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Last Friday a week ago, I spent a couple of hours with The Cycle Surgeon – Matt Lodder who, interestingly enough was quoted in Bicycling Magazine recently. I did not know this until after my session.  I just knew Matt was getting started with his own business after working at The Spin Cycle since 1996.  After receiving my bike last year, I have spent almost as much as the session was going to cost trying to fit myself with various stems and handlebars.  I figure having the fit done professionally will be a cost saver in the end.  Matt is a trained Serotta fit specialist and says he includes some of his own tricks as part of the fitting. 

If you haven’t done a fitting, here is quick run down of the process.  You act as if you going on a ride and set your bike up on a trainer.  There is an interview process where Matt tries to determine your ride habits and style, and any problems with your existing set up.  From there, measurements are taken of the existing bike set up as well as some body measurements that include hip flexion.  Then it’s onto the trainer for some evaluation of pedal stroke, arm placement and general riding position.  The angle of the knee is measured at the bottom of the pedal stroke and seat height adjusted to try and get you to around 25 to 30 degrees.  Then the set back of the seat is checked using a plumb line from the front of the knee and checking where it drops in relation to the pedal axle.  The goal is to get the line drop directly down the center of the pedal axle.  For me this meant setting my seat almost as forward as it would go.  Matt made a couple of adjustments on my cleats to try and get them placed under the balls of my feet with a little toe in that I find less taxing on my knees.  From there the rest of the session is spent checking reach and arm placement as well as handlebar width.  My current bars were the right width at 42cm.  For handlebar reach and height, Matt had this really cool Salsa contraption that would let him move the bars forward and back as well as up and down.  It ended up that my stem I had settled upon, a 90mm with +17 degrees, was really close to what I needed. But Matt has ordered a 100mm/+17 degrees to get me a little more comfortable on the reach side of things.  Matt recorded the new measurements and said he forward them in an e-mail for me to keep. 

I almost went on a ride as soon as we were done, but black clouds nixed that idea.  So the next day Debby and I took off for a 35 mile ride.  It was when I was getting the bike out for the ride that I noticed the stem clamp and headset tension screws were still loose from when they were reinstalled after the Salsa Size-o-Matic was removed.  Tighten those up, check the air, grab some water and Little Debbie oatmeal cakes and we were off.  Based on the ride, I still have some left hand issues that will hopefully be alleviated with the new stem, but my legs seemed to get more leverage and overall a better ride now that I am concentrating on keeping my heel down at the bottom of the stroke thanks to Matt.  Hopefully the new stem will be in soon and I can start working toward my goal of being the 100k sweeper on our Tammy Lynn Center Ride at the end of June.