RidePrecision

RidePrecision is an independent project that sits where two of my interests meet: cycling, and understanding how things work well enough to improve them with technology.

Its subject is the technical side of riding — bike fitting, cycling biomechanics, frame geometry and tyre pressure — and its aim is simple to state: take knowledge that usually lives in specialist studios, research papers and hard-to-read charts, and make it usable by an ordinary rider making an ordinary decision.

A bike that fits well is more comfortable, more efficient and more fun. But fitting one is a surprisingly multi-dimensional problem: body proportions, flexibility, riding style and the bike’s geometry all interact.

Two numbers — stack and reach — describe where a frame puts your hands relative to the pedals. They are among the most useful figures in cycling and among the least understood. Add saddle height and setback, handlebar width and drop, and choosing or adjusting a bike becomes the kind of decision most people make by feel, by habit, or by copying someone else.

Tyre pressure has the same shape. The number on the sidewall is a limit, not an answer, and the right pressure depends on load, tyre width, surface, speed and conditions.

The common thread is to make the reasoning explicit. Measurements and riding intent go in; targets come out, as ranges, with the reasoning visible — so a rider, or a mechanic, can check them rather than take them on trust.

The tyre pressure calculator is a good example. It models how much a tyre should deform under each wheel’s share of the load, adjusts for surface, speed, wet conditions, casing and tube setup, and then applies a separate safety layer: minimums against burping and pinch flats, maximums set by the tyre, the rim and hookless standards. The result is a front and rear starting range rather than one falsely exact number, because the published evidence doesn’t support that kind of precision.

RidePrecision runs at rideprecision.fit. Publicly available today:

The quickest way to see the approach in practice is the tyre pressure calculator.

Experience and data need each other. Riding gives you a feel for what a good position is. Data tells you why — and occasionally that the feeling is wrong. A model with no contact with real riders is just arithmetic; a feeling with no vocabulary is hard to act on. The useful work happens in translating between the two.

Precision is a product decision. A calculation can produce a number to the millimetre or the decimal. Whether to show it that way isn’t a mathematical question. Bodies, roads and tyres vary, and an honest tool says how sure it is. That is why RidePrecision presents ranges, explains its reasoning and refuses to go past safety limits.

Explaining is part of the engineering. People change their bikes based on these numbers. A recommendation they can follow, check and argue with is worth more than a cleverer one they have to take on faith.

A personal interest is a good starting point, and a biased one. Building for a hobby you know well means noticing details others would miss — and assuming things others don’t share. The work is keeping the first and catching the second.