My First Bike Fitting

It’s finally happened, my first official bike fitting.  Now on the surface this may not sound surprising, what’s the big deal, people are getting a fitting every day, but I work for a company that builds fit bikes and the most complete suite of bike fitting tools.  I’ve stood beside the professor, Paraic McGlynn as he worked with professional cyclists, researched the benefits of bike fitting, and interviewed physical therapists on why a bike fitting is important.  You might say I was a bit giddy to finally experience the process first hand.  I was also anxious to truly scrutinize the process and to genuinely measure the outcome and whether I would be able to say, yes this is worth it, or would I be mildly impressed.

 

An Active Old Guy

And now for a little background about me; I’m 48 years old, a recreational mountain biker that is highly active playing soccer, hiking, kayaking, and refusing to act my age.  I love being outdoors and after many years of consideration, I finally pulled the trigger and decided to add a road bike to my arsenal of toys.  It was the perfect opportunity to experience the process first hand and see what a rider might go thru when getting a bike fitting.  It should also be noted that I have had two broken legs, one incident being a head-on collision with a drunk driver while riding my mountain bike so I was pretty sure this process could be pretty beneficial.  Let’s be clear, I’m active, but not without pain.  After experiencing two broken legs, broken ribs, back and toes, I have a notable amount of scar tissue that would scare most people from any strenuous activity.

 

Maybe This Bike Was a Bad Investment

I was excited to roll my new road bike out the door; I even rode it home while my daughter drove my pickup, finally a good reason to let her get her driver’s license so early.  I was anxious to ride, but I also could not bear the thought of scratching my new bike by laying it down in the bed of my pickup.  Karisha at the bike shop said it would be a good idea to get used to my bike before the bike fit that would take place in a few days and I honestly could not wait to ride.  The distance of the bike shop to home is approximately six miles and as I rolled up in the driveway at the house the outside of my left knee was screaming with what felt like bone on bone pain.  I just dropped my savings on a bike that was not the greatest joy riding home, but of course I put on a good face and told my wife the ride was amazing as I headed straight for the ibuprofen.

 

Is The Bike Fitter Supposed to Laugh?

There are different levels of bike fit sessions for different levels of riders and mine was going to focus on getting the right bike and getting me positioned properly.  We started with a fairly humorous inseam measurement before climbing aboard the Purely Custom Fit Bike Pro 1.  I’ve been on each of the fit bikes while they are being assembled here in the plant, but this time was the most important moment of them all.  My bike fitter was the CEO of our company, Bob Seastrom, who along with being a bike shop owner, is also a certified fitter and was gracious enough to explain the details and possibilities that are a part of fitting different levels of riders.  As I started to pedal, he called his technician over to take a look and they both laughed at how bad my knees flopped all over the place.  No lasers necessary, I was a mess and this banged up mountain biker just might be hopeless.

The Fit Is In the Details

I felt like a world class cyclist as the body targets were attached to my joints and series of fitting tools were used to gather my coordinates.  As I maintained a certain amount of watts on the bike, Bob adjusted the Fit Bike and instructed me on how to position myself on the seat, positioning my hips and back and telling me over and over again to quit locking my elbows.  Remember, I’m new to this so I didn’t even know where to position my hands on the handlebars.  As I was placed in a comfortable riding position on the bike, angles checked with the goniometer, Bob entered the data into the Pure Position software.  The software pulled up my bike and translated the adjustments that would need to be made based on the bike fitting.

The Moment of Truth

As Saturday arrived, I arranged for a long bike ride with my friend Jerry to really test out the new bike and to get a feel for my new riding position.  The goal was to ride two towns over in the range of twenty to thirty miles.  You would have thought I was heading out on an important expedition as my wife took a picture as I prepared to leave the house, we joked whether I would return.

 

I was excited to experience how agile my new bike was travelling and how every pedal stroke seemed very efficient.  Using the Strava app on my phone, I charted the ride and was surprised to see I had ridden 53 miles in my first real ride and I felt great.  I never expected to go this far and was even more pleased that I did not have any of the knee pain I experienced on the ride home from the bike shop.  As a recreational rider this bike fitting was a tremendous success.  It’s easy to think bike fitting is only for serious riders and I am now convinced of the benefits for many levels of riders.  It’s true I could be easily biased working for a company so immersed in the bike fitting industry, but I’m a skeptic about a lot of things.  I don’t like to take somebody’s word for anything; I like to experience it for myself.  Well, that’s what I did, and my analysis:  this bike fitting stuff, is pretty legit, and yes, worth it!

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