Mucking about with bikes

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chain rings

It’s all about ebb and flow. A couple of weekends ago was the Wilson HTM Brisbane to the Gold Coast Cycle Challenge, which is a big day for me (and all the BQ crew, obviously).

But even though the B2GC is a massive day, with 7500 riders and lots of stress, it also marks the end of the high pressure event season. And therefore a massive sigh of relief.

Only a few days later, it was off to Melbourne with some South Bank friends for the 2011 Around the Bay in a Day. With the craziness of event season at BQ, I must admit that the training for Around The Bay was nearly non-existent. I was pinning my hopes on the idea that my residual fitness would be enough to keep me safely around the middle of the bunch, and that having just done a BG Fit that I would be comfortable on the bike.

Both held true, and it might sound like boasting, but Around The Bay was the easiest 200km ride I’ve ever done. The South bank group was 12 riders strong, which meant plenty of shelter in the bunch. And I was in the sweet spot of not being under stress by the pace at any stage.

The SBB crew do the Melbourne-Sorrento-Melbourne version of the ride. So, no waiting for the ferry, down and back on the “nice” side of the bay. We experienced some Melbourne-style weather on the day, with some lovely sunshine, and some occasional spits of rain, and one quick shower. But the challenge of the event was mostly in keeping the group intact, and a small amount of cross-wind on the way back. We did a solid 8-hour ride, averaging 25 km/h.

The big ride was only one part of a very enjoyable long weekend in Melbourne. I drew on the expertise of my friend whose Mastermind Special Subject would be the cafes, bars and restaurants of inner-city Melbourne. And so we visited places such as Wabi Sabi Japanese restaurant, and Cafe de Clieu. And Pellegrini’s. And Hill of Content book shop. And I saw Melbourne Heart vs Perth Glory, and the Bike Expo. So it was a wonderful weekend, lots of laughs. I really enjoyed how walkable Melbourne’s city heart is. And noticed the growth in cycling culture in the city as well.

So, back in Brisbane, I have been happy to take it relatively easy for a while. The Enigma needed a little bit of a tune-up after the rigours of travel. And I managed to bust something in the front shifter of my Frezoni during the week as well. So on Saturday I went for a spin round Daisy Hill on the mountain bike with Bruce, instead of the South Bank bunch ride.

And yesterday I spent a couple of hours mucking round with the project bike. Won’t be long before its ready to ride. It will be the perfect machine for the Great Victorian Bike Ride.

project1

What’s blue and doesn’t fit?

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OK, let’s take for granted that there are various levels of interest in cycling. Some people are right into every tiny technical detail of both the machine and how you ride, some people go for the occasional ride on the weekend.

All cyclists, right?

If we take the general population of cyclists, I am obviously towards the nerdy, obsessive end of the spectrum. And I know, even from my limited experiences of competitive cycling, that there are no short-cuts to getting fast. Improving fitness and technique both take much effort and practice.

But if you can find the most efficient position for you on the bike, the one that means you’re not wasting energy because of positional or pedalling inefficiency, then that must be the closest thing to a “free” improvement.

It was with that thought in mind that I went along to Epic Cycles recently for a Specialized BG Fit. And the question that was rattling around in my head during the BG Fit process … Isn’t this a bit too cycling-obsessive? A bit too nerdy for the average cyclist?

The process of a BG (Body Geometry) Fit is very thorough, one might almost say painstaking. It includes:

  • pre-fit interview, to ascertain your goals in cycling, pretty much finding out what you want to get out of the bike fit
  • pre-fit measurement of your current bike setup
  • exceedingly thorough measurement of all aspects of you, including how (not) flexible you are in various body joints. This goes to the extent of measuring the angles you can reach in flexing your hip, whether you can put your ankles behind your ears, that sort of thing. Ankles behind ears is a slight exaggeration, but there were lots of different things measured that I didn’t expect … especially to do with feet. And of course you sit on the famous Specialized arse-o-meter to get the right width saddle.

Once all the measuring is done, its onto your bike (on a stationary trainer), and into the actual fitting process. Your correct saddle height is ascertained, and the cleat position on your bike shoes is looked at.

A truly specialised piece of equipment comes into play at this point, the totally adjustable stem, which with the saddle height properly adjusted, can now go through quite a range of reach and height adjustability of the handlebars, the final key to finding the right position.

And this is where the expertise of the Specialized BG Fit technical guru expert person (SBGFTGEP), or as we will call her in this case, ‘Emma’, really comes to the fore.

The SBGFTGEP spends quite a long time watching you pedal on the stationary bike, and making small adjustments from time to time. Maybe she was entranced by my graceful pedalling action, maybe she was just trying to ensure that I worked up a bit of a sweat, but eventually we reached a position that both the SBGFTGEP and I were happy with.

I was surprised to find that the new position of my handlebars was closer to me, but lower down. ‘Emma’ explained that my old position had been slightly too stretched out, but that by coming closer to the bars, we could make better use of the flexibility I do have to get a little bit lower.

The BG Fit took near enough to three hours from start to finish, although it should be noted that my particular SBGFTGEP was using me as a Bike Fit Test Dummy, wisely ensuring that recent training from Specialized Australia was reinforced by practice, before being unleashed on paying customers.

And there is no doubting both the solid science behind the process, and the thoroughness of the assessment. Amongst the things I will change as a result of this will be:

  • The footbeds of my cycling shoes
  • A new stem, with both a different reach and different angle
  • Quite probably a new saddle

So, depending on how much I spend on a saddle, that could be $300-ish. And that’s without taking into account the cost of the BG Fit itself. At Epic Cycles, I understand a BG Fit will cost you $350.

So is it for super-athletes and bike-obsessives only? I don’t think so. Many people I know ride bicycles that they have paid upwards of $5000 for. In that context, $350 to get more efficient on your bike is pretty cheap.

My thanks to my SBGFTGEP, who explained every step of the process, and who answered all my questions patiently, waited while I finished my sandwich, didn’t protest too much when I took the camera out, and despite prodding me many many times in hip, knee, thigh etc during the measuring process, left no visible marks.

There will be follow-up on this post, cos the process isn’t quite over yet.

keeping track of emerging forms, styles in journalism

Oh yeah, just briefly ...

Just to note that Eleanor’s long-awaited interview series with gold medal Australian track queen legend & Rocky girl Anna Meares is featuring at the moment on Helmets Are Hot. And it’s good stuff, of course.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4*, Part 5.

* warning: impossible analogy attempted in this post. not suitable for men on cholesterol-lowering medication or women with low iron counts.

 

 

The Cap of Hipsterdom

Oh yeah, just briefly ...

JP took this series one evening in the Epic Cycles tent on Cycle Queensland. His original caption on Facebook: ‘Upon donning the Cap of Hipsterdom Andrew becomes enlightened to the compelling importance of Treadlie magazine’

I include the series here because (a) it’s my blog (self-indulgent? you think?), (b) it makes me smile at the memory of that evening and other times spent in the company of the Epic gang, and (c) cos I want to keep a copy separate from the clutches of Facebook.