A while back I mentioned how several of my friends had a great experience getting a bike fit at Lotus1 Multisport (or is it Mark Anthony MultiSport?), but I hadn’t been. Well, I fixed that, and Mark was as awesome as I was told.
In my case, the fit I did was different in that I wanted to figure out what size time trial (TT) bike to buy. My specifications put in me in a space where both of the bikes I was looking at could have put me on two different sizes. Depending on which metric I was looking at, and I didn’t want to make an expensive mistake. So I contacted Mark and did a “prescriptive bike fit”
What that means in practice is that Mark used this contraption, of if you want to get technical a “RETÜL MÜVE”, to figure out all the critical dimensions (e.g. saddle height, crank length, bar placement, etc) and then overlay that on the TT bike options to determine which was closest to optimal.
When I got the bike, a Trek Speed Concept, I had these numbers and set it up as best I could, but then went back for Mark to check my work; which was a good thing because I made a couple mistakes :).
The most surprising thing that came out of this was how good it feels to ride the TT bike, and how natural it is to be in the bars. Having setup, poorly, my Aeroad with some aerobars before, I expected a better experience, but I wasn’t expecting it to be SO MUCH better. Where being in the bars on the Aeroad was a chore, and the saddle put pressure on things that aren’t meant to be load bearing, it just feels right on the Speed Concept. Some of that is probably having the right tool for the job, but another, big, part of it is having selected the right size bike and getting it setup to be comfortable, and fast.
I’ve had a bike fit before, so I know the value of a good bike fit. There are bad ones, and mediocre ones, and unfortunately, knowing if a fitter is good/mediocre/bad can be hard to find out ahead of time. So it’s important to ask around, look at their credentials, and what methodology they use. Or, if you live in the Chicago, Northshore, Northern Suburbs, area take my word for it and give Mark a call.
