RogersRoadRash: Bike Fit!

I finally got some new Speedplay pedals for "The Slut" last weekend (that's the name SWMBO has given to my new Cannondale Slice 3 Ultegra for the many of you who probably don't read my drivel on a regular basis....) so now it was time to get properly fitted.

I called Matt Lodder - the Cary Cycle Surgeon http://carycyclesurgeon.com/Home.shtml and made an appointment for today. Matt did a great job fitting me for my road bike back in February and is a wealth of knowledge about "all things Bikes". I had absolutely no hesitation going back again for this one.

Fitting for a tri or time trial bike, where you (in theory at least) spend all of your time in a more aggressive "aero" position is a little different to being fitted for a road bike with a completely different frame geometry (this is 58 cm frame), but one thing that hasn't changed much this year though, is me! I may have lost a few pounds and, hopefully, gained a little flexibility, but my "vital statistics" are basically the same, so this gave Matt a good head start over my last fitting, where he started by taking all sorts of body measurements and making me do all sorts of exercises on the floor!

After reviewing my (loose) goals and objectives for next year we got to work. Here's The Slut set-up on the trainer in Matt's workshop and ready to go, with Matt about to make some starting adjustments.

First thing to look at was saddle height. I knew that we had to take a litttle off the length of the seatpost based on a few quick test rides that I have taken. Carbon framed tri bikes don't have "round" tubes, so there isn't limitless ability to simply slide the seat post up and down. Soon enough I was holding my breath a little as Matt was cutting the seat post with a hacksaw blade specifically designed to cut carbon.

I'll spare you all of the details, but to cut a long story short, we spent the next 90 minutes playing with all sorts of adjustments and fine tuning until we had things right. The seat was moved back on the seat post so as to create the correct relationship between my knee and the bottom bracket; as a result the handlebar stem was shortened slightly (we might add back to this a little over time); the aerobars were adjusted and so on.

Here's the result... as you can see, I don't have the flexibility to ride in a very "flat back" position - I'm quite "rounded" (OK, OK, I'm a freakin' hunchback!), but then again, so was Lance Armstrong relatively speaking and he seemed to manage OK! There's a 6 cm drop from saddle to bars, which I guess is "respectable" for an old geezer like me.