Category Archives: Shop news

News about Chain Reaction Bicycles

Would you (could you?) pick up a pedal wrench… for $1000?

The Altar of the Fit Guru

All Hail the Altar of the Bike Fit Guru! For $1000, could yours truly pick a pedal wrench off the floor? Without bending knees? Or would overly-tight hamstrings be my doom? Answer- I didn’t get the $1000. All I had to do was pick up a tool. Obviously, there’s much more to this story, but the short version is that I appear to be a bumblebee, with a body that shouldn’t be comfortable on a 120 mile bike ride, and yet I am. Amazingly so.

Yes, this is my first tale from the land of ultimate bicycle fitting, where Steve and I are learning all manner of things about human phsiology and how to bend, twist & contort customers in order to find the limits of their flexibility. “Contort” isn’t really the right word, unless you’re constructed like I am, with a back that demonstrates excessive “Kyphosis”, Hamstrings that could be used to support the new Bay Bridge, and a general lack of “core strength.” Those would be the reasons why I cannot, and never have, been able to come even close to touching my toes. And why, in theory, I would be predicted to (but don’t) have issues when riding a bike. But clearly our teacher, Michael Sylvester, knows his stuff, and his teachings will add to our expertise at fitting people properly to bikes. –Mike–

I’m just a couple days ahead of the rest of you-

A scene from the High & The Mighty?

Once more Steve and I leave the shop in capable hands and travel to the land of ice & snow (which, apparently, is about to happen to the SF Bay Area upon our return!). Nothing beats sitting in a cramped commuter airplane for an hour waiting for it to be de-loused, er, I mean, de-iced.

This trip we’re going to be learning advanced bicycle fit, the sort of thing where we analyze flexibility of joints and various other observations that go well beyond just doing measurements (which just puts you in the ballpark; we’ve always used the measurements as a starting point and then observe someone actually riding). Should be an interesting day ahead of us, assuming we get enough sleep to be alert enough to absorb all the information that’s going to be thrown at us!