with our electric pump, tho cause the pumps are too hot and strong... blah blah blah...

honestly wtf.

Are they just practicing for when they start making bottom brackets?

LennartZandbergen said:

Isn’t this price increase mainly a tariff thing? 

Really good point and if true sucks for Josh and other brands affected. There are similar German brand TPU tubes (Conti and Schwalbe) on the market that are in the $25-30 range retail. Maybe those made it to the US pre-tariff insanity?

I guess we live in a reality where an "entry level" race bike is $3-4k before any upgrades to saddle, cockpit, wheels, tires, etc., so I guess pricing something at $40 with the promise of high performance per dollar ratio starts to seem reasonable.

eloy said:

Are they just practicing for when they start making bottom brackets?

DON'T give them any ideas. Oh god, let us just live in peace with BSA.

mugwump said:

David Yang said:

Anyone watch the Silca tpu video? I was just about to take a big gulp of the koolaid and then went to the site and saw they were charging $40/tube. Not today satan!

https://youtu.be/9T2S6droV80?si=g-WCxEBNpmbdUx3j

https://silca.cc/products/tpu-tubes

FUnny thing. $39, which is what I saw on their site, is actually in line with most name-brand TPU tubes I've seen (pirelli, WTB, a few others).  OTOH, you can get the 'ride now' for less than $10, and the Biketube brand for $20.  

RideNow sells two for $21 on Amazon. Pirelli-branded tpu's go for €20 post tax ($23) each in Europe, and $27+tax here on amazon. That difference could be tariffs, or just the fact that the Netherlands has three highly competitive online shops for bike stuff. I don't think Silca sells these tubes in the EU.

eloy said:

I generally like Silca, and what Josh Poertner has done since he revived the brand.

This video, however, is the perfect example of an industry just trying to sell you yet another thing. 

Tubeless is better, because no flats, altho you totally get flats, our sealant is even better, but only V2, wait wait, our latex tubes are faster, I didn't like TUP, but these TPU are almost the same than latex, because no dyes, don't use them with our electric pump, tho cause the pumps are too hot and strong... blah blah blah...

honestly wtf.

Are they just practicing for when they start making bottom brackets?

I will only buy these tubes if they are the ULTIMATE tubes