Just About Right

Ok I have put this off for a long time but my back pain finally forced me into taking action. Sunday morning I spent three hours getting sharpie marked, measured and critiqued on my riding posture, shoe alignment, pedal stroke, bar angle, lever placement and saddle position.








There was definitely a whole lot more than I had imagined to do this. Sharpie marks on my elbows, hands, ankle, bottom of feet, knees and any other pivot he could find. Needless to say I was highly impressed how well he did his job. First off, on every component that needs fitted to the rider, I only had one really off bad, my right cleat. Everywhere else I was under 5mm of being perfectly adjusted per the Wobble Naught system. I was also surprised that I only need to purchase just one item to have the BMC TE01 dialed in TO ME! All I need is a flat handlebar, no risers here if I want this bike to fit me correctly. I'm looking forward to getting some rides in on this now to see how it effects my riding and hopefully helps it (cuz I need it). I also have to get these measurements transferred over to the BMC CX and Full Suspension bike. Later I will get a road bike fit but first I need to get that new frame.

The most important thing I learned from this fit was the style (or lack of I should say) of my pedal stroke. My body is all beat up from my days of moto-X. My bout with a ruptured Achilles tendon never healed correctly and my calf muscle shows it. I have compensated in my pedal stroke for many years to balance my riding out....... (WRONG). I was advised how a proper pedal stroke makes power and shown the proper technique as well. One word , WOW, almost everyone pedals wrong but it seems we get it honest though. I had my right cleat re-adjusted and it feels REALLY weird too. I would almost have to look down to get clipped in after the cleat adjustments. Now it was close on my left shoe but the right one was waaaaaaaaaaay off. He gave me the option also to stay with my 110mm stem or going to a 120mm stem. The 120 put me on the line of my farthest point I'm allowed to be stretched out. I think I will stick with the 110 for now.

I was instructed that when you get into the F muscle (hip flexors) you are dipping into the negative side of your power on your pedal stroke. This is what you do not want to do. He advised me to use my hamstring to pull up and to get back to the top. Just trying this on the trainer with me was very hard to accomplish. Once I hit this technique the trainer responded with a sudden surge of higher rear wheel rpm without any extra effort, I liked that! Likewise I could tell when I was loosing form from the drop in rpm's. I'm hoping that I can work on this while riding the trainer because this will be very difficult during actual riding. IT'S HARDER THAN IT SEEMS! I love learning new stuff especially when it comes to cycling!

LAter G.............................