IS YOUR BIKE FIT POINTLESS? THE ONE EXCEPTION YOU NEED TO KNOW | RDMN CLIPS

1.What Makes a Great Bike Fitter

My advice to anybody listening who wants a bike fit or is who has some kind of suspicion that they're in need of a position on their bike that they don't currently have you need to seek out somebody who does a thorough physical evaluation and if we go back historically there were no there was no physical examination other than measuring segment links prior to bike fitting now you need you need an assessment of your foot mechanics your knee alignment your flexibility your hip motion your spinal motion your cervical motion you you so the thorough physical exam allows them to know what your limits might be on the bike as far as reach is concerned handlebar drop um saddle position all those things so it is it is the physical exam and how to interpret that exam's findings it's going to create the great fitter from the average fitter who's just reading numbers on a screen yeah I'm glad to hear you saying that because I have a foot in both camps so to speak my background is very much in Academia but my riding education or as the French say la metier apprenticeship came through France which is anything both scientific at least at the time I was there so I did a little bit of a skepticism I noticed a local bike fitter here and he's a retail fitter and I've heard so many amazing things about retail but he's not a cyclist he's a tennis player and I was like this doesn't make sense to me and everybody was saying why would you not go to the local guy for a bike fit and it never made sense to me I always went back to my bike fitter when I was out in France because I I maybe stared too much into the traditional bike fit there yeah well I I think it's a marriage of both right um I mean my undergraduate degree is in anatomy a master's degree in sports medicine um and it none of those prepared me neither of those prepared me uh fully to be a biomechanist I mean it's it's the body in motion so you have to um there's a lot of interpretation of the physical exam not to mention the the motion capture numbers you see on a screen there's this interpretation that blends them together and then writer feedback you know the old adage the customer is always right they are right they um and bike fit is not a one and done it is it is a an ongoing process um body's age um Juniors need need a bike assessment bike fit assessment every six months uh Masters wow in the peak of my work career my bike position went up my torso position went up I had you know so the the Ruby bicycle that from specialized right the the first endurance bike out there was partly if not mostly my idea um and I said I want more head tube height I want more I want a little suspension in the rear all and my position kind of went up because I was getting older and I was working a lot not stretching not lifting enough after retirement and I started getting fit again really concentrating my position today is the same as it was when I was 35. if I said you have this big bell-shaped curve and so bike fit is not a one and done it is not um so how often do you think uh Ryder over the age of 30 should be getting bike fit non-professional oh I think a once a year look is like and you should go back if you if you have faith in the guy that you the guy gal you know generic guy um that who fits you um they should be keeping really good records of what your flexibility was what how things feet flatten as we age so your need for more arch support more forefoot varus canting is probably going to go up as you age so once a year to have somebody look at you who has known you through this process is a superb idea absolutely if you enjoyed this little clip from the podcast you can check out full episodes of the podcast on any podcast platform Apple Spotify or whoever you get your podcasts also you can click up here for another video that I know you're going to love and don't forget to subscribe to the channel see you next day