Bike Science Bike Fit

SteveR_100Milers

Am off to Bristol this afternoon for the retul bike fit for my TT and road bike, which will hopefully cure my lack of speed on my new TT bike. The anecdotal reecommedations from friends who have done it suggest I cold be challenging the Doc on Sundays Carl Roach memorial, however I suspect it's more likely to be challenging for a mid table position if it works.

I'll keep you posted, as £250 for a bike fit is a serious investment (though as a %age of the total spend on bikes quite reasonable perhaps).

SteveR_100Milers

In numbers:

I did the R10/17 course tonight, and was over 3 minutes faster than the pre-fit set up, and FWIW 3rd overall. My time was my 2nd fastest 10 for last three seasons, in fact since I started racing again in 2006.

Immediately during the warm up I knew it was faster, and that the position was now similar to the one I had found by trial and error on my old frame. OK, I might have found the sweet spot eventually, but as an example I believed my saddle was too high, in fact it was raised today by 1cm or thereabouts. I know the front end was too far away, and now realise the importance of supporting your upper body weight on your arms and shoulders and not lower back to release optimum pedal force. I also learnt a lot of things about the lack of my hamstring flexibility, pronating feet, the differences in cleat position, but in each case the changes, sometimes multiple could be measured by a whole series of metrics.

OK, so thats the TT bike sorted, tomorrow is a 70 miler with Ross CC so we'll see how effective that was. So far though, I am very pleased with the outcome, given it was a cost of about 5% of the value of my bikes, makes it a pretty sound £/minute investment. I'd certainly recommend it t anyone, after all if it's good enough for Stu Dodd.....

springtide9

Got a basic fit at B.S. Bristol a month or so ago, as very much a beginner to road cycling.

It was hugely noticeable from my initial setup, more comfortable as well as feeling more efficient.

Recommended; and well spent especially if you bought a bike via the internet (i.e. no real set-up on purchase)

SteveR_100Milers

I have to add that my road bike is even more of a revelation, I hadn't realised that it was set up way too aggressively, which meant I was less efficient at transmitting force through the pedals. Did a 40 mile hilly ride yesterday and felt strong and quick most of the way round, whereas usually I'm off the back on longer climbs.

Herbsman

When you say 'too aggressively' do you mean bars too low, stem too long, or what?

SteveR_100Milers

My road bike was set up too much like a track / TT bike, saddle was way too far forward, and bars too low. Bars were raised by 4 spacers, and saddle back by around 10cm. Counter-intuitive to what I thought I needed to do to make it faster. I'm not sure is IS faster, but it's a damn sight more comfortable and a lot less pressure in my lower back. One thing I learnt is that freeing up your lower back mucles to oppose leg force rather that suspend body weight has a huge effect.

Herbsman

TEN centimetres?!

I assume you mean millimetres!

I wouldn't normally take anyone's advice about getting more aerodynamic but I was told by a club mate that I needed to get lower to have any chance of doing well in road & circuit races. Foolishly I put a longer stem on (the original stem that came with the bike, which I had replaced with one 40mm shorter*!) and dropped it by 2cm, just to see what it felt like.

It felt fine, and I did a few long rides and one race on that setup without major problems. However, my back is now aching times ten to the power of seven. Needless to say I'm going back to my old setup!

*yes I realise 4cm is a ridiculously large adjustment to make in one go.

SteveR_100Milers

It was neither 10cm nor 10 mm, the target was -10mm from one point to another (can't remember what without checking the reports) can't imagien is was simple BB offset, as 10mm is in TT set up country. We moved the saddle back from a position right at the rear of the rails to close to the front, so it was a massive amount.

P_Tucker

£250? Jesus.

SteveR_100Milers

P_Tucker wrote:

£250? Jesus.

Strangely non cyling mates usual comments are £2500 you are ****g joking? yet thought it was sensible to spend 10% of the value on getting it to work correctly (actually more like 7% as it was for two bikes). 3 weeks later and the benefits to times is tangible, mainly because I can stay on the bike in the right position for so much longer. On a £ for s basis, it has been for me easily way better value than any piece of aero kit, TT bike included.

hopper1

I had the Retul fit done for both road and TT bikes, in December last year, just prior to buying new frames.
Like you noted, it was money well spent.
I used Velomotion in MK.

stonehouse

Money well spent IMO, certainly preferable to picking up an injury. For those interested I did a short blog entry about the subject:

http://www.ciclobyron.com/the-bike-whisperer