Not all parts of the perfectly wonderful bike rides I have shared with my dear wife, Natalie, have been peachy-keen. Sure, we’ve smelled and eaten plenty of fresh peaches while pedaling the back roads of southwestern Michigan and northwestern Indiana, but we have both suffered our share of aches and pains. Natalie suffered loudly and I suffered silently, both from aching backs, numb hands, sore necks and stiff elbows from the recreational riding of all those miles on our Giant bicycles.

I told Natalie that pain was just a part of bicycling, but she refused to accept that. And so, when the purveyor of our fine bicycles, Todd Walsworth of Bike Stop Cycling, said he had a “fitting” proposition for us, we rushed our bodies and bikes right over to his spotless shop in Michigan City, Indiana.

Hey, you don’t buy a wedding dress or a fancy suit without having it tailored, so why would you expect a bicycle to fit you right off the rack?

Walsworth and his staff had settled me comfortably on my Giant OCR2 road bike and Natalie on her Giant FCR3 composite. But there was more that could have been done. “We were fitting customers to their new bikes with all the expertise we had at the time,” Walsworth said.

A Trek sales rep told him about a two-day seminar conducted by Michael Sylvester, who had developed a bike fitting philosophy based on his own rehabilitation from injuries. Having lost his chance to run the marathon in the Olympic Games due to a crushing foot injury, Sylvester had turned with a passion to bicycling. Not only has he never owned a car, he has actively raced on the national and international bike scenes for the past 22 years.

Believing a bike needs to be fit to each individual rider based on their anatomy, flexibility, range of motion and riding style, Sylvester took his bicycle fitting services message on the road to the bicycling fellowship.

When Walsworth attended Sylvester’s seminar in a Chicago suburb last November, my wife was the subject of much discussion between them. “I told Sylvester that I had a customer who kept having problems with her composite bike,” he said, “and I wondered if we would ever be able to adjust her bike so she no longer felt any pain while riding. Sylvester assured me his approach to fitting would work for Natalie.”

And so Natalie reported to the shop for a two-hour session with Walsworth. He began by asking Natalie about her exercise and riding habits. He also delicately asked her how much she weighed. After recording her measurements, he guided her through a series of exercises to determine her flexibility.

“At the fit services course in Chicago, we spent the first two hours just doing yoga. Some people thought that was strange, but Sylvester found that yoga really worked for him when he was rehabilitating from his foot injury,” Walsworth said. “His process takes bike fitting a step further by employing body alignment principles learned from physical therapy and yoga.”

Being no stranger to yoga, Natalie was more flexible than he expected.

He watched her ride, frequently stopping her to make adjustments to her bike. When Natalie’s session was all said and done, Walsworth had raised her seat from 69 centimeters to 70.5cm, decreased the distance from the seat to the brake lever from 50cm from 47.5cm and dropped her stem from 40 degrees to a mere 7 degrees.

Natalie discovered, as did I later, that by bringing one’s glutes out of retirement, other aches and pains diminish. Most often the glutes are not put to work because you are not seated properly on your bicycle.

I’m happy to report that Walsworth’s adjustments resulted in pain-free riding for my wife. She can now go the extra distance with a husband who, having had his own session with the shop owner, is now smiling on every ride. We are as happy as a couple of aging baby boomers can be on their bikes.

If you and your mate are planning to spend a lot of time cycling together this season, proper bike fittings are in order.

For more on Sylvester and his Portland, Oregon-based Bicycle Fitting Services, go to bicyclefittingservices.com. The website for Walsworth’s shop is bikestopcycling.com.

Charles McKelvy lives, writes and pursues silent sports in southwestern Michigan with his wife, Natalie. He writes a weekly travel column for The Beacher newspaper in Michigan City, Indiana.

Bike fitting philosophies differ

There may be as many approaches to properly fitting a bike rider to his or her bike as there are bike shops. There’s certainly debate between some shops as to how far to take bike fitting or whether to charge extra for the service.

Andrew Muzi, owner of Yellow Jersey, in Madison, Wisconsin, disdains any “system” that recommends top tube and stem lengths and seat height based on precise body measurements. Rather than rely on algebraic formulas to determine fit, Muzi said he prefers to listen to how riders “feel” on their bikes.

“I fit people every day, and I redo a lot of fittings done elsewhere,” he said.

A bike just shouldn’t be sold to someone whom it doesn’t fit. And, Muzi said, customers shouldn’t have to pay more to have a bike adjusted to fit them optimally.

In a piece posted on www.yellowjersey.org, Muzi challenges the notion that shops should charge $50 or more for bike fittings. That stance attracted an articulate counterpoint from an employee of another out-of-state shop, which is appended to Muzi’s piece.

“There’s an argument that two hours of my time (doing a bike fitting) has value. But 98 percent of a high-quality fitting can be had in 20 minutes or less,” Muzi said. “Sometimes taking precision to the next decimal doesn’t make any difference.”

Precise fittings can significantly improve a bike rider’s efficiency, comfort and safety, however, argues Colin O’Brien, owner of Cronometro, also in Madison. His is a “fit-driven” shop that provides “biodynamic fittings” for more than 400 riders a year based on proprietary techniques.

“We start with a comprehensive interview to find out why a rider is experiencing (physical) problems on an existing bike,” O’Brien said. With the data generated from two to three hours of analysis, riders will have their bikes adjusted or be better informed when shopping for a new bike, he said.

Cronometro charges $240 for a biodynamic bike fitting and $50 more for aero bar positioning. This includes a $100 credit toward any bike or frame sold at the store, which also builds custom frames (www.cronometro.com).

The Bicycle Doctor in Dousman, Wisconsin, (www.bikedr.com), doesn’t charge bike buyers for fittings. Erik’s Bike Shop, with 15 stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin, offers a 10-minute fitting for $35, but is included for free with the purchase of a bike. A 30-minute follow-up fitting costs $80 at Erik’s, www.eriksbikeshop.com. New Moon Ski & Bike Shop in Hayward, Wisconsin (www.newmoonski.com), provides three levels of fittings — for casual, enthusiast and elite riders.

“We do a standard fitting with every new bike sold, and we will do fittings for old bikes,” Wheel & Sprocket CEO Chris Kegel said. (www.wheelandsprocket.com) At Wheel & Sprocket stores in Appleton, Brookfield, Delafield, Hales Corners, Fox Point and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, “we can accommodate everyone from expert to beginner riders,” Kegel said.

— Joel Patenaude

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