While many aspects of bike fit can cause pain or injury in other parts of the body, if it is lower back pain you are experiencing then Burt says there is only one thing to consider.

“Lower back is dead simple,” he says. “It’s all to do with the position of the saddle. If the saddle height is too high and you’re over-reaching to the front end, it will cause problems.

“The back is more a link, the legs are a source of power but the front end is just keeping you attached to the bike. Generally back pain is a function is of stack and reach.

“If your stack (the vertical length from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the headtube) and reach (the horizontal length from the centre of the bottom bracket to the centre of the headtube) is too low and long then it will cause lower back pain. The other extreme of that is that if your saddle is too low and you’re sat too upright, then you are taking all the shock of the road through your back. You actually can be too upright and have back pain.”

Burts says your body also needs time to adapt to a riding position, and so work load should only be increased gradually over time – with periods of stability to adapt to the load in order to avoid back pain. Working life and the effect it may have your flexibility should also be taken into consideration with regard to your limitations and the position you can comfortably achieve on the bike.

Besides experiencing obvious back pain, Burt says there are other ways to identify a bad fit. For example if a rider finds themselves consistently holding the top of the handlebars rather than the hoods or drops for comfort.

“A classic one is riders who spend all of their time with their hands in the middle of the handlebars and not on the hoods or the drops,” Burt says.

“Then probably the bike is too big or the position too long. In that situation, you need to shorten the stem. The hood is the most expensive ergonomic part of the bike and you’re deciding not to use it – that usually strikes a chord with most people!”