Brain Farts of a Bike Tart

Fitting sessions are a funny old game.  I’ve had three now, each by a different specialist, each using a different style, all offering very different outcomes.  I finally now have a stable pedalling platform as last night’s fitting at CycleFit in Covent Garden resulted in a shimmed right cleat, an adjustment to my pedalling technique and, as a result, a noticeable reduction in the drop of my right hip on the down stroke.  I’ll be getting a second opinion on the position though, or I’m going to be riding a very odd looking frame when this bike of mine is finally done – I reckon I’d need a 25cm head tube going by the dimensions on the Serotta jig! 

It’s going to result in a lot of money spent on fitting sessions but given the budget of this dream build I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing.  But this is where I begin to question the whole bike fit scene…

Retul is a digital setup which gives readings from electronic recordings of the movement of sensors strategically placed on the body.  Bike fit is then adjusted based on a range of angles that are recommended by the system.  I prefer the accuracy of the system, but I can’t help wondering who decided these ranges of angles were ‘right’.  That said, I like the output it gives which show readings of how your knee tracks, how the geometry tweaks change the angles of your body and act as a ‘ready reckoner’ to return to and refer to when you’re setting your bike up.  It’ll probably be my first port of call if and when I decide to have another session.

Very simplistically, the BG Fit I had felt like it was based on someone moving two prongs to align to points along my body and then reading and recording the angles shown.  It might just be me, but this felt a bit too ‘hit and miss’ for my liking – if the bloke taking the readings couldn’t be bothered to do it properly, was having a bad day or was in a rush to get home could he not measure an angle wrong?  I reckon so.  It also relies on ‘KOP’, or ‘Knee Over Pedal’.  Recent studies seem to point to this being an old fashioned and out-dated system which may not be entirely relevant for everyone.  I just have too much doubt to be happy with this system.  Maybe I’ve got it wrong, or just didn’t like the fact that it’s been brought about by Specialized, but it just didn’t ring true with me (not helped by the fact that the shop in question had lost all my details and measurements when I returned to them to take a bike out for a test).

CycleFit were no less ‘manual’ than the BG Fit with angles being measured by a ‘bloke with a measuring tool’, but I somehow felt better about it over the BG Fit from the outset.  My own approach was slightly different with CycleFit as in an ideal world they would have worked with me on my own bike, only I opted not to take it in.  The goal for me was to see what their outcome would be in setting me up in what they considered to be my ideal position on a jig, then enabling me to take those measurements away to match either on my current bike or by making a (reasonably cheap) change to something else to try for a while.  I also had a quite specific aim for sorting my leg length discrepancy, and I have to say that I came away from there last night feeling like they had really achieved this.  The flipside of the output from CycleFit was that whilst their ultimate position for me was comfortable I know I’ll never ride a road bike sat quite so upright.  It just didn’t feel right.  I couldn’t help but doubt it too when I asked whether I was sat up that high due to biometrics or flexibility, the response to which was “a bit of both” – so you’re telling me if I stretch more you’ll lower the front of the bike?  Not an ideal basis to build a custom frame on then really.

It’s interesting to note that two of the three sessions were able to sell me expensive custom made frames and I was willing to be guided down that route, yet they told me I was fine on what I was already riding.  In stark contrast the third was adamant that the only way I’d be able to get my position right on a bike would be to go custom. 

As I’ve already hinted, I want to go back to Barry at Bespoke Cycling to see what the Retul machine says about how my knees are tracking now that I’ve been shimmed.  I totally buy in to the way the system is able to show up knee movement through its laser tracking, and the knowledge that the tweaks in saddle height are being measured and analysed puts my mind at rest (something I like about the Retul system as a whole).  It’ll be interesting to see how the Retul system ‘decides’ I should be setup now too, both compared to how I was about a year and a half ago when I was last in there and versus the CycleFit output from last night.

One thing the CycleFit session was very clear on is that I need a shorter top tube, and I had guessed as much anyway.  I also now have the peace of mind that I was in the right ballpark with my saddle height, and that running a 175mm crank does suit my leg length. 

The key now in getting things right for my dream machine is going to be in finding a happy medium between bike fit outputs and in trying a few different frames out, the latter of which is going to mean borrowing some bikes…