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I've been Retül'ed!

A few weeks ago I peddled on over to BCS to watch my boy Ted get his new bike fit....dialed in via the very capable eyes, hands and brain of Mr. Todd Carver and his Retül system. I followed this up with a "5 Questions with..." episode with Todd so folks could learn a little more about this dynamic bike fit approach. With all of my body drama and pains going on as of late, I needed to get dialed and have Todd put me under his lens so I can train pain free (and I mean the bad pain....) on my roadie. So, I got myself Retül'ed!

I showed up at my scheduled time at BCS and Todd was there waiting for me, and immediately got me up on the platform and 'dotted' up with all the various infrared nodes and he began his work. On the platform, I got plugged into the Computrainer.

Todd dialed me in and while I was spinning a bit, he began his Q & A and asked all sorts of questions to dig into what I want to achieve....and thus we focused in on areas where I have pain, etc. He then used the Retül technology to 'photograph' where I am at physiologically with this bike. TONS of imbalances to say the least.

During the course of the inspection, Todd would have me get on and off while he made various adjustments...all the while studying my movements with each tweak. All this ended up resulting in a saddle height raise by a CM and by bars by 2CM amongst some other micro-changes. My bars were at a 10CM differential to my seat height (e.g. super low and racy) and therefore needed to come up a bit to ~8CM.

So with the general dimensions re-dialed, we then dove into other body-mechanical issues...mainly surrounding feet/cleats. My feet have a naturally high arch so he prescribed got some Specialized ++ inserts to provide some support and reduce exhaustion I suffered from (e.g. cramping) and then dialed in my cleat position to ensure maximum efficiency. My theory had always been as far forward as possible but with the adjustments he made to the bike, he brought them back a fraction toward the heel and it is way more comfortable and allows me to pull through the stroke way more comfortably in a heel down approach.

Afterwards, Todd sent me all my data via email as all customers get of the resultant tests in addition to your bike sizing...very valuable for when you need a frame built or buying a new one off the shelf and you need it dialed perfectly. A wonderful part of the service. I am going to ride on this new set up for a few days and see what if anything needs to be micro adjusted. But I am stoked to go and train pain free!

Reader Comments (1)

I saw Todd when he was with BCSM and eventually had a custom frame built using his data. Very happy with the results. He threw a wedge shim under my cleat for the road shoes but I made the same change to the mountain/cross shoes by inserting the Specialized insoles.

http://www.excelsports.com/new.asp?page=8&major=5&minor=6&description=Wedge+Shims&vendorCode=BIKEFIT

June 18, 2008 | Unregistered Commenter-p

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