April 27, 2009

Bike Fit session by Thomas Chapple

It has been over 15 years since I've had any sort of bike fit/position review. With the Death Ride looming ahead I need to take advantage of as much help as possible. So it was off to Thomas Chapple's place.

On Friday I had the bike fit session with Thomas. Over the course of 3 hours we measured, rode, measured again, adjusted, rode more, re-adjusted... on and on.
My flexibility was evaluated, knee pain investigated, goals discussed, exercises reviewed... on and on.

We found:

  • my flexibility is pretty good for an old guy, thank you yoga
  • my weight training routine is good
  • need to up the stability exercises - here comes one leg lunges, and one leg cycle-rows
  • cassette gearing not low enough for the proper cadence on long steep climbs - new cassette on the way
  • seat was too low - moved higher which improved the saddle/knee/foot position
  • raised handlebar to match saddle height movement
  • old style LOOK cleats locked me in too much - adjusted to best position during session
  • switched to LOOK Delta Red (9degree float) before first "new" ride on Sunday
So now I am on a transition ride routine for a week or so. Small movements up to the new fit position while emailing Thomas about how the changes feel. In another week we will evaluate the results and confirm a "final" position to train with.








1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tom should get a Retul! Looking at the way he does his bike fits, he is missing key data points that you can only see through motion capture.