Great Time For a Bike Fit…

This part of the off-season is a great time to tune-up on your form and technique before training starts. Coming out of this past race season I had developed some IT Band issues in my left leg and also some what I like to call “weirdness” in my left knee while biking. The “weirdness” was not really pain, except a couple times climbing it did hurt a bit, but more of a strange sensation. Given this, I first decided to make an appointment to get my tri-bike re-fitted over at Sleeping Dog Pro Cycles in Topton, PA. 

When I purchased my 2006 Quintana Roo Caliente triathlon bike back in 2009 I was fitted for the bike, but I was just starting to feel like things were not quite right. I had also lost much confidence in the bike shop that I purchased it from(I am not even what to mention their name anymore) after the lack of support and being duped into purchasing a 3 year old bike. I had been working with John Ireland from Sleeping Dog Pro Cycles for the last year or so and was very impressed by his expertise, knowledge and most of all his honesty. John is a certified Serotta Bike Fit Technician. I had referred a co-worker to him earlier in the year who was very impressed by the time and detail he had taken to perform his bike fit. This was the final motivation I needed get in there for an appointment. I stopped in one day and setup an appointment for the Friday before Thanksgiving. He stated it would take around 3 hours so I needed to schedule a day when I had off.

The fitting starts with a lengthy questionnaire to gather your history, past injuries and goals. The aim here is to help the fitter really understand you from a fitting perspective. It is amazing how some of the smallest things come into play in your bike fit. John also took the time to explain why certain questions were important and how they play into your fit. It took about 45 minutes to get through the questions. Next, we put the bike on a trainer and I warmed up for about 10 minutes or so. The bike trainer was a CylcleOps Pro models which was pretty sweet. After I was warmed up, John began taking some measurements starting from the pedals on up. He also took some measurements off the bike and on a massage-style table to test my flexibility as well. As we progressed small tweaks were made to the bike and even the cleats on my shoes. The biggest changes came mostly from my seat and my handlebars which brought me up and back a bit. I was amazed at the amount of change we needed to make. This really had me questioning the accuracy of that initial fit I had when I purchased the bike. I was basically leaning far too forward.

The fitting took almost exactly 3 hours which was what he had said it would take. I left the bike there since he needed to order a new, shorter stem and I also had him re-cable the bike too. The original bike shop I purchased the bike from had done a very unprofessional job leaving large loops of cable jetting out from the front of the bike. John had indicated that fixing this would increase the shifting accuracy on the bike as well as decrease some the drag .

John gave me a call the following week to let me know it was ready to go and I picked it up the same day. I took it out for a ride on Thanksgiving day and I was immediately amazed at how it felt. It was a bit different, but it was different in a good way. I felt more controlled on the bike. One the things he had mentioned during the fitting was that the previous position was causing me to use more quadriceps and this new position would bring the glutes and hamstrings into play for better endurance. This should help on the run off the bike too. The ride was only 45 minutes, so I could not tell anything there, but overall it just felt really good. I am really looking forward to getting out on the bike for some longer rides now. Besides the fit, shifting was greatly improved and it just felt solid. Something I had really never felt on this bike before.

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I looking forward to reaping the rewards of this new fit. With Lake Placid coming up additional comfort over 112 miles will help to set me up for a good marathon run. If I can also gain 1-2 MPH that would be equally helpful. With Winter coming I will be logging some miles on the trainer which should really dial me into this fitting.