Wright Triathlon Club Special Program

Wright Triathlon Club of Dayton (WTC) Dayton, Ohio

Wheelie-Fun Bike Fit Experience

At the May 12th Club meeting, we had Bob Duncan of Wheelie-fun multisport as our guest speaker on the subject of bike fit. He gave a great talk and at the end I was convinced he was either a fantastic snake oil salesman or he really knew what he was talking about. My wife Susan has gone in the last year from a beginning recreational rider to a beginning athlete, and with this the fit on her bike has become a slight issue, lower back and shoulder pain on longer rides. I just completed building a brand new bike and while I could match the fit somewhat to my old bike, I was using some new components and the fit while good was just not quite right. So I decided to give Bob a chance on fit since one of our club benefits is a discounted rate on fitting.

He offers 2 levels of Bike fit, a basic fit and a dynamic fit. I decided to have him do a basic fit on Susan and a dynamic fit on me. So with those choices made I called and made an appointment, you will need to make an appointment because 1. he is really busy and 2. this is not a 5 minute operation. A basic fit can take between 1 and 2 hours while a dynamic fit can take 3 to 4 hours to complete.

So with that we arrived at his shop at 2pm on a Thursday, Susan would go first followed by me. He put her bike in a trainer and had her get on, first thing he noticed and commented on was the saddle she had, he quickly changed her saddle to one better suited to her riding and size, this she said made a huge comfort change. After about 30 minutes of measurements and adjustments he had her take the bike out and ride it for a while to get some feedback from her on how things feel. While he was working on her, he had another employee take all the existing measurements from my bike so they could duplicate it on the special fit bike he has. Here lies my only complaint with everything that day, My bike was brand new less than 200 total miles on it. While the guy was making all the measurements his "device" put about a 2" long scratch on my top tube. When I pointed this out, he kid of shrugged his shoulders and said "Oh well", then walked away. I will add that later Bob attempted to match the paint and do what he could to fix it. I am not so much upset with the scratch as things happen, but the attitude of the employee when this happened. If it had been me I would have been horrified and tried right away to figure something out or at least point it out to Bob so it could be handled at some point, rather than just walking away and waiting for me to have to show it to Bob.

Anyway, after setting up his fit bike to match my bike measurements he setup the Computrainer and had me get on and spin to warm things up, after a while we calibrated the computer and we were ready to go. The first test was for me to pick a cadence I could easily manage and hold it there, while he adjusted things. I held a cadence of 90 and after 5 minutes he showed me my average power was about 156 Watts with a HR of 128. He made more adjustments to the bike and we did this again. After 4 repeats of this and many minor adjustments we had the test to 161 Watts and a HR of 126 so more power with less effort. I also felt much more comfortable on the bike than I had previously. He then took all the measurements from the fit bike and applied them to my bike.

After this he chatted with Susan to find out how her ride went and from her feedback made a few more minor changes to her bike, checked her cleats and adjusted them as well and sent her back out for one last ride. He was very happy with how she looked on the bike now and she said it was much more comfortable than previously.

So how does this translate to riding, well 3 days later Susan joined me for her first 50 mile bike ride, she did fine and said she had never felt as comfortable on the bike previously. This was a hilly course not a flat course. Since then she has ridden the Club base training and the Troy Strawberry fest 44 mile tour, she can now stay in aero position more than 90% of the time with no discomfort. For me, my average speed on my main training course went up 1mph for the distance and I found I was much more comfortable in my runs afterwards.

My thoughts are if you are fairly new or have a new bike I would recommend the basic fit, then after a year or so or if you have been riding for a while but feel something is not just quite right then I would recommend the dynamic fit. If the bike is more comfortable and fits correctly you will ride more, riding more means getting fitter, and this translates to faster and better race results.

Both Susan and I feel it was money well spent, yes both of us did make some equipment changes in order to get the correct fit and yes all the changes were very minor but very important ones. As club members we got a 10% discount on those parts and as club members we got the discounted rate on both fits. Any one interested can contact Bob at his shop for the exact rates and appointment times. We left there about 6:30pm for a total of 4 and a half hours. You need to bring your bike, your bike shoes, wear bike shorts. I also recommend bringing a helmet in case he wants you to go out for a ride and bring plenty of water if you are doing a dynamic fit as it can get really hot in the shop as you ride. All in all this is an excellent club benefit he is offering to members and I hope others will take advantage of it.

Mike Randall

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