I have been fitted for dress suits numerous times, but for a bike? Who knew that these things existed? I guess since I always had just rather generic bikes, it was mostly pick the bike frame that fit you, just adjust the seat height yourself, and you were off biking. Well, I soon found out, a full biking fitting is not quite that simple and should be required for a ride of this magnitude.
I was as fitted by Mr. Jerry Keen at Champaign Cycle and the entire process took about 3hrs.It was quite an involved process which included the following:
- Shoes marked for placement of cleats
- Cleats placed in shoes
- Measurements of saddle width by sitting on a pressure sensitive gel pad
- Measurement of inseam
- Seat height adjustments
- Got on the trainer/bike and started peddling changing gears as he watched my peddling and stroke
- Stopped peddling measured the angle of my knee and increased the seat height to get the angle around 30 degrees
- Peddled some more and the measured the position of my knees over the peddle using a plumb bob was 15mm, pushed the seat forward to get the knees just about a few mm behind peddle
- Back on bike peddled more to check fits
- off of bike, Mr. Keen took off the peddles and added the R.A.D.s (rotational adjustment device) (shown on the pedals in the image above)
- Positioned right foot in the R.A.D and strapped in and hopped over and positioned the left foot and strapped in
- Started peddling again while he looked at the R.A.D.s , peddled faster and then stopped and he make adjustments to my right cleat moving it forward
- Strapped in again and started peddling, finally everything looked correct except that my handle bars which where 44-in and should be 42-in wide due to my shoulder measurements
- Moved the bike to one of the mechanic stations and 1hr later new bar was installed and re-taped and I was out the door with the two wheeled vehicle that I will be riding approximately 75 miles a day for 71 days