When I returned from Canada last year, I bought a cheap and cheerful bike so I could get back into triathlons without having to spend a couple of grand on a nice machine. The bike was fine, but I couldn’t help feeling that it was a bit too big for me. I never seemed to be able to get comfortable on the saddle, would get niggles at the back of my knees after riding for a while, and if I wanted to ride further than about 40km, I’d start to experience discomfort in my lower back. The end result of all of this was that I wasn’t doing very much cycling at all.
July 1st marked the end of the financial year, and after a bit of diligent saving, I have some spare cash set aside, earmarked for a new bike. I’ve decided to make the upgrade to a full carbon frame, but before doing so, I figured that the best thing to do would be to get a professional bike fit. I booked an appointment last week with Steve Hogg, who’s well known as a bike-fitter amongst the cycling community, and a regular contributor on cyclingnews.com answering readers’ fitting questions. Rather than being fit on my existing bike, I got Steve to assess me and work out my ideal frame dimensions, which I could then use to determine which bikes would be a suitable fit, and which were no hopers.
The process was really interesting, not least because Steve’s approach differs from the usual “measure limbs and adjust accordingly” approach used by your typical bike shop. He quickly noticed that all the various muscles surrounding my hips and lower back were extremely tight, with my right side worse than my left, resulting in an imbalance which was causing most of my issues on the bike.
When standing up straight, the distance between my hip & shoulder on my left side is 4cm greater than that on my right, and I also support 6kg more through my right leg than my left! That’s the direct result of being a lazy bastard and not bothering to stretch after golf, running or cycling, so he gave me a choice between signing up for a yoga class, or following the exercises in Kit Laughlin’s Stretching & Flexibility book. Since I already own the book (though clearly haven’t been using it) I chose that option.
Once my major structural flaws were noted, the rest of the process was fairly straightforward, with some adjustments to my cleats to get my knees tracking properly, followed by working out my ideal seat height and handlebar position. The whole process took a little over two hours, and I left with a detailed breakdown of the major flexibility/structural issues which need to be addressed, a detailed understanding of how those issues affect how I feel on the bike, and a template of my ideal bike setup.
Now it’s time for some bike shopping! :-)