At the
time, the shop simply put some tape where the seat tube met the frame to try
and keep the height the same and then put some more tape on the seat rails to
keep it in the same spot on the seat tube.
Since I WAS fit on my original frame, the dimensions shouldn’t be that
off when all the old parts were put on the new frame. Over the course of 2 years, I’ve moved my
seat when I felt that I wasn’t getting a good leg extension during the down
stroke of my pedaling. Each time I did
this, my aero position became more and more aggressive. What I mean by that is that my back end was
getting higher while the front and was staying the same. I also found myself moving my seat forward,
until I couldn’t move it any more.
In the
last few months, I’ve been thinking about getting a proper fit, but kept
putting it off. Part of it was the added
additional expense ($350 for a 3D fitting all the way down to $189 for a 2D
fit) Part of it was just me telling
myself that if it was good enough for the last 2 years, why change now? Yet another part of it was the general
fatigue I was getting in my lower back right around 60 miles into my rides. Remember when I had my VO2 test done at Eric’s? Ron said that I had a slight imbalance in my
pedal stroke. Also remember that FMS test
I took at Frank’s? Don said I had a
slight imbalance on my right side originating at the hips. All of this came into play when I finally I
gave in and called a local fitter to see what he recommended.
To my
surprise, he said that the cheaper 2D fit was more of what I needed and that
the fit would end up the same as the more expensive 3D fit. We didn’t really get into the differences
between the two, but he simply said, “The 3D fit will tell us HOW MUCH your
knee (for example) is moving while the 2D fit will tell us that your knee is
moving” I’ve gone to Chris, at Bicycle
Ranch, before. In fact, he sized me up
back in 2008 before I even had a road bike!
The procedure was the same as I remember. It’s about 2 hours long and starts with
precise measurement of my current set up.
Once that was done, it was time for me to answer a ton of questions
about my weekly fitness regime, any injuries, height, weight, shoe size,
etc. Once we got through those, it was “stretch
Dan like a pretzel” time. Chris asked me
to lie down on a massage table and proceeded to bend my knees, lift up my legs,
told me to not allow him to move my leg when applying pressure, and checked for
muscle strength. Once pretzel time was
over, it was finally bike time.
Chris set
up my bike on his trainer, attached some cords to it, and positioned a camera
to video me from the side. He told me to
start pedaling, at a comfortable cadence, while he stared at the computer
monitor that was analyzing my video in real time. After a few minutes, he asked me to hop off
and indicated that my seat needed to be even higher! This was of concern to me since I thought it
was too high already. I mean, I thought
that one of the reasons for my lower back discomfort was due to the aggressive
set up that already existed. He showed
me on the computer that my legs were still not extending enough on the downs
stroke. He also said that the seat
needed to be moved back! What?!? Even MORE aggressive? Well, he’s the pro fitter, so what was I
supposed to do? He made the adjustments
and had me get back on. After some more computer
calculations and analysis, he said that I looked much better and asked how it
felt. I told him that I couldn’t really
feel a major change and this it only felt a bit different. Once again, he asked me to get off, but this
time it was to raise the front end a tad.
He added a spacer to Argon’s proprietary front end and had me hop on
again. Still no major difference, but I
did feel a bit more comfortable. Chris
said that the video showed that I was now where I should be in terms of position,
but he wanted to tackle one more thing.
He got on the platform, just behind me, and looked at my hip movement
while I was pedaling. He saw the same
imbalance that Ron did and offered up a solution. He asked for my right shoe so he could put a
shim on the bottom. The shim was to
raise up my right side to that the imbalance would go away. Within two pedal strokes, I could TOTALLY
tell a difference. Pressure was
seemingly off my lower back, my pedal stroke became more fluid, and my hips
weren’t off balance. It was like the
heavens opened up and a bright light shined down from above. It was a wild feeling to say the least. It felt GOOD!
I can’t wait to give the new position a try on my next ride on
Wednesday! I will be out of the blogosphere
for the weekend, but will try to give a full report when I get back.
Finally,
as for the new set up, he did say that my saddle could go up a tad and that my
arm pads could be raised a bit too, but didn’t want to do too much all at
once. He told me to ride it for a while
and if any lower, central, back fatigue came back, then the pads should be
raised at that time.
My rig all set up to be fit (finally!):
Chris putting the shim on my right shoe:
The final computer analysis:
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