My bike fitting last night took almost four hours. I was impressed. I need to ride the bike on the road for at least a few hours to be sure, but I think the fit and comfort problems are resolved. I expected to need a new saddle, stem, pedals, and shoes, but the root cause of my fit troubles was a surprise.
I had shortened the reach (5mm stem) because I felt too stretched out, leading me to believe that the frame was a bit too big for me. It turns out that my saddle, not the frame size, was the problem. My relatively low riding posture is lifting my sit-bones off of the saddle, causing my pubic bone to be weight-bearing, atop the narrow nose of the saddle. My unconscious effort to relieve pressure between the saddle nose and my tenders caused me to sit farther back as I got lower, lengthening the reach.
The solution: a split-nosed saddle, of the type designed for the 'perch' position of time trialists. The saddle height, tilt, and fore-aft did not change much, but I'm much farther forward now, meaning I needed a new stem. The replacement is 100mm! Problem solved. :D
In other news, I seem to be a freak of nature. Unlike the great majority of cyclists, my legs are the same length, I have no imbalances in my walking stride, my flexibility is the same on both sides, and I have no significant float or lateral movement in my pedal stroke. The one adjustment in this area: cleat positioning. My stance on the new Speedplay Zero pedals is about 1cm farther apart.
I did not get to use their power meter--the fitter saw no need at this point and I did not protest--but I was asked several times to slow down, slow down, slow down. It seems that pedaling at 100 rpm makes fitting observations very difficult. :D
This bike is almost ready for the velodrome. In the long term, it'll continue to be my training bike for the road. I already have my eye on a bike for the track exclusively, which should be compatible with these upgrades. I won't need the new bike until next year, but the measurements from this fitting should be just as helpful when the time comes to buy it.
