Bike Fit

By Paul Pickup

Paul takes his time trial rig in for a Bike Fit

If I’m honest, I have always been a bit sceptical about going through the process of a bike fit. Not that I don’t believe in them; they obviously perform a valuable process for a rider wanting help with their set-up. It is just that I am quite guarded of my position, one that has been ‘perfected’ over many years. I can spend days fine tuning a new piece of equipment, like cleats or a saddle or even bar tape until it is comfortable, in exactly the right position. It is then locked in place, not to be touched again.

The last time I picked up a team issue bike, it had been built to my normal measurements. However, I had instructed them not to put bar tape on until I had come in and set up the brake levers/hoods to the exact position I wanted as they are hard to adjust afterwards. The guys were fine with this, but then were also a bit shocked that when I then spent the best part of an hour micro-adjusting each one until I was happy. And that is me all over, once my bike is set up, I leave it alone and hardly ever adjust anything, but it has to be right in the first place.

So when the guys at Pedal Heaven were keen to get me and my new TT bike in for a setup, I was a bit wary. The only thing swaying it was that as this was a new build which I hadn’t ridden before. I wouldn’t be used to it and could quite easily go with their advice and see what they came up with.

When I arrived last week for my session with James, he led me into the dedicated bikefit room at the rear of the store. This spacious area is away from the shop floor and is used solely for the bikefit. My bike was set up on a stand (they had been building it up for me, ready for the session) and we sat down to go through the process, which it turns out, would involve lots of measuring, stretching, riding the bike, adjusting positions, more riding and so on, and would take approx 3 hours…

Then my first surprise. The first thing James did was to remove the bike from the room and take away the stand. In its place he brought in a soft bench for me to sit on and offered me a cuppa! What was I ever worried about..? Read More >