1994-Giro-11-chiappucci

Talking Stance Width with Paul Swift

All bike fitters add their own personal touches to a fit, whether they mean to or not. Even within Cyclefit we have small differences. But as with most things in life, there are a few routes to the ultimate goal (in this case, comfort and efficiency).

This is relevant because I occasionally read the bikefitpro blog written by bikefit founder, Paul Swift. He often posts details of his fits showing how many cleat wedges, ITS Wedges, and speedplay extra length spindles he uses. What jumped out at me was how many longer spindles were used on his fits. I very rarely see the need for a longer spindle, but Paul Swift used them quite regularly.

Themes Within the Pro Peloton

One way of keeping myself amused through the dull moments of a bike race (mostly on TV, sometimes in real life), is to think about each racers set up. In particular, I enjoy looking for the bikefit themes within the team. This will be influenced by many factors including the bike they are riding (geometry) , their history, their body shape, and their team ‘bikefitter’. I use inverted commas as I am sure that some teams do not use a bike fitter as we know, but an aerodynamics expert, bike builder, directeur sportif, etc instead.