Folks, I'm in Manchester. And right behind me is the Institute of Performance and Health. I'm here today to meet Phil Burt, arguably the best bike fitter in the world. He's worked with some of the most iconic figures in our sport. Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Victoria Pendleton, Chris Hoy. They've all trusted Phil to get the perfect bike fit. I have a super busy and ambitious calendar this season. Hoping to get back to race the Tour of Ireland, my Great Orme race over in Kenya. I've just got my new Parlee bikes, road bike and gravel bike. So, I want to make sure they're fitting and what a better place to go than Phil Burt to go and check it out. So, I want to bring you with me and show you exactly what a day looks like getting fit by Phil Burt. If you had a goal on a bike fit, what would it what would it be? Uh more comfortable. More comfortable? Like Yeah, I don't know. Uh obviously everyone wants to go faster on the bike. But, if speed comes at the cost of comfort, I think that'll be short-term gain for long-term pain. So, yeah, I'd I'd like to go faster. I'd like for aero. But, I I've never had any issues on the bike. I I've had some niggley stuff, you know, hands occasionally will go numb or you know, I do get a small bit if I'm racing real hard or I used to get it on multi-day races. I'll get a small bit of pain lower back, like erector spinae, both sides in the lower back. Like I remember going for massages in races and being like to them to the physio like Yeah. Forget the legs. Just get my lower back cuz that's seized. So, if I'm really on it for the day, Mhm. lower back. Uh yeah. More more comfortable Like I've I've no real standard major issues, do you? Like you say, you we'll probably establish you're like a macro absorber because you you seem to be able to ride to rise different bikes and different kit without having any massive issues. Um so, if I ask you you said more comfortable and I said, "Well, what is uncomfortable?" Is it anything specific that apart from the lower back pain and the slight numb hands? Uh not really, no. No. No. Okay, that's fine. Um everyone always asks us So, would you what we're really doing today is getting you the optimal position, aren't we? Your your your your best position. You don't want to be fighting anything on the bike, do you? No. No. Yeah, exactly. That's it. So, the things sometimes that you work around and and some people better off of us, I find, and so you don't know they're a problem because you're making work. But, what we can do today is take you through the process and go, "Right, okay. So, this is the optimal position, what you the the one that you don't you works with you." And some people are more aware of that than others. And it's a real advantage not being aware of it cuz small things don't cause big problems. But, at the same time sometimes, you know, for example, cycling far too low and far back, we're obviously losing the opportunity of using the best part of your quads and your and your hips, you know. So, yeah. And I know you've got some pretty big, you know, goals that you want to achieve on a bike. So, yeah, if we can make you a bit faster. Yeah, I just don't know what I don't know. Like maybe my position is uncomfortable. And it's just a what I That's all I know. So, I've never What you taught yourself is all right, yeah. So, as long as you're all right with me being honest with you about that. But, as I always say, our policy is we try and help you spend money, time, and effort where it's going to make a difference. So, some what we put when we put you on the bike, you're adaptable and the bike's adjustable. I always say that, yeah. Human beings are hard to change. But, if I do think, "Oh, look, you're really tight here. If you make that better, that will make you better on the bike." You'd buy into it, wouldn't you? You know? At the same time, I don't want you to spend loads of time off the bike trying to achieve something that's never going to happen. If we see you on the bike. The the thing is changing kit is very simple.
The bike is adjustable straight away. Whereas you're harder to change. We'll we'll look at those things. We'll look at how you're going to do. First we're going to do is have a look at you off the bike with my physio head on and then we'll put you on the bike. And then what we do then is take have a look at that how you're working with it, you know. Um the last thing to say is any major medical issues I need to I don't think you mentioned your fracture history. Have you crashed at all? Yeah. Yeah. Any major breaks and bones that I want to Yeah, which ones have you done? List them out. Collarbone. Yeah. Which one? Four or five times, twice each side. Good man. Glenoid fossa, left side. Left glenoid fossa, all right. Uh right scapula, left scapula. And I think that's name Geraint Thomas? I haven't got there. Well, I've I've had like a regular If you're not crashing, you're not riding fast enough, are you? That's To be fair, they were all in a like a narrow window to kind of when I was full-time years of really getting strong, but not getting very good at riding handling the bike. As Swift used to say, as he was [clears throat] coming down towards the floor, he knew what was going to happen. He's like, "Ah, that one gone again." It's like he he's done his He's done his clavicles as much as you. Are they all been fixed or just left? Uh They clavicle Glenoid fossa was fixed on the left side and collarbone was fixed on the right side. On the right side, yeah. Fixed the right side. Okay. Um do you have any issues as well? You haven't even mentioned shoulder pain, have you? No, fine. I have some gym issues with it. Like external rotation for I can't squat. I can't get the external rotation to fully squat. And I don't Like when I was doing jujitsu, constantly I was just getting the like square shoulders. I think naturally those breaks plus the cycling posture is kind of rounding me a little bit back there. Uh not ideal for everyday life. Doesn't really affect me too much on the bike. No. You don't need external rotation on the bike. Thank god. But, yeah, it will affect you in the gym. But, I tell you what, you're doing well to do gym stuff with all that going on. Well done, you. Especially the glenoid fossa, that's the one that That was a bad one. Yeah. To get through to there, that's a lot of force, you know. I've got the [clears throat] fishing fishing line fixing that up inside. So, not great. You've paid the You've paid the price. Okay. So, let's have a look at you now, all right? And then I just want to get an idea about you. Phil, it's been a hell of a day. Talk me through. I went road bike, my Parlee R A, and my gravel bike, my Parlee Z 0. Both of them just getting set up. I haven't really ridden either too much. My road bike, I felt comfortable enough that there wouldn't be a lot of changes there cuz I was bringing it across from an existing position. Well, talk me through what did we actually do today cuz there was a lot of measurements going on, a lot of prodding and tweaking and poking. Well, not so much with you cuz you you had a really good position. And annoyingly, we put you on the road bike and hey presto, you know, not that we fit the numbers, but there's a whole lot of green up there on the resource screen. And you you had a really good position. And it worked really well. And you've ridden for a long time. So, it was more But, sometimes that's important It's important knowing what's right as well as what's wrong and just going, "Well, actually, that's okay." The one thing we looked at is is the change we made after the first time we talked was I think 165 cranks were working for you really well. Yeah. So, what we didn't see is like any of the hip rocket that I think you would definitely would have had with 172 and 1/2 that you used to ride cuz that would just ride. So, it's more combination that that that 165 change had worked. And the other thing is because that Tadej Pogačar told the world he's riding 165, but there's a lot of people riding around if they just changed it, but didn't adapt a saddle height too low.
What you've got is a really good saddle height that's taking advantage of that of that smaller crank that means you can get higher and above it. I think the one thing we talked about is you were saying, "Look, hey. I've got some Speedplay pedals. Should I try them?" What you can definitely see in your in in you make your position work really well. But, at the top of the pedal stroke, your knees just to flick out a little bit. And that's not dissimilar to a great Bradley Wiggins once and that's why he rode Speedplay when he won the Tour de France. Time catches up with us. You're really good off the bed, but maybe some hip tightness or something like that. But, I think Speedplay would allow you to find your optimal pedaling position, you know? It's almost like customized pedaling position, you know? Just let let your feet do what they want to cuz they That's what they do when we walk and run. They They let you put your foot where you want to. Cycling is a little bit more constrained, which is good for power transfer. But, we don't want it to constrain you. So, the only real change I can make to your excellent road position was I think the 165 crank move have been brilliant. Probably get rid of the lower back pain that you talked about before when you Yeah, a little tight on the erector spinae. Yeah, used to get really tight lower back, yeah. And I reckon 100% that was probably the crank length forcing you to sit slight Well, the pelvis can't really move forward cuz it wants to keep the hip open. And it gives all the work to the lower back. So, if people are out there that are suffering with lower back pain, crank length weirdly can make the biggest difference to that cuz it allows your hips to open up. The only thing I can suggest to you and I think it's why we don't really sell anything is that we don't have to sell anything. It's like, "Well, I think Speedplay, if you've got them, would be fantastic." I'd be interested to see how you feel when you get on. Since this video has been recorded, I've actually lost the weight. I've gone from 88 to 80 kg. I can't actually believe it because the crazy thing is I'm eating way more than ever before. Some days my jaw is actually getting sore. I'm eating so much. But, I feel amazing on the bike. My power numbers are not quite back to my best, but I'm trending there very fast. But, importantly for me, my big hesitation when I got back training was Yes, I had the time available to train, but I couldn't do it if it meant sacrificing energy to focus to come and have high level conversations on the podcast. And I have so much energy off the bike. Like I'm coming in the door fresh after three hour rides. It's wild. I've never experienced it before. And I want you guys to check this out. I chatted with Sam Offer and his co-founder David at Hex and they've hooked up an amazing discount code for the Roadman listeners. So, if you want to try Hex for yourself, it's honestly the biggest leap that I've seen in cycling ever. Forget aerodynamics. It's fueling properly. So, if you go over to Hex, H E X Y S dot live, and you use the code Roadman when you're checking out, you're going to get 25% off your Hex plan. Go just test it out. Trust me, it's a game changer. You think Speedplay are universally good pedals? Like, you know, podcasts are funny because you're trying to give specific advice to a general audience and it's difficult, but I I do see trends like you talk to an aerodynamicist. There are certain helmets that are typically the fastest. A helmet's very unique to everybody in the wind tunnel, but a lot of people find the POC aero helmet very fast for them. Is there any similar trends in bike fit? So, bike fitters love Speedplay, but you got to remember maybe we we're seeing people with we're getting a skewed view of the world cuz we see people who got problems, yeah? So, if someone comes in here on a Shimano, Look, whatever, you know, and they're having no problems with it and I don't see any issues that I can as a physio do no harm. I I've just got Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. We don't have to move off it, but Speedplay do offer more opportunities, you know, you can put your your you've got all the float in the world.
You can dial the float into where they do widest widest spindle spindles, you know, so basically the only pedal system that allows you to go all the way out to 65 mm and stance width is the one thing that I don't really understand. I think I think the new, you know, the craze around crank length that we've been talking about for a long time and been doing the manipulating, but it's really coming to the fore now and you see companies next year dropping crank length, Canyon, Giant, they're all announcing that they're dropping their crank lengths cuz we now know it's not relevant to power production and is a parameter that should be manipulated for performance, comfort, and everything. Stance width will be the next one if you ask me. Extra extra small bike has the same stance width as an extra extra large. In other words, those people put their feet in the same place in the bike. It makes no sense to me. Well, I'll keep you posted on how my move to Speedplay goes. So, then we're on to our second bike, the gravel bike. Tails. Yes. Uh in the background. Yes. Lovely bike. I have it rigged out with It's more of a mountain bikey geometry on this and honestly, where do I ride? I'm in Ireland. We're here in the UK at the moment. I feel like our gravel terrain, it's not like when you watch a YouTube video of Unbound and they've these meadows and prairies that are pan flat. We're kind of going up a mountain or down a mountain. So, I tried to get a gravel bike for that where I could ride on the trails, but then I could also go down a blue or a red mountain bike trail and have some comfort. So, that's why I've gone with this flared bars and SRAM's suspension fork on the front. But, that does give a few positional challenges. It's difficult to get close to a road bike position. Yeah. Yeah. So, when we put you on here, it's it's great having both the bikes in the same time in the same place cuz you have the you know, the the retail system on you, you know, we can we can tell the difference what the position. And you had a great what I would call fairly pro low low slung road position and and you got on this and said this feels really different. So, the first thing was different was that the saddle needed to be in a different position. I always start with the engine room and we got that right cuz those two things, even though the geometry of the bike so they they they stay the same if you ask me, right? So, saddle height, set back, and tilt, you know, get them right, you got the engine room right and then we start with the front end. The front end is you're right, it's a it's a mountain bike geometry. So, it's a mountain bike looking like a road bike. So, higher stack, shorter reach, and you just wanted to go longer. You could just tell it straight away. I would caveat that that you have molded your body to riding a really aggressive road bike. So, some people would like this and would would sit up all day long. You're not, you're going to lock your arms out, you're going to have numb hands, you're going to you're not going to like it. You're not you're less aero cuz it was forcing you to sit more upright. So, but you're on this, we've got some room to maneuver. The great thing about this, unlike a mountain bike with the gravel bike set up with the things, you got you still got the stem to play with. Um mountain bike positions over the last year, the wheelbases has gone longer, the stems have gone short. There's nowhere to go in terms of fit cuz they're designed for descending and fun and and they deliver that, but fit becomes really quite hard. At least we So, our our recommendation is we're going to go 20 mil longer, we're going to drop 20 mil off the front end and we know from looking at all your data that that and those numbers are going to come into the right place then. And you can absorb it.