Denver furniture designer Rollie DeAnda’s sleek road and mountain bicycles each cost several thousand dollars, yet his knees still hurt after going out on a ride.
So DeAnda took his bicycles to Colorado Retül bicycle fitter Todd Carver, resigned to spending another $250 on his custom high-end wheels.
What DeAnda learned applies to nearly every cyclist whose knees complain after climbing off the bike. If the seat or handlebars are too high or too low, it doesn’t matter if your bicycle cost $50 or $5,000: It’s time to find out why. That goes for weekend warriors as well as the Slipstream/Chipotle professional riders who use Retül.
“Last year, once we got into the long rides, I started developing knee pain, and I couldn’t even spin at the end of the season,” DeAnda said as Carver positioned his mountain bike on the rotating platform that Carver designed.
“This year, I didn’t even want to get back on the bike until I got fitted.”
If going for a bicycle ride leaves any part of your body numb or in pain, something’s wrong, says sports medicine specialist and former Paralympic bicycle champion Andy Pruitt of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine.
“Pain isn’t a part of cycling, even though many people assume it is,” Pruitt said.
“Cycling can be, and should be, comfortable.”
Pruitt developed a biomechanical computer program that meticulously assesses a cyclist’s riding form, modeling it after the computer animation system used in movies. Sensors placed at different points on a cyclist’s body transfer data at 60 frames per second, and are accurate within 1 millimeter.
Most of his cycling clients seek out Pruitt because they suffer from chronic injuries caused by a bike that doesn’t quite fit them, or because an accident changed the way they ride.
“Bike fit is definitely dynamic,” Pruitt said.
“It’s dynamic based on injury, surgery, age. My position when I ride today is nothing like it was when I raced 20 years ago. I’ve got a guy in my office right now who brought us his 20-year- old bike for a fitting. The frame’s immaculate. He’s upgraded the components. And no way can we fit this guy on that bike. He came in with knee and back pain, and no way will this bicycle work for him today.”
Ouch, that stings! Not only do that patient’s knees and back ache, but so will his wallet when he learns that that hefty investment wasn’t a guarantee of a lifetime bicycle after all.
“The question you have to answer is, ‘Am I uncomfortable when I ride?’ and if the answer is ‘yes,’ then you need to do something about it,” Pruitt said, “and that is getting yourself fitted.”
That goes for casual cyclists as well as racers. A basic bike fit starts at about $50 and quickly escalates, with midrange fits typically between $190 and Retül’s $250. The most expensive fit is the $550 that Pruitt charges for his medical-grade, research-quality data capture.
Back in the day, fitting a bike meant making a fist to make sure that a cyclist’s handlebars were only a palm’s width lower than the saddle. In the early 1980s, bike shops ditched that method for Bill Farrell’s Fitkit, a longtime industry standard that employed plumb bobs, measuring tape and special tools.
The latest technology uses video and computer imaging to transmit data in real time. Carver started Retül after working with Pruitt at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine; the two are co-authoring a chapter on bicycling injuries for an international Olympics sports medicine text.
Other bike shops, including Wheat Ridge Cyclery, offer Fit Studios where technicians have been trained through the Specialized Body Geometry Fit, the Serotta Fit or the Fit Institute Slowtwitch (FIST) programs.
“A good bike fit is only as good as the person who’s operating the program,” Pruitt says.
“The important part of a bike fit isn’t the tool. It’s the physical assessment part. When people pay $550 for our data capture, they’re really paying for my experience, not the smoke and sizzle that’s the tool — although it’s a very clever tool.”
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
Ready to ride
Cycling opportunities abound in the summer. Here are some rides and links to check out:
May 24: Pedal the Platte, 10-, 20- 30-mile courses, REI Denver, 1416 Platte St.;
June 1: Elephant Rock Cycling Festival in Castle Rock, 8-mile family course, 25-mile off-road courses, plus 32- 50- 65- and 100-mile rides;
June 14: Greenwood Goosechase. 15-, 30-, 42-mile courses in Greenwood Village;
July 19: Moonlight Classic, midnight bike tour in downtown Denver, family wave, 10:30 p.m.; gonzo wave, 11:30 p.m.; moonlight-classic.com
July 25-26; Tour de Steamboat, century ride, plus kids routes; rocky
Aug. 17: Venus de Miles women’s-only bike ride, 35-mile route through Longmont, Hygiene and Niwot; or 65-mile ride continues to Lyons and Jamestown; venus
Find more at:
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• radocycle.htm
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• bike.d/bike.cal.html
