#tarmacdisc

It’s not often that the +1 in the N+1 is the bike of your dreams unless you are a person of unlimited means, or your priorities in life place the bike ahead of the family (rule 13). Well, I am not and do neither, so taking possession of the Specialized Tarmac Pro Disc 2019 was a pretty special “life” occasion for me and I wanted to make sure that the investment in the machine was matched by my intention to make it work for me, or me to work for it.

When I bought my Specialized Roubaix in 2011 from Cycleworks in Petersfield, Simon did a great job of measuring me up for the bike so that I could get as much out of it as I could, and over the course of 7 years and 20,000 km, I have enjoyed, on the most part, pain free and injury free cycling.

However, my body has changed significantly over that time. I am carrying at least 3 stone less, my legs are stronger and my goals and desires on the bike have changed somewhat, so given the significant investment in the bike, and having negotiated a 10% store credit with Pedal Heaven in Fleet by way of a deal match, spending the 10% on a power crank (more on that in another post) and a Retul bike fit seemed like a pretty sensible choice. And there’s only so many bib shorts one could possibly need.

The Specialized Power Crank

Graham from Pedal Heaven contacted me when the bike cam in store on the Monday and they needed a couple of days to get it set up. So we agreed that 10am on the Friday would be the bike fit and the day I took the bike with me.

I arrived a few minutes before 10am impressed with my ability not to look like a 5-year-old on Christmas day and was greeted by one of the staff who said that Graham was just with a customer and would be with me soon, but showed me to the room where the bike fit would take place. There, standing on the raised platform was MY bike. It looked like a bike on show, and that was quite fitting (excuse the pun). Sleek, Black – very stealth. She looked amazing, so I quickly snapped a few shots of her on her perch before Graham arrived.

Once he’d covered through important things like offering me a coffee, we patiently went through how the fit session would go, and what we’d be trying to achieve. Graham was great it has to be said. As is customary with doctors these days, who tell you everything they are going to do before they do it, so Graham explained every step, why he was asking me that question, making me stand in such a way etc.

The fit started with Graham taking some basic details from me. Name, DOB, years riding, injury history, top-level health history, any pain points when cycling etc. Basically, just to get a sense of who I am as a cyclist. Then we talked about my aspirations of cycling, what I was trying to achieve with the fit and any other considerations that were relevant. All in all, that took about 30 minutes but I could sense this was an important part of the session as it raised specific considerations that would prop up later during the fit.

We then entered the next phase which was a bit like visiting the physiotherapist. Getting me to sit, lie and stand in various positions and to do specific movements, we could see where joint movements were specifically out of kilt in either a moderate or mild way. Wonky movements are to be expected after nearly ½ century of wear and tear, and this analysis was to again provide input into areas that should be considered during the bike fit.

A specific exercise of sitting on a special seat using sensors in the seat to identify my sit bones allowed Graham to measure the distance between my sit bones and for the system to suggest in priority order, the saddle types best suited for me, and the optimum size. In this case, the Specialized system suggested the Specialized (well it does only suggest Specialized products) Toupe saddle with thankfully my bike came equipped with. However, it was good to see 2 other Specialized saddle types as alternative options should I find the Toupe doesn’t agree with my backside.

Finally, Graham got me to stand on a rather neat heat-mapped show sizer. Using liquid ink in the sizer, we were able to observe the extent of the height of my arch in my foot in both sitting and standing position. I know I have a high arch and this was confirmed by this step and again would be used to consider specific fit options when considering my knee movement whilst pedalling and also the cleat position on my shoes.

However, we did decide it would be best for the purposes of the test to replace my slightly worn cleats with the new ones that came with the new pedals I brought for the bike. He fitted them to exactly the same place as my existing setup.

So that was all the “off-bike” background and basic checks. It was pretty thorough and it felt satisfyingly positive that this data was being captured in the system to aid Graham in fitting the bike for me.

At that point it was pee break – use it or lose it, because after this point a pit-stop wouldn’t be particularly easy because once the sensors were installed on me it would be a faff to have to go through all that again. I declined the pit stop and felt good to go. Between you and me I couldn’t wait to jump on the bike.

The fitting of the sensor Velcro pads took a while as Graham diligently located the correct hip bone, shoulder joint, elbow joint, metatarsal point and various other spots on my body. Even being millimetres out would affect the validity of the readings from the system so it was important for him to get it right. Once he was happy he wired me up to 2 portable receiver systems which a bit like an ECG, has sensor points to fit onto the Velcro pads on each part of my body. 1 for each side.

By the wall, at 90 degrees to the bike was the bike fit camera which would also pick up the sensors and map them to the screen. This was high tech stuff!

He set the saddle height at a reasonable start point, watched me turn once or twice and tweaked it again. That was better.

Then he got me to gently start pedalling to just check initial readings and to make sure all the sensors were in the right place. A small (mm) adjustment of the hip sensors and he was happy, so he got me to pedal for about 60 seconds to get enough data flowed in to be getting a consistent reading on the different sensors.

The first thing he wanted to tackle was my knee angles. There are recommended variances in degrees from the plane of the frame that is the aim to get within for optimal peddling and I was outside of those tolerances.

Given my high arched foot and my cleat position he wanted to tackle those first. So he selected a pair of Specialized Body Geometry inner soles that have maximum arch support and then spent a fair whilst adjusting the cleats on my shoes to bring the cleats back to fit directly under the line between the big bone on the inner side of my foot (just at the base of the big toe) and to the most extreme point of bone width ways on the outside of the foot. I’m afraid I cannot get more technical than that but I did hear the word metatarsal I’m sure.

Hopping back on my bike and I could immediately tell the difference in my feet. It felt much more supported and according to the stats I could see on the screen, those tweaks had collapsed the variance of my knee movement significantly. However, Graham wasn’t entirely happy so another tweak and further adjustments made and we tried again. Again, millimetres change here producing visible results in the data and the movement line of my knee in comparison to the plane of the bike frame.

We got it to a point where certainly it was within acceptable variances and as Graham said, there’s only so much we can do to compensate for the body. As it was I was pedalling for a good 10 minutes and it felt really comfortable. During this time he would rotate the platform around 180 degrees whilst I was still on it and take a reading from the other side.

The next step was to deal with the height of the bar. Over the years I have noticed that my Roubaix has just got far too relaxed for me to the point where it really feels like I am just sitting up and begging. This is primarily the nature of the bike (it’s an endurance bike and not al all-out racer) but over the years Specialized have seemingly managed to make the Tarmac more compliant, and with developments like wider tyres running lower PSI, the all-out racers are now built for comfort too.

In addition, all the data Graham had gathered from me suggested that I am well capable of sustaining a more angular riding position which will provide benefit in terms of efficiency and aerodynamics. So I decided that whilst I definitely wanted to drop the bar lower, I didn’t want to all-out slam it. That could be one jump too far for me, so we removed 3 (1 large and 2 small) spacers in total and left 1 small spacer for a future slamming opportunity should I desire.

Then I started pedalling again and was really surprised at how little difference it seemed to make. Certainly, it was no less comfortable than before. We had to just tweak of the saddle height again but otherwise, we had got to a state where all the angles were well within the tolerances one would want from the exercise and so it felt we were nearing completion, which was just as well.

Graham had warned me that if I overheated that the sensors would start dropping off due to sweat and then trying to re-attach them was particularly difficult. The sensors were still firmly on but I had done an OK job of controlling my effort on the bike but I could feel my core temperature rising to the point where sweat could easily start pouring out.

So a final check on the data. A final check with me on where we had landed with the fit, and we called a wrap on the session.

Graham then brought out even more tech wand basically measured every important aspect of the fit so that should I ever need to be re-fitted, or I want to apply the same fit to another bike, I have all the measurements at my disposal.

Then he got the workshop chaps to cut down the bar post to size so there was no ungainly pillar above the bar. Now the bike was looking (almost) slammed.

A bike fit in the controlled environment of a fit room is somewhat different to the outside world so it’s great that I also get a follow-up consultation with Graham after 6 or so weeks. This is very reassuring. I’m hoping to cover 1200-1500 km over the next 6 weeks (weather and health dependent), and by then I should have a fairly good idea as to whether there is anything intrinsically wrong with my fit that needs tweaking. After my maiden voyage, all I know is that this bike is a riot to ride and a monster performer, and there were no worrying signs of anything being untoward with the fit on that short fast maiden ride.

I’m very grateful to Graham for the way he conducted the fit, always being clear and methodical in the approach he took throughout the 3-hour session. He also followed up the session with my report that evening containing all the inputs, measurements and alike. I haven’t been through it fully yet, but it will be an invaluable source of data for the future.

So I know it’s early days and there’s still a lot to conclude, but for my part, if I had received my bike and tried to set it up myself, there are just so many considerations I would not have taken into account that I cannot help but think I’d be running this thoroughbred of a bike in such a way that it might as well be a donkey.

Honestly, for less than 5% of the value of the bike, and for the access to the R&D, technology and expertise you get through the session, it just has to be worth it in the long run, and knowing that you are not just abandoned after the fit session is also very reassuring.