We will try to keep up on the blog this year better than last year. Should be easy to do. For now we will show some of the great thank you notes and writes up we got during the year of 2009. Thanks Bob
Taken from a local forum
Wheel Werks Retul Bike Fit
First off this was by far the best money I have spent on this sport to date. I have always been skeptical about methods of bike fitting and felt that many people just eyed you up, took your money and called it a day.
Ok so I got my bike from Sammy's and he does fit based on eyesight, this worked for the first two months or so because I wasn't riding hard. When I entered my first race I started to feel a saddle adjustment was in order. So I made the adjustment the morning of the fall fling road race- not a smart idea. Ever since then I have been wanting to make adjustments but didn't want to make things worse and the small adjustment I did make certainly didn't help.
Today was my appt with Bob at Wheel Works in Crystal Lake, he is a Retul Certified Fitter. I am completely amazed at the difference this bike fit made. If you already have a bike and are at all uncomfortable this is like a process of elimination that finds problem areas, optimizes your set-up, and fixed my body position as a result.
First, all of the baseline numbers are recorded for your bike set-up. Then you are hooked up with sensors that capture your riding, this info was recorded and showed flaws in my riding that would probably lead to injury over the long term. I say that because my knees were sore after doing those races and after seeing what this recorded I knew why- they would bow out at the top of the stroke. After all of the changes were made I did end up with a new set of bars, they are exactly what I wanted, mainly I am more comfortable on the hoods and I didn't think I had a problem with the positioning of the old one's. The drops are also much more comfortable too- I hated the bend of my old bars. The other major improvement was the "Specialized Footbeds" this made my carbon sole shoe feel much more comfortable because of the support it provided.
I think another thing that i'm most impressed with is that he didn't try to sell me anything that I didn't need. This has changed my mind about bike fits, except now I know that someone who just eyes you up doesn't cut it for me.
most shops offer the service for free if you buy a bike from them but the fit many shops offer is done by eye usually. so I always kinda thought i'd be stupid to pay someone that I didn't even buy a bike from to fit me, the sensors that he attaches to your body provide real numbers in terms of the different angles your body- like shin/thigh at the top and bottom of the stroke under power. with my cadence of 100 I dont think anyone's eye can see that. It also gave a 3D shot of my knee while pedaling and it wasn't pretty because my cleat position was out of whack.
Also you are probably going to have to get fit for the two bikes on different days, getting fit should take a while. The person doing it should talk to you first about the type of riding you do and will do on the bike, then there were a series of different stretches to demonstrate flexability and various other excercises to demonstrate different strengths/weaknesses you have. After he got a specific look at me and small changes are made and after each adjustment he looks at the data, talks to you about how the change feels and taught me about riding position since that was off for me too. So you would be there quite a while if you got two bikes fit in one day.
after my fit with this system I will never buy a bike from a shop without a similar method, I was that impressed with it.
The other thing I did that was helpful was wear an underarmor shirt with my riding shorts but forgot a towel to wipe sweat off my face. Also I drank two water bottles by the end of the session.
ok so today I went for my first outdoor ride after the fit. My first impressions were, crap my feet are cold but i'm comfortable so what the hell. Took the path toward algonquin, bought booties at the bike shop there so my feet didn't fall off, why didn't someone tell me that shoes that are fully vented don't do well in cold weather? So I warmed up my feet and kept riding. Before I knew it I was at RT 120 in McHenry, I hadn't charged my garmin in a couple of weeks so it died in algonquin and it recorded 38 miles so it was nice to ride that far and still be comfortable.
ok so the real impression started with drinking water. Being able to take either water bottle without swerving was an unexpected benefit, before I swerved like a drunk any time I grabbed for a bottle. Because of that I was not comfortable taking a drink when I was racing with a big group all around me. I do have to stop pedaling momentarily to grab the bottle that is on the seat tube but the bottle that is on the down tube can now be grabbed even at a fast cadence.
With the new bars, FSA Wing Pro w/ Compact Bend, I can spend signifigantly more time in the drops because my wrists are more comfortable, it doesn't put me so far down that breathing is still normal, there is much more flexability with had positioning in the drop, and I don't have to reach as far so when on the hoods my back is at the correct angle. My old FSA Gossamer bars had a longer reach and "ergo" drops so unless your wrist was on that flat part of the drop your wrist position was comprimised.
The biggest difference was that I was more comfortable all around, I was able to push harder for longer. Staying seated up hills was easier and going from sitting to a full sprint was a smoother transition.
Overall it was worth every penny and then some.
Mike M. Elgin
I email I got and was sent to a bunch of his friends
Sometime around the middle of June, the Flentye invited Bob Olsen of Wheel Werks in Crystal Lake to come to LTF and give an informal talk about all things cycling which included -- bicycle parts and accessories, how to fix a flat, custom vs 'off the floor' bikes, carbon vs titanium vs steel (chrome-moly), bicycle fitting -- as well as a general Q&A session.
About 3 - 4 weeks ago, I went out to Wheel Works to get 'fitted' for a bike or, more precisely, see how well my current bike fit me. After getting my bike set up and hooked up to a computrainer, he asked me to get on it and start pedaling in my 'normal' riding position. I knew something was wrong when I saw him grimacing at me. He had me stop pedaling and asked if that really was my normal position on my bike, and if I was usually in pain during or after a bike ride of any distance.
BOTTOM LINE #1: I was a poster child for why bicycle fitters exist.
With what I will call a 'high-tech' protractor, he measured the angle at my knee when my leg was at its maximum extension while riding, and then used this information to adjust my saddle (up / down; forward / backward). With the computrainer, he was able to measure the force put out by each leg and use this information to make additional fine tuning adjustments to seat height and angle, as well as my overall position on the bike.
With a laser, he was able to see if my leg alignment while pedaling was optimal (i.e., while pedaling, there should be a straight line from the middle of your knee to around the middle of your 2nd or 3rd toe) and make / suggest any necessary adjustments. During his talk at LTF he suggested that adjusting the cycle cleat on your cycling shoe to be as far back as possible would improve your comfort. I made this adjustment (about 1/4" in my case) two days before I participated in a 24 hour bike ride and, despite having trained only about 65% as much as I normally due for this race, my lower back and legs felt better than I can ever remember at the end (I still felt and looked like death warmed over, but not because of my back and legs). Coincidence?????
The biggest problem he saw with my fit was that my handlebars were too low and too close to me (I was hunched over like a question mark). He proceeded to jury-rig a set of adjustable handlebars on my bike until he found a position where he felt that my back and neck were properly aligned and positioned, and then made a series of small adjustments based on my personal comfort feelings. Based on this information he ordered me a new stem and set of handlebars (my current equipment couldn't be adjusted to the degree necessary).
This entire process took about an hour and was done in the morning before he opened his shop so that any interruptions would be minimized.
BOTTOM LINE #2: The $100 fitting fee was some of the best money I ever spent (except for chocolate, I am cheap and not easily impressed). By spending $225 on a new stem and handlebars which he installed on my bike, I now had a bike that was perfectly fitted to me. Let's be realistic -- the Olsen does not make his money by doing bike fittings; he does it by selling custom bikes (and he has some incredible bikes). Given the sorry state I was in, and all the adjustments by bike needed, he never once pressured me to trash my bike and get a custom made bike. For that, I give him bonus points for integrity and honesty, and will definitely buy my next bike from him. Even if I went in and he told me that my bike and I were perfectly made for each other and no adjustments were necessary, it would still be worth the $100 to know that any 'issues' I had while riding were due to me and not my bike.
For those who wish to see if you and your bike are a 'marriage made in heaven' or a 'marriage made in hell', here is the Olsen's information (feel free to pass this email on to anyone else you know who might benefit from the Olsen's services):
David W.
WHEEL WERKS -- Bob Olsen
115 N. Main Street
Crystal Lake, IL 60014 (about 30 miles from LTF)
815 - 444 - 6897
wheelwerksbikes.com
bob@wheelwerksbikes.com
