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Jul 30, 2010

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Ashleigh H.

Great post! Now I know what a real bike fitting entails. Of course, finding a shop that good in cental IL would be the hardest part! Congrats on the new bike!

Slowdad

Bike looks good! Looking forward to seeing you out on it.

I've never gotten fit up on my bike. I think it'd probably be a good idea.

TriWithMS

I'm sure I missed a bunch of the other steps he took, I'll have to call him up sometime and ask him to explain his steps so I can be more complete and people really get a good sense of how detailed they are.

That's too bad that there aren't any places in IL for you to get this done Ashleigh, maybe you should fly up to Toronto! ;D

Slowdad - You'll see me on it soon. I'm not sure how close I'll be following your wheel if we go out for ride since it does feel unsafe not having the brakes handy. It does 'feel' fast when I took it up and down the street a couple times, but that could just be all the extra adrenaline coursing through my veins. Hmmm, how is this going to work? How can I still go riding with you without hiding into your slipstream the whole time?

Thanks for the comments.

Cheers,

Rob.

Tom

Great post! Aside from squeezing out more power and keeping you comfortable for long periods, a proper fit also significantly reduces the chances of injury so it's definitely worth it. Unlike other sports, the mechanical motions on a bike are extremely repetitive, and if anything is even slightly out of kilter that repeated stress will eventually add up to cause trouble.


As for group rides, you will want to leave extra room on a TT bike like this. Aside from the brakes not being immediately available, steering is a *lot* less forgiving so you need to be careful as every tiny movement in your arms will effect your trajectory. These bikes are designed for racing in events where drafting isn't permitted, so they make compromises to control in order to eek out every bit of aerodynamic advantage that they can get (cockpit layout, shorter wheel base, more forward weight distribution, etc.).

The nice thing is that the differences can be dramatic, and you'll likely see a significant improvement in speed. As such, in many cases you'll be able to push your way to the front of the pack where those disadvantages become moot.

With that said, when riding in a draft you can always switch to the pursuit bars. That will give you most of the control back, and you'll have the brakes available without moving your hands around. You naturally won't be as aerodynamic, but when you're in a draft that's not a huge liability (you're protected from the wind, so it's much less significant).

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