On Friday I had my bike fit with Alexis Sheehy at Bicycle Sport Shop. We started with a basic fit and if we needed to do a 3D fit we would cross that bridge when we came to it. She started off by getting my bike background and the type of riding I'm doing.
After plopping my bike on the trainer and spinning along she broke out the plumb. There wasn't any glaring problems with my fit. She did lower my seat a little bit and moved my seat back a little as well. Nothing too drastic. Her biggest recommendation was different pedals as well as working on my flexibility. I should work on the flexibility in my hamstrings and hip flexor.
I've been riding basic SPD pedals. The SPD pedals don't have much of a platform for your foot and with the lack of a platform my foot was not being supported properly. The thinking is the smaller pedals are forcing me to use more of an effort to stabilize my foot and thus putting stress on my knees. She put on Shimano 105 pedals and had me try them. On the trainer they felt decent. She suggested I give them a try over the weekend.
Friday evening I did a short 10 miles to test my knee and the pedals. Both were great. My knee didn't hurt at all and the pedals felt great. I could definitely feel the power transfer difference. When I kicked through or pulled through on my stroke it felt like I had more response.My next test ride was Saturday morning. I did 40 miles in Cedar Park on Parmer and 620. My goal for this ride was not speed, but to keep my cadence at 95+. For the entire ride I didn't shift to my big ring. I did average 96 rpms for the 2:21:55 ride. The pedals were great, I just might keep them. I'll poke around and compare the 105's to others. It seems the top of the line Dura Ace pedals are about the same, just lighter, not sure if it warrants the extra bucks.
Now for the bad news, my knee didn't hurt outright, I think I stopped before it went over the threshold of a minor annoyance to pain. As I was riding down 620 I could feel it fatiguing and knew if I kept it up that it would start to hurt. It's kind of hard to explain, it didn't hurt, but I could feel it. It was the prepain feeling and if I would have pushed more power it would have started to hurt.
Jun 15, 2008 at 6:21 AM I keep thinking about getting a fit done...maybe I should just do it.
So did you switch to the SPD-SLs? The ones that look like LOOKs? Or are you still using the "normal" SPD pedals but with more platform?
Jun 15, 2008 at 11:43 PM The 105's are SPD-SLs, depending upon the "deal" they give me I'll probably keep them. On initial investigation I don't see much difference between them and Shimano's higher end pedals like the Ultegra & Dura Ace besides weight. I need to compare them to other brands though.
Even though Alexis didn't make any drastic changes to my fit, it was worth the piece of mind knowing that everything is in alignment. I know people that get a fit every year as their riding and body changes (getting fitter).
Jun 16, 2008 at 10:42 AM Hey Mike,
I read this article and it helped me out a lot with bike fit issues I was having.
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm
At 6'4", I'm a little outside the normal dimensions of a cyclist and this article helped me really understand why the tried and true methods for fitting a 5'8" cyclist to a bike was just not working out for me. Highly recommend it.