Custom bike fit, Part 2: Garry's bike fit or was it more spin class

When it comes to fitting yourself to stuff most of the time you just walk into the shop, make a selection, try it on, if its close enough then purchase and take it home. The same can be said for fitting yourself to a bike. Go into shop, find the one that takes your fancy, get it in your size, make some small changes to seat and handle bar position, purchase and ride out of the shop. Easy. So when Jason said it was my turn to get sized for our custom Baum tourer frames I was sure it would be the same as the above. Little did I know...

First step was to jump into my nic's (bike shorts) and shoes while Nick (My Baum fitter on the day) installed the handle bars, seat and pedals we were going to use. From what I was told all these things need to be taken into account as it can make a huge difference to the sizing and then the comfort of the bike. Comfort is a big thing for me considering the number of Km's Jason wants me to do on a daily basis.

Second step was to remove the shoes I just put on and have Nick play around with the position of the cleats. Seriously, what kind of a difference could that make..... Oh My God! What a difference that made! My calves didn't feel as much pressure as they normally would.

Then it was onto the other factors of the bike itself. Top tube length, Seat height, handle bar height, reach etc. Each change, which required me to pedal for about 5 minutes while Nick and Darren cast an expert eye over me, made the bike feel better and better.

Things were looking easy until Nick decided it was a spin class and not a bike fit. See the rider doesn't control the gearing of the bike during the fit. This is up to the fitter. At this time Nick decided to crack up the gearing and make me work for it. Not for a short burst to see how it all looks but for what seemed like hours. The legs were burning by the end. Apparently it was to make sure that the fit still worked when pushing. I think it was to make me suffer and prepare for the pain to come.

The experts decided that everything was in order and it was now time to take the measurements and put them all into the bikeCAD system to make a bike come to life which is what you see below.

We've had so many people recommend the Brooks B17 for touring that we had to give it a go.

What did I expect from the experience? Not sure really, but what I can say is that a properly fitted bike is key to enjoyable riding. I wonder if Baum would do a custom BMX? Hmmmmm.....

Jason's frame is now nearing the production stage with all the Ti parts and tubes nearly ready to be made into another beautiful handcrafted Baum frame.