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| We kind of look alike |
One of the many “helmets” that I wear working at Bonzai
Sports, Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland’s oldest and best triathlon store
(shameless sponsor plug there), is bike fitter. When you buy a bike from
Bonzai, you are entitled if you want to get a free bike fit with me (Lucky you!).
While I don’t have an official degree or certification in bike fitting, I would
say that I am more than qualified for the job. People almost always ask what fit school I follow or went to. I tell them that I graduated from the “school of hard
knocks.” Well, I do not really tell them that, but what I mean is that regardless
of the fitter, regardless of the school, regardless of the “optimal angles,”
how much you spend on the bike, the fit and the components, the best fitters are you, the rider, and experience.
People come into the fit with high
expectations. Some think that a fit will instantly add on 50 watts to their FTP
and that all their post ride soreness will evaporate, but honestly, it will
not. A bike fit will help but it will not make everything perfect. In fact
there is no such thing as a perfect bike fit. I myself can testify to this. I
got my bike fit done two years ago a few months before Eagleman. Yes, it was
stupid to get a fit fairly close to my “A” race but that’s not the point of
this little parable. Anyway, I went to my local bike shop and shelled out a
cool, crisp $300 to get a fit with the best bike fitter in the area (Note my
fits are only $150—last shameless plug I promise). My bike fit pretty well
already without any problems, quirks, but I had read in Triathlete Magazine
that all the pros had their bikes fit so damn it I should too. I spent a good
two hours with Paul, the bike fitter, talking about my previous injuries,
looking at my proportions (inseam, hip, balance, etc), taking measurements and
then finally getting on the bike and riding. He aligned my angles perfectly and
made a few minor tweaks and adjustments here and there. Overall he moved the
seat post two millimeters up, the saddle back three mm and then moved my cockpit down one and a half
spacers. On my next ride, I felt
like a million dollars—for the first 10 minutes. After that I started to get a
bit uncomfortable. My back began to ache, neck felt strained, and my butt began
to tighten up. By hour three, I could not go on any longer. I called up Paul,
to see if we could have another appointment, but he assured me Paul that it
would take some time to adjust so I spent the next six weeks riding as much as
I could but the same thing would happen. I knew I would never last in the race
if this continued.
With a few days to go, I finally
decided to void the certified fit and tweak my position myself. I lowered the
seat down a millimeter, kept the spacer in place, and angled the seat back up a
bit more. On the next ride, I felt much better but I tweaked my fit some more
and then a bit more. Finally by race day, I had the perfect fit. Yes the angles
were not text book perfect nor was the fit an official fit from “F.I.S.T” or
Specialized or Guru or whatever school Paul had attended to become certified,
but my fit received a better certification from the “school of hard knocks.”
While a fit in a fit room with a
certified or even uncertified fitter will get you an approximate the right fit,
but the only way to get the best fit is to ride, learn, test, and keep an open
mind to change, even then though it will never be absolutely “perfect.” To be
honest, it never will be, but that does not mean you should not strive for that
perfection. Just keep in mind that it is impossible. By recognizing this
paradox of striving for a goal that can never be attained, you free yourself
from the torment of focusing on the negatives and instead refocus and embrace
the journey towards perfection. Professa’ E.X Perience taught be this in his
class at the school of hard knocks. He is I think the best fitter you can have,
but that is my two watts.
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