I've been cycling for a bit over a full year now. In that time, I have pedaled about 5000 miles between two bikes. Other than one knee problem, I have had no issues to speak of in that time. My speeds have been constantly improving, and I have joined the century rider club with a couple of century rides under my belt. It would seem that everything was going smoothly between me and my bike. I mean, I was fitted to it when I bought it, so everything was good....right? That's what I thought, until I made the choice to go to clipless pedals that is. When I was originally fitted, it was a basic fit, based on the platform pedals. Since my feet can be in any number of positions on those pedals, the fit was more of a best guess than science. Don't get me wrong, Jay did a great job with the original fit at Paul's Cycling and Fitness, but I didn't give him much to work with admittedly.
When I went to clipless the problems started, but I didn't realize it at first. I rode about a half dozen times with no problems. I didn't even fall (I'm amazed)! But what was happening was my feet were locked into a position on the pedals that was significantly different from what I was used to with the platform pedals. I could no longer adjust for comfort, but I wasn't seeing any problems so I just rode on happily. It didn't last long though. I set out on a light recovery ride after two days of 50+ mile fast rides. This was going to be a slow and easy 50 mile ride, but at mile 13 things started to go south. My left knee started to hurt along the top of my kneecap every time I pushed the pedal down. I figured that this was just due to the extensive riding that I had done over the weekend. I pressed on. By the 30 mile mark I was in pretty bad pain. I was starting to have trouble putting the pressure on the cleat needed to clip in. I was in trouble. I was thinking of alternatives on how I could get home because frankly, I was doubting I could make it.
Stubbornness runs deep within me though.....I pressed on, making use of the clipless pedals and pedaling with primarily my right foot. There are advantages to being trapped on your bike I suppose. I picked a direct route home that did not include many hills because those were quite painful to climb. I made it home and started to nurse the knee. It hurt for a couple of days, but not too terrible. However, it hurt way more than it should have from a recovery ride. I wrote it off as being tired.
Fast forward a week. I was off work again and feeling good. My intention was to try for another century, or at least do 70-80 miles. I set off on a good pace and had no issues until I hit mile number 23...and then the knee started to hurt again. By the time I got to my favorite spot to take a break at 35 miles, I was having enough pain that I knew it was time to turn around. I did a quick search on my phone to confirm that pain on the anterior side of my knee was due to the saddle being too low. It was, so I broke out my tool set and raised the saddle about a half inch or so. I climbed back on and started to limp home once again. Boy, this is just not fun! I noticed that the pain didn't get any worse, and seemed that it was easier to pedal. I paid attention to the angle of my legs as they were on the down stroke. It seemed that there was still a bit too much angle in them, so I decided to raise the saddle a bit more when I got home.
I had now completed two 50 mile rides that ended with knee pain. This was just not good at all. It was compounded by standing from a seated position, and climbing out of a car. Something had to be done. I knew that it was a product of the setup of the bike, but I could not believe that things were this bad out of whack on a bike that had been fitted to me, and the only change was pedals. I was starting to get desperate, knowing that the 2012 Tour to Tanglewood was coming up soon and I was wanting to ride a total of 165 miles for two days. At this rate, I would be hard pressed to ride 30 each day.
I put a call in to Dale at Paul's and explained my issues. We decided that I would benefit from a full Body Geometry 3D bike fit. I couldn't argue with him, so I set up the appointment. I was expecting something similar to what I had before, but boy was I wrong!!! The first nearly half of the session was spent off of the bike. I was pulled, pushed, and split open....not to mention accidentally rolled off of a table onto the floor (that was quite funny).
Dale checked everything from my hips to the soles of my feet. What we determined was I appeared to be symmetrical. Well duh...aren't humans supposed to be symmetrical creatures? My feet even rested at the same angle. Things were going great so far! But then Dale had me lay down on the table and he pulled my feet towards him. He found that I was no longer symmetrical. My right foot was closer to him than my left. How could that be??? Well, there was another test to determine where the difference was. Come to find out, my left tibia is a centimeter shorter than my right. As Dale put it, that is easy to correct for. If it was my fibula then I was just screwed. I guess things were still going well at that point.
Some of the measurements were more funny than others. Here you see Dale measuring me for my saddle. What I'm doing is sitting on a patch of memory foam that records where my sit bones reside, and gives an accurate measurement of how far apart they are. Come to find out, I have narrow, non-child bearing hips. Thank goodness for that!!! It turns out that my saddle is the correct size for my butt, but Dale mentioned that he thought I would benefit from a slightly different design and we talked about that briefly.
The fit was not all about measurements, there was a good bit of testing of my flexibility and range of motion. In some areas I was very flexible, and performed better than expected. In others, I was about as flexible as a concrete slab. Here you see the test for my quads. My lower leg should hang perpendicular to the ground in this test. Needless to say, I missed that by a long shot....on both sides. What this shows is that my quads are very tight, and need to be stretched and loosened. Tests also showed that my hip flexers, and IT bands were also much tighter than they should be. All of this was putting undue stress on various joints in my body....namely my knee! That same knee that is on the shorter leg. I was starting to understand the problems I was having. My left leg was having to reach further than my right one to do the same thing on the bike. With the tight muscles, things were pulling much harder than on my right side. Hmmm, I felt like I had my answer already, and I hadn't even got on the bike yet. Speaking of the bike.....when does the fit come in?
It was finally time to get on the bike. That turned out to be more difficult than I imaged. The bike was elevated while on the trainer, I could not lean it to me, and trying to balance on the Speedplay cleats was a challenge in itself....but I got on. With no changes at all to the bike, it was time to get baseline measurements and to see how I moved on the bike. One of the first measurements that was taken was the angle of my leg when the pedal was at the 6 o'clock position. Remember, I had raised my saddle by feel when my knee started to give me problems. The height that I left it at gave me a 29* angle, which Dale said was close to perfect! Well isn't that just wonderful. I succeeded in setting the bike up for my body by feel...so why was I here? Well, there are plenty of other measurements that got made, and showed how badly the bike was out of whack.
It turned out that my saddle was close to the right height, but was too far to the rear, by about 3.5 centimeters. That put my foot too far forward of my knee on the down pedal. Another reason for the increased stress on that left knee. Now I'm really starting to wonder why my knee didn't just explode climbing hills. Other measurements were made to determine the angle of my body while riding on the hoods and in the drops. These measurements were close to being ok, but Dale was not happy with close. He made notes on his papers and started to formulate changes that needed to be made.
It was time for a break so that he could make some changes to the shoes, and get some static measurements to the bike as it sat, and start to adjust things the way that thought it should be. After about an hour, it was back at it again. The new Romin Evo saddle had been moved forward and Dale thought that he had things pretty close to right, so I mounted my bike again, and started to pedal to work myself into a riding position. My leg angle was now at an even 30* and the knee over pedal angle was pretty close. If you will notice the plum line just below my foot in the following picture, that is how that measurement was determined.
Things were coming together now, but he still needed to move the handlebars back, closer to me, to relieve some of the stress on my arms and shoulders. This would be accomplished with a new stem. Dale even noticed that my bar tape was wearing out. I had started to notice the hole developing on the right side just behind the hood. We selected some Bar Phat Tape which has a nice gel insert to help the pressure on my hands. Black was selected to match the new saddle. As it turned out, the new stem which was going to be added was also black. Nice! Nothing like a total makeover of a bike without planning for it! The fit was pretty much finished and he sent it back to the shop to get the changes made to it and ready for pickup.
So what about that leg length difference you ask? Well, I have now been fitted with platform shoes. The left shoe now has a red spacer to make up for the difference in length. I walk funny (funnier than with just the cleats on) now, but it does make pedaling feel better. I also got BG footbeds as insoles in both shoes which provides more support to all the bones in my feet. It feels strange, but I can tell the load is now more evenly distributed across the whole foot. Now when I pedal, my joints don't notice that one leg is longer than the other, and everything is symmetrical again.
After a couple of hours, the Tarmac was ready to be picked up from the shop, and I have to say, it looks quite nice with the new saddle, stem, and bar tape. Here are some close up pictures of the new stuff.
So, how did all of this work when it came time to put in into practice? Well, I can say that it seems to have made a difference. I finally made it out to test the changes and to see how my knee liked it. Starting out, I still had a little pain under the kneecap, but I had been stretching since the fit trying to work the muscles loose. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I set out for what was planned for a 50 mile route (since that seems to be the furthest I can go these days). It took me some getting used to since a lot of the bike's geometry had changed. I had a hard time getting started as I tried to find the pedal...which was quite a bit further back than I was used to. The bars were also closer which made steering different than I was used to, but all in all, things seemed to be more comfortable than before. That is with the exception of the saddle. I remember breaking in my Toupe saddle and how uncomfortable it was initially so the discomfort was not a concern...it would pass. However, I think that it could stand to be angled down a bit more to relieve pressure on certain delicate parts. Dale said that there would be adjustments to be made, and I have a follow up appointment with him in about a week.
The ride went well, not spectacular, but well. There was no pain, but I was working on increasing my cadence which was also recommended from the fit. I moved it up to the mid 70's which for me is really moving my feet! But I was getting used to it, didn't like it, but was getting used to it. When I got to my planned turn around spot, I made the decision to keep going for a bit more to see how I felt. I kept putting off turning around until it was just as easy to keep going and make a loop out of it. When it was all said and done, I had ridden just shy of 70 miles with very little pain. In fact, there was no more pain than when I started the ride. This was actually a pretty long ride since I have not been riding much over the last month. The distance was needed to get prepared for the Tour routes in less than a month. Training needs to step up, and thanks to Dale I have more to train on than just adding distance.
One of the things that Dale stressed to me was my after ride recovery time. For the first time, I left the bike dirty outside and went in to start the process. First there was stretching. This is the best time to stretch because the muscles are nice and warm and supple from being worked. This took about 15 minutes. After that was an ice pack on my left knee to relieve any swelling and inflammation. This took about an hour, but was better than the alternative which was an ice bath. While I may still sit in a tub of ice one day, today just wasn't going to be the day. A simple ice pack on my knee provided enough chill to turn the knee red after the hour. With all that done, I headed out to get the bike cleaned, lubed, and put away. Nothing like a full day based around riding!
I have to say, the 3D fit is a very involved process and it is very time intensive. However, Dale made it a lot of fun. Toni and I had a great time laughing along with him....usually at my expense. It made the day go by quickly. What I got out of the day was much more than a bike fit. I got valuable training information, insight into why my body was giving me problems, and maybe more importantly, what I can do to reduce my pain, as well as enjoy longer, faster, and more efficient riding. I have a lot of work to do, and a lot of training that needs to be done before I see the full benefit from the fit, but I think that it was a resounding success. I'm looking forward to getting a few more things dialed in on the bike which will complete the balance and blueprinting process....mating rider to bike.
