
I felt immediately comfortable and found the atmosphere in the shop very relaxed and friendly.
The consultation started with Steve asking me a few questions as to why I had came to see him as well as what physical issues I had. Also my cycling aspirations were discussed as well as my current cycling activities.
He then went through a very thorough process of measuring my body and posture as well as flexibility. It was obvious pretty quickly that my left leg is around 6mm shorter than my right and my posture is pretty crap. I also have very tight hamstrings. I am not quite sure how to describe it but it became pretty clear that good posture increases your functional strength immediately. I was also given a neurological test whilst blindfolded and had to be rescued twice from running into some of the products in the shop.
Once I got on the bike Steve seemed to think that my position was reasonable and would require mainly fine tuning.
The seat was lowered 6mm and 2mm forward,cleat position adjusted , various shims and wedges were placed in shoes as well as under cleats to get me more balanced and strong on the bike whilst everything was double checked to make sure it was correct.The last thing that was done was to untape the bars and bring the hoods up higher which felt heaps better. I was pretty pleased that my bike was pretty good already and we didn't need to change any components.I then had around an eight kilometre hard effort against a simulated peloton to see if I maintained my improved form when fatigued,unfortunately I couldn't hold off one of these riders on the last climb(apparently you achieve legend status if you beat him) . All up the procedure took probably close to 4 hours and I now need to get out on the bike and do some low intensity riding for a few weeks to get used to the changes.
I was also given some suggested reading to help with posture awareness and flexibility as well as core strength. I was also given a diagram with all the correct bike frame measurements for me and how to measure them correctly as well as all the changes we made from my original set up.
Whilst I am pretty sure I wont make it on the "athletes we have positioned" list I may be remembered as the first person to come with a box of beer.
Below is a photo of Steve's own bike.