Bike Whisperer - Fitting Service & Workshop

What a day.

It been a year since my last confes.. fitting, the old bike, the 57cm square fixed wheel Bob Jackson was discovered to be too big for me, i.e. the top tube is 2cm too long, and while a shorter stem says, an 80mm with brake hood can solve this, it doesn't inspired confident on the handling issue.

A while ago I've managed to pick up a new (old) road bike that's likely to fit me better at 55cm square thus allowing me to run a 100mm stem, also was time to get fitted properly has I have a couple of issue;

- saddle's too uncomfortable, probably due to sitbones being very wide.
- lump just under the kneecap, Osgood Schlatter disease that hasn't heal up properly since childhood.
- general tweak and the like.

We spend quite some time discussing the saddle issue which hindrance the number of miles I wanted to do, and also has tried quite a lots of saddles which doesn't help, he suggested trying the 155mm Specialized Jett which they don't sell anymore, the main point is that the saddle is pretty firm, and have a good amount of sideway flex to put less pressure on the sitbones.
This isn't a long term solution or an end to world hungers, but it's getting there, don't feel that bad, and hasn't put in some proper mileage to see how it feel, but least it's something.

As for the lump on my knees, he referred me to a physiotherapy he recommended to see about helping to deal with this, my pedal effectively isn't quite effective so to speak, my left side is perfectly smooth and straight, but the right side is about as smooth as mumble's cycling when he's tipsy.
He managed to solved this by putting a wedge in my right shoes which made my feet feel like it's at a 45 degrees but it made a huge difference in effectivity (as well as adjusting the cleat), I slowly worry less about the bike and are able to concentrate on the road ahead of me, it's a wonderful feeling that is.

It's odd listening to someone speaking in such confident about solution (such as the foot wedge) and end up being perfect, naturally that to be expected of someone with vast knowledge and experience in bike fitting, but netherless an odd feeling.

The other thing I realise while getting fitted at the Bike Whisperer is more akin to going to the pub with a mate who's busy fiddling with a broken 70's radio trying to get it to work and end up making it pick up digital radio instead, it's quite nice having a chat while he's fiddling with the bike, rather than some kind of labs with all the expensive equipment that bloke love to fiddle with all their life.

It's vital that you should give him as much information as you can possibly give, the more information you give him, the better the idea he have about your problem and able to solve it.
It's not that he can't solve problem without your input, he can, but it's much easier and quicker by having all the information.

Overall the bike suddenly feel like it was custom-build for me, going to take a while to get used to the new position but it feel pretty good from Ealing to Wimbledon.