Friday, April 11, 2008

Bike fit = Happy Friday

I went to the Hub Cyclery in Cotati today on my lunch break to get my bike fit with Chaz. Apparently, unbeknown to me at the time, Chaz is a bad-ass. Actually, I figured it out when he told me that he had done a race down in southern California, and it was a 500 mile race...immediately I knew then that it could only be one race: The Furnace Creek 508. I was right.

You are a bad-ass if you do that race.

Anyway, I digress. I had heard amazing things about getting a bike fit there, so that was my chosen shop to have the all-important fit done.

I got in there and Chaz first looked at my shoes. "Your cleats are too far up. We need to move them back. Triathletes tend to want them back further because of your aero position - it will help with your power." Oh.

So he adjusted them while I checked out the Clearance rack. (Damn! That reminds me...I totally forgot that I meant to go back and browse the rest of the rack!) Then I got on the bike and spun on the trainer for 5 minutes.

His first impression was that my upper back was too upright for the aggressive position I would be wanting to achieve on this bike and that we would probably be moving my seat forward just a tad. The seat height looked good.

He moved the seat forward just a tad. That actually felt better. THEN we began the handlebar process.

We fiddled with the handlebar height for the bulk of the session. The ultimate result was moving it down about 2.5 cm, which is quite a lot for bike positioning. He thinks we'll want to move it down even more but wants me to give it a try for a couple weeks, see how I feel and allow my back to adjust.

I CAN'T WAIT TO GET OUT AND RIDE TOMORROW! Not sure exactly the route, but we're going to put in about 50 ish miles and I just can't wait to see how this might impact my strength on the bike. I also read that it's going to be a warm sunny day tomorrow, which means that it might very well be the first time this year I can ride without my long pants or leg warmers. Yes!

Have a great weekend, everybody! Happy training to all!

4 comments:

Marit C-L said...

Hooray for proper bike fits - they really DO make all the difference in the world. Glad that it feels better and I hope you have a fANTASTIC time riding this weekend!

rocketpants said...

Wooohoo that sounds like a productive bike fit! Enjoy the nice weather. This weekend down here is suppose to be crazy warm...that boggles my mind for April

Rainmaker said...

Cool, good to hear they adjusted stuff and that it might make a difference. Hopefully your ride today went well!

Anonymous said...

YES!! Proper bike fit is sssoooo important. It's probably going to take some time to adjust but it's worth it. Happy outside riding!!! Think of me...as I am stuck INSIDE!!