I have a confession to make. Lately I’ve found myself staring at this one triathlon bike. I know we all do it but it was different this time. It wasn’t online, or in a magazine or in a catalog. It was in my garage. I swear I don’t know how it got there. Okay let me revise that statement. I may have driven to Athens, GA, and bought it from a cycling coach named Brent, nice fellow, super helpful, really fit. The bike is a 2006 Specialized Transition, the last Transition with an aluminum frame.
This leads to one of those classic what-now moments. I felt kind of like that proverbial dog that caught the proverbial car. I got one, now what do I do with it. The answer after a bit of thought was get a bike fit of course: a triathlon bike fit.
An informal survey of Greenville, SC, triathletes on Facebook, produced multiple recommendations for Jim Cunningham at Greenville Cycling & Multi-Sport. So I called him and we set up a time to do a bike fit.
(Editor’s Note: Just to be clear, I was completely satisfied with the bike fit I received from Greenville Cycling & Multi-Sport. I may have exaggerated a few of the details of their fit process for comic effect. Hey, that’s just how we roll here at SBS.)
I arrived at Greenville Cycling & Multi-Sport and brought as instructed my bike, bike shorts, a sleeveless form-fitting top and my bike shoes. I’ve had couple of road bike fits in the past and thought this would be pretty much the same. It quickly became apparent that this fit would be more involved.
The first half hour or so were spent examining me. This included my stance, posture, walk and shoes. Next out came the massage table. I did push ups, planks, squats, single-leg squats, calf raises. Jim assessed my quad and hamstring flexibility, my hip ROM (range of motion). He looked at my shoulder mobility, okay my lack of shoulder mobility. My core strength was analyzed, and yes it needs work. Thanks for asking. It’s possible and indeed likely that at some point, I have had a more through examination of my person. If so I do not recall it. Words like neutral, adequate and compromised were written down. I got one excellent. I felt both a bit self conscious and proud of how far I’d come in my fitness journey.
Finally I was allowed to get on the bike. I was hoping that attention would shift from me to it. I was pretty sure the bike could stand the scrutiny better than I could. Greenville Cycling & Multi-Sport uses the Retül bike fitting system. This sentence from the Retül website gives good short description. “Retül uses a cycling-specific 3D motion capture system that reads a rider’s movements while he or she is pedaling on the bike, and records all three planes of movement.”
The bike was mounted in a trainer on a platform. I got on and after some adjustments. Jim and an associate stuck Velcro pads onto my bony prominences from my 5th metatarsal to the head of the ulna and everything in between. FYI my greater trochanters are hard to find because my legs are so muscular. LED markers were attached to the pads, and they had me pedal at 85 rpm or above while the Retül system captured data. Then Jim spun the platform around (He did warn me first.) and we did the other side.
This produced a sea of numbers: some green, some red and some black. I was told that everyone gets some red numbers. Now decisions had to be made. Changing stem length or seat height to address one number would in turn affect other numbers. It was quickly determined that we needed to spread the aerobars apart, go to a longer stem, adjust my cleats and add 20 mm pedal spacers. Then we went through the motion capture process again and compared the numbers. They were able to get almost all of my numbers into the green. I was shocked too.
My biggest problem appeared to be my knee tracking. Full disclosure: I am a large fat man. They could not get my knee tracking fully into the green but were able to get it more into the green. I was surprised at how much my comfort on the bike improved. I look forward to riding this tri bike on the trainer and getting it out on the road. Now if I can just figure how to get into and out of the aerobars without crashing.
I came out of the bike fitting process with a much better position on the bike, my seat and aerobars position clearly marked and a full report with an incredible amount of data. I learned a lot about the bike and about myself as a cyclist. A bike fit of this level is a bit expensive but I think I got a great value. Also if I decide get another triathlon bike at some future point I can contact Jim, and he can use the data he collected to tell me whether or not the new bike would be a good fit for me. Greenville Cycling & Multi-Sport also has a Retül Müve Dynamic Fit Bike, which Jim and his team can use to tell you which bikes would be a good fit for you before you even go bike shopping. How cool is that?
The Bottom Line: Jim Cunningham, Greenville Cycling & Multi-Sport and the Retül bike fitting system are all highly recommended.