ridethecliche

Yesterday, I had my fit with a Coach/pro racer.

Changes:
Stem- From 130 to 110
Saddle- About 1 cm back
Seatpost- Up 1.5 cm.
Bars: Need to buy 40 cm, and using 44cm right now.

Some pretty big changes me thinks. I also got some custom footbeds for my shoes to resolve some problems. Turns out that my left foot is flatfooted and my right foot is much more arched and that one of my legs is longer. Hamstring flexibility and such are good.

He was using a couple of video camera's to look at a frontal and side view while I was pedaling and used a laser level to look at my knee relative to the pedal spindle. Turns out that he thought my cleats were adjusted pretty well already. He would take images at different points of the stroke and measure the angle that my legs/arms were making and make changes in order to get into the range that he saw fit. It was pretty cool to talk to him about it while we were doing it.

Lets see how everything feels as I get used to it.

Side story:

I was getting a fit with the coach when we got the call that a teammate had been hit by a car. We hurriedly finished our fit session (which had been going on for about an hour and a half already) to get ready to go to the hospital. Most of the stuff was done already, and he looked at the video he was taking and measured the angles that he was trying to achieve and said that everything was in the ballpark that he had been talking to me about.

My friend got hit by a car that turned into him from the other side of the road. He broke his arm pretty badly and just had surgery in the morning today.

Dubbayoo

I had a Body Scanning fit done last year and made changes to my saddle height and setback. Seemed to work out well. I wouldn't mind having my cleats done professionally. My feet are different length so it's hard to just eyeball them both. Hope your friend heels soon.

Mires

What is the price range for something like this?

ridethecliche

Coach charges 125 for fitting and 120 for custom insoles. He's a sponsor so my costs are different.

Charles Coaching and Nutrition services on main street in middletown, ct. Great guy, great place.

He has a wind tunnel too! It's so freaking cool!

Grasschopper

I have a nearly new set of Deda 215 anatomic bars in 40cm c-c I would let go cheap.

Flatballer

A wind tunnel is badass. I wish I got to ride in a wind tunnel some time.

johnny99

$125 for a fitting involving video analysis sounds like a real good deal (if it works for you).
He really has a wind tunnel? How does that work?

ridethecliche

So he has this pretty big back room in his facility. He gutted it and put up stuff in there and bought these huge fans and the vapor trail gas, etc. He has computers for analyzing the drag and such. It's really awesome.

It's the only wind tunnel in the area. MIT has one, but I don't think they allow people to use it. He has a good assortment of wheels, helmets and bars to make sure he can find the best one for the person. I knew that an aero helmet reduced drag by more than aero wheels, but I didn't really think about the fact that you can optimize drag by picking the right aero helmet for the body.

He runs a team in addition to sponsoring my collegiate team. Here's his website.
https://www.teamccns.com/

Links on the left under servicing for the wind tunnel info and info for how he fits bikes.


Really neat stuff.

tobycat

Good luck. Seems like some pretty significant changes you will have to adapt to.

Just curious as to what moved you to get the fitting? Pain? Uncomfortable? Better power generation?

botto 

i can only think of one living in CT.

ridethecliche

He's a Domestic pro/Cat 1.

So if you're thinking International pro, then I guess you know the one. I guess you're telling me that my terminology was wrong. If so, whoops.

Edit: Hey b, who were you thinking of?

oilman_15106

I have often wondered if you shelled out the $$ for a fitting and when they got done they tell you that every thing is already set up perfectly, how would you feel? Everyone expects to maybe get about 2 mph with all day comfort to boot from a fitting.

ridethecliche

I have a feeling that the fee should be reduced if this were to happen. I don't expect a 2mph gain or all day comfort. My back still had issues towards the end of my ride (instead of the middle) and it's something I'll build strength with. The speed increases will come after adaptivity. A fit helps in the long term and not the short term. It might actually make you slower in the short run since your muscles have to adapt to their different roles.

I feel like you go in for a fit if you feel discomfort or the need to have something changed. If you have discomfort then something is off. Even if it's a tiny change, the money can be worth it for the improvement. Also, you can go in for a fit because of issues such as hot spots. Doesn't have to mean a fit is required, you might just need some custom shoe inserts (which I bought). One of the inserts helped me a lot right from the start, the other i might have to get used to. If it doesn't work, it's really easy to reset it. No big deal.

I don't think I would support a shop that would charge full price for a fit if they didn't have to change anything. Even small changes require analysis, but I would be very impressed by someone who said, "your position is in the range of what I would do, so unless you have some discomfort issues, I won't charge you full price". You're paying for the resource in this case and not the service charge. That's what I think anyway.

I spent a good hour and a half with my coach, and it would have been longer if we hadn't received the dreaded call. He would have spent longer to explain things to me and such since his next apt was at 4:30 (it was about 2:30 when we got the call) and we would have just hung out or something. We had to leave and he already made the changes to get me into the range he wanted. I'm sure he'll reexamine things if something just doesn't work. I think all fitters should do this.

Also, fit is a dynamic, not a static thing. My saddle went higher to a certain point during race season as I got stronger, till it was at the max height I felt it should be (i.e. moving it higher hurt performance). Thus, fit can change based on how in shape/form you are at any given time, and it also depends on what you want out of it.

Just my $.02

Campag4life

Allow me to dissent a bit. You seem knowledgable and are likely fast but there are two reasons to change fit...comfort and speed.
What you wrote above is an unspoken underlying dynamic that every shop knows which really detracts from the whole fit process really. Your fit very well may have been spot on. You and only you know comfort. Yes your body will morph to a new position as your muscles adapt to your new fit which "may" mean more comfort and/or speed. The changes you made which is move the saddle back and go with a shorter stem for many maybe more comfortable and add speed. The only way you know about power is hook you up to a power tap and measure watts.
I am slightly against a so called pro fit unless the guy fitting you is a bonefide expert and such a person is extremely rare. Only you know how you feel on the bike. All the swing coaches that assist PGA pros with their golf swings would play golf professionally themselves but they aren't as good as the guys they are giving advice to. The same applies to cycling. You have to find out what works the best yourself through dogged trial and error. Eddie taught us that.

botto 

him.

ripperj 

https://www.teamtype1.org/riders/jones.shtml
I think this is Botto's link

CrimsonKarter21

Sweet, those changes are HUGE, how long have you been riding that bike? I'm not surprised so much about the saddle setback (which everyone gets wrong anyways) as I am the rest of the measurements.
It sounds like you were practically laying down on your bike.

ridethecliche

In 07 Jones raced for Nerac Pro Cycling, the same team that my coach races for now.

This is who I'm talking about:
https://www.teamnerac.com/aidan-charles

Cool dude.

Hey CK!

Yeah, the changes are pretty huge, but I lowered my saddle when I got back on the bike after my crash. My BB-Saddle is now very similar to what it used to be when I races, though I have to admit that my setback is very different!

I actually felt pretty comfortable with the way I had it earlier, but I wasn't getting much power out of my stroke, which was the problem. I lowered my saddle to get back into the swing of things when I started riding again. The biggest and best change so far is the custom footbeds, especially for my right foot. I might need to remold the left one or just use the stock insert for the left shoe since I didn't have problems with that before, but the right one feels incredibly comfortable.

rankin116

I had a fitting done recently due to discomfort. It wasn't as detailed as yours, but they took some measurements, set me up on a Serotta fit cycle, watched me pedal for a while, had me stretch, measured that, etc. I was expecting to pay ~$150. They only ended up moving my saddle up a bit, and because of that charged me only $50. Very cool IMO. It's also an ongoing process, after a while, I can go back in a say something isn't feeling right, they'll make whatever changes, and I don't have to pay anything additional.

This shop also has the custom footbeds. What problems were you having and what did they do for you? I get hotspots in my feet, and I was thinking about getting some custom orthotics. What shoes do you use?

CrimsonKarter21

Ah, I hear you. And it's true that so much power can be found by having the most stable platform for your feet. How's the feel now? Did the fit feel right initially, or did it take a little bit to shake the old fit and realize the comfort in this one?

::EDIT:: You'll also really dig the narrow bars; after riding on 40's since I first started riding, I've tried wider bars, but every time I did, I felt liek it was so hard to produce power since it was harder to throw my bike.

ridethecliche

I use nike Poggios. I get hot spots on my right foot. My right foot is very arched and the footbeds that came with the shoes didn't support it right so the arch support from the custom footbeds really feels great. My left foot is almost flat footed, and the almost flat footbeds that came with the shoes had been working okay. I think I stepped a little too forward while molding the custom footbeds, so I'm going to go back to using the one the left shoe came with till I get a chance to go back to the coach and remold the shoe.

Should take all of 15 minutes to remold the footbed. If you have discomfort issues, I think these help a lot.

ridethecliche

I'm still getting used to the fit. I have a 'crap' week at college with work and other stuff, so I won't be riding as much as I'd want to be. It felt better when I rode it though. I'll have the bars soon too, so I'll be able to consider the fit as a whole.

I have 38cm bars on my 84 trek and I really like those. It makes moving through a pack so easy since you're so much more streamlined than everyone else on their mile wide bars.

Flak

Lies! You have no power you weenie!

ridethecliche

Incorrect.

Wider bars=more frontal area=more drag.

(Heh)

Dubbayoo

After reading this I had my pedals RAD fitted this morning. I was a bit skeptical since only my left foot felt like it needed adjustment. We went thru the whole process and he adjusted both pedals, video'ed my pedal motion, adjustet setback a bit. I feel a little better on the bike.