UnfilteredDregs

About a month and a half ago I was sized up and bought a Salsa Warbird Ti... Typical LBS fit, kind of lightweight rule of thumb stuff. Lots of general eyeballing and ballpark spec's...

Threw some clipless on recently, went back and had my cleats positioned, etc..

I have injuries in my right knee, old injuries (skiing, fighting)...a touch of something in my right rotator cuff (NAVY ...) , cubital tunnel syndrome in my left elbow (Guitar playing, booze...) , some mild carpal tunnel in both wrists (guitarplaying, typing...)...I carry tension in my shoulders/neck (Wife...)- left side predominantly, my core could be better (Beer) ...etc.. you get the drift.

I was whacked by a car, not too badly, mid-October, so my right knee began to act up. Got an MRI, doc said that I had bruised cartilage and I'd be okay.

Anyhow, getting back to my recent foray into clipless, left knee is fine, right knee, I get some medial soreness...So, I'm wary. Went out for a good long ride and the soreness showed up the next day, localized just south and to the inside of the patella.

I figured...it's time for a good fit.

I went to Signature Cycles in NYC...Spent a good two and a half hours. Flexibility stuff, range of motion, posture... they put me on this compu-trainer...quite cool real time motion and power analysis showing what was going on with both my legs around the clock while pedaling and adjustments took place from there.

Started with the feet and worked our way up. Made a pretty radical change to my cleat positions, jacked up my seat by 40mm, rotated my bars down a bit, my saddle was pointed 1 degree up for whatever reason, made that an even 0...

Overall, very thorough. My fitter was a pretty well trained person in terms of anatomy and such. What I found quite cool was seeing the differences in efficiency change right before my eyes while watching the monitor indicating my output and cadence at a given resistance. I now know what 80-90 RPM feels like! I had some disparity between my left and right legs... a bit of adjustment brought that closer together...some pointers regarding pedaling technique, consciously relaxing and allowing my heels to drop...

Overall though, when all was said and done a noticeable increase in my output was the end result within given static parameters.

I need to take it easy a bit, I'm going to go out and do some easy short rides, 20 milers, and see how I feel in about 2 weeks/160 miles...

I have a sneaking suspicion my knee soreness is still going to be there and I'm going to have to follow up with a more competent orthopedic surgeon in order to figure out what's going on there. A few folks have told me you can have a torn meniscus and it doesn't show up in an MRI...

The short of it...Seemingly small changes can make quite the difference in your efficiency.

bigfred 

A 40mm saddle height adjustment is anything BUT small. That's HUGE! When I injured my back I dropped mine by 15mm and felt that was a big change. On a subsequent fitting we raised it back by 10mm and had discussions about another 2-5mm.

I'll be curious to hear the report about your post fit riding experiences.

UnfilteredDregs

Yup...Sorry, that was the surprise correction...1.5"!!!!

it had to do with a certain angle being opened up to 143~ versus the 138~ I was at... femur /torso at a certain position....

bigfred 

143 will have been your knee angle at bottom dead center of your pedal stroke.

Femur/torso is usually only a concern at the top of the pedal stroke and even then only for the very short or for those using longer than average cranks for their height and inseam.

I bet your pedal stroke feels a lot different.

UnfilteredDregs

Especially with allowing my heel to drop/ relaxing the ankle...I was pointing my toe, and the fitter very simply showed me by taking my foot to the top of the pedal stroke that by pointing it fell backwards versus dropping the heel and forward it went! He said this was one of the primary differences between mashing and spinning. My calves are going to feel it I'm sure...I can't wait actually...but I need to take it easy... bah!

chaadster

Now that's what fitting is about: maximizing output!

berner

I have one knee, the right, that sometimes has discomfort but no serious pain. My solution may not work for you but here it is. Since pedaling a bike is so repetitious, if something is even slightly off it could cause damage. Even typing over long periods of time can cause damage. When my knee acts up I begin doing a series of exercises for knees, with 10 lbs. of ankle weights strapped to each leg and a few days later the discomfort subsides. These exercises consist of lateral moves only since the legs already get a good workout in the for and aft direction. My feeling is that lateral exercises correct muscular imbalances caused by repetitious pedaling.