With 8 weeks out from IRONMAN Sweden I went to ACME Bicycle Co. for a professional bike fit. At ACME they use Retul and motion capture in the bike fitting process. Jonathan, the owner of ACME was my scheduled fitter. The entire process was scheduled to be 3 hours so I made sure to fuel beforehand. Jon and I had an introductory conversation so we can get a bit of history on me, my racing goals, injuries, issues while riding, and so on.

The first mistake that could have been painful with my old bike fit was the fact that my saddle was way too low. Yet I was able to ride it in that position for an 85 miler. Hopefully, there wasn’t too much negative adaptation there.

Blue tape is old saddle height

He went on to place me on the mock bike (insert technical name here) then we started off on the journey of testing different positions. The positions we explored ranged from 0 to 3. 3 being the most aggressive forward position. Positions from saddle height to aero bar length were altered mechanically on the mock bike without the need for manual adjustments. This makes it extremely easier for tweaking. I ended up with position 2A.

The two bike components that on occasion are recommended or need changing are the stem and crankset and in my case the bar extensions. However, at 175mm my Scott Plasma stock crankset was fine for my long legs. The initial feedback from the various position adjustments was that my aero bar would have to be shimmed up about 40mm. Jon had on hand Profile Design spacers that would do the trick. Any taller than I would have to change the aero bar with a better-fitted option. Jon did his magic and the spacers worked. He also flipped the stem to get some increased height.

Moving on to flexibility. Did you know that my left leg is longer than my right? You may be too. But yes that’s my case. That fact got reflected in the motion capture numbers. After doing some table exercises flexibility routines, bridges, etc. Jon had me walk back and forth to test pronation. He then adjusted my shoe clits to align more parallel in the pedal stroke. The bottom line my flexibility is pretty good which could be why I rode such a short saddle height without injury.

As per reaching on my aero bars. In the future, if discomfort arises I may have to get longer ones as mine is 40mm too short. At the moment this isn’t an alarming factor.

After carrying over the mock bike numbers and implementing the changes on my bike I felt higher on the bike and more efficient. Testing over the next few weeks will reveal more in that aspect and any issues that may arise. Hopefully, there’s zero. Joe did stress that I shouldn’t go for power workouts immediately with this new setup. Give it a few weeks to break it in per se. My long ride this weekend will have to stay as aerobic and below FTP as possible. This should be straightforward since I was planning to be at 75% average for the century ride.

Jonathan himself is also a triathlete so we were able to geek out and I threw some questions his way about packing the bike for the trip etc. He did Lake Placid a few times with a best time of 10:25. He is very thorough and knowledgeable. Included with the fit is a free consultation within 6 weeks if any issue or the like arises.

In conclusion, this was by far one of the best if not the best investment I could have made pertaining to bike setup and running off the bike. Not an exact science in any way but Jonathan said I may have gained 75 watts from today’s bike fit. Even if it turns out to be half that number. That will be huge!!