Cycling

[Barracuda]

Ahhh, Grant Petersen, if you want to start a flame war on a cycling board, second to “Shimano or Campagnolo” is probably dropping his name. He makes a few good points, but him and his “followers” sometimes take it a bit too far. Worth a read, but take his common sense with a grain or two of salt.

In other news, spent probably the best $250 on my cycling hobby I have in good long while and actually went and had a top of the line computerized motion capture fitting done today. A lot of minor tweaks to the bike, some of which I really wish I’d had done BEFORE I had the custom bike fitted. Not sure if Dave Kirk would have altered the dimensions of the bike all that much, but now I have to wonder. In any case, the bike will still work great for me, and it’s not like there’s 1cm of seat post sticking out or anything drastic like that. After tweaking my knee on my trip last month it’s been a slow recovery, hampered partially due to what I now know was a rather ill fit on the bike. Hopefully now my knee will be happy and I can get back to riding (you know, now that it’s 95-110 degrees for the next two months).

// NOT saying that all cyclists need to drop that sort of coin on a fitting, but finding a trusted fitter in your area that’ll do a basic fit for $50-$80 is probably worth it.

[fluffybunny]

Kind of figured Petersen was controversial from what little I researched. Went ahead and ordered the book, we’ll see I guess.

Still trying to understand the fundamentals of bike fit as I go, also need to get in better physical condition. Maybe after those loosely defined goals I’ll seek out someone. Just tried moving my saddle back 3/4″ to see what happens over a few rides.

Sucks about the knee, don’t push it and here’s to a full recovery.

So motion capture,… did they have you wear one of those funny ping-pong ball suits?

Yeah the heat is a killer. One of my habit-trail rides is 20 miles and I always stop at 11 miles for 5 or 10 minutes. This last time I felt like I was going to pass out just standing there. It was only 11:00 am but I guess I need to start earlier.

[Barracuda]

No ping-pong suits, but what I guess was a set of either LED or other sort of point capturing electronic dot was wired up on each side from hand to shoulder, down the torso, leg and two points on the foot. The knee feels much better already, and the lack of any sort of discomfort during the last capture was a huge relief. Other parts of my body are screaming this morning, but that could also be from the yard work of lugging rocks and bags of mulch around the yard that I did the last two days. Only a few real rides over the next few weeks will really tell what problems this fit has resolved. I do know I have to work on my flexibility which is holding me back as well.

One thing that can help is have someone take a side profile shot of you on the bike, either use a trainer if you can get your hands on one (remember to level the front wheel with the rear) or just leaning against a wall will usually help. A few photos with the cranks both horizontal and at maximum extension. A few minutes in Paint with the line tool and you can probably see where your knees are in relation to the spindle (google on where the “should” be to compare). That’s a good starting point. I was also too stretched out in front, which was causing a lot of neck and shoulder stiffness.

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