# My bike fit experience with Mike Irwin (BicycleFit Rx)



## fireplug (Nov 19, 2008)

Over the past weekend I had my first professional bike fitting with Mike Irwin who owns/operates BicycleFit Rx which is a mobile bike fitting service. Bicycle Fit Rx Your Mobile Bicycle Fitting Service 

I will let you read his bio on his website but Mike comes with lots of experience and education, which is exactly what I was looking for.

Wanted to put this out there up front. I am in no way connected to or knew Mike before my fitting. I did not receive a discount nor did he even ask me to post this message about my experience. I just wanted to share my experience since this was my first professional fitting.

Quick background on me. I have been road cycling since 2007 and have never been fitted for a bike beyond throwing my leg over the TT to make sure I had an inch of clearance. Over the years I was always tweaking my fit trying new things. It was not until last year that I really started to read up and look into my fit. Knowing a professional fitting could cost $100 to $300, I figured Google and I could get it done for cheap. So I read blogs, watched YouTube videos, and browsed countless internet pages. I found formulas for the reach, the angles for my knees and so on. So armed with all this new information I started adjust pretty much everything I could on the bike. When I was done I proud of myself...see I know you could find everything on Google. After riding several hundred miles I still felt fine for the most part but then my right hand would go numb, or my left knee would hurt sometimes after a hard effort ride. Little aches and pains but that is just part of cycling right? Then I read a post on this forum that got me thinking, "if you are experiencing pain on the bike then something is wrong, period." Wow, really? I thought you just dealt with the pain.

This season I was lucky enough to be in a position (and received the blessing of my wife) to buy a new bike. So I decided with a new bike I would finally plop down the money for a professional fit. Search the local Kansas City area several fitters came up. Mike's mobile service came by recommended to me by another fellow rider who went to Mike and had great results. So I called Mike and talked to him for a little while on the phone. I told him what I was looking for and also told him I was a little skeptical of paying so much money for a fit. Well after that conversation I was sold. Mike explained the many benefits of the fit would give. What stood out to me is Mike's "low tech" way of fitting. In the time of computers and software I know there are ways of getting fitted by taking measurements of this and that and the computer spitting out a range of measurements for each contact point but I wanted more than that. I felt I half way did that style of fitting on my own but now I wanted someone with experienced eyes to take a look at me and see what they thought. Mike does his fitting with a little more than a goniometer, some laser levels and his experience.

With the mobile service we set up a time to do the fitting at my home which was nice. Mike and I then exchanged several emails before the fitting describing what my concerns/pains were while riding. So I took a number of rides prior and made some good notes. I surprised myself in how many little things bothered me during riding that I simply chalked up as my "normal." Giving this information to Mike gave him an idea of what was going on and I think probably made the fitting a little easier and faster.

The day of the fitting Mike showed up right on time. We went back through the list of concerns and made sure I had told him everything, then we got to work. 

First thing he did is measure the angle of how my feet naturally titled when kneeling and my feet hanging off the steps. We found my right (non-dominate) had a higher degree of tilt than my left. The first thing Mike did was insert a wedge in right shoe to bring my right foot a little more level and therefore engage more muscles in my right leg. This did make a good difference as indicated new sore muscles in my right leg later that night.

After some spinning on the trainer Mike noticed my left knee was tracking a little to the outside. I told Mike my knee does track to the outside here and there but once I notice it I bring it back in and everything is fine. He told me I should not ever have to think about my knees' tracking, it should just happen. To fix that problem Mike took my left pedal off the bike and inserted a few washers to extend my pedal out a little more. This was an immediate fix and my knee has not tracked outward since which means zero pain after rides anymore.

The bulk of the time was spent on the saddle position. Going into the fitting I assumed that the saddle would need to be brought forward since one of my complaints was I was always sliding forward on the saddle. Mike gave me a balance test where I would push a hard gear while on the hoods and then let go holding the same position and seeing how I felt. The first time I did this as soon as I let go my whole trunk/back tensed up and although I was able to hold myself up it was not going to last long. When it was all said and done with Mike moved my saddle up, back and even added further tilt down on the nose. That was the exact opposite of what I thought he would do. Did the balance test again and took my hands off and I felt my legs tense up my literally my whole upper body just felt relaxed. I have achieved my balance point on the bike. 

Despite having a case full of stems he could have sold me as soon as the saddle was set Mike did not see the need to touch my stem/bars at all expect to turn the hood inward a little to better align my wrist. This was another immediate fix and have not had any hand numbness at all since.

Overall I am highly satisfied with my new position and will be going back to Mike for some help with my saddle. The fit is good but with perineum pressure still there I am thinking a different saddle may do the trick. Mike can help in this way by offering a wide range of saddles to test out. He came to the house with a large storage box full of different saddles. All are high end saddles that before the fitting I would not think of spending that kind of money on but if that fixes the last piece in my puzzle then it will be well worth it too.

Sorry for the long post but I hope this helps anyone who is trying to decide if getting a bike fit is worth the money...it is! I should have done this a long time ago but glad I finally decided to do it. Of course if you live in the area please put Mike Irwin high on your list of people to contact. I am betting with one good conversation he would explain a lot better than I what he could do for you.


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## Up and Atom (Sep 1, 2006)

Thanks for the detailed write up. Glad it worked out well for you.


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