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The right fit, the right ride

Leonard Barnes is like a lot of newcomers to cycling. The 40-year-old wanted to get more serious about fitness, so he set out to buy a good, entry-level road bike.
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Greg Hodges

Leonard Barnes is like a lot of newcomers to cycling. The 40-year-old wanted to get more serious about fitness, so he set out to buy a good, entry-level road bike.

“The first question I asked was what kind of riding he wanted to do,” said Greg Hodges, the salesman at Revolution Bicycles in St. Petersburg, Fla., who helped Barnes with his purchase. “Once I figured out that he wanted to get out and do some serious riding, that put him in another category.”

Specialty stores like Revolution want to make sure they sell you the “proper fit,” both figuratively and literally.

“You wouldn’t buy a hybrid if you want to go trail-riding,” Hodges said. “And you wouldn’t buy a mountain bike if you were planning on running triathlons.”

Road bikes come in a variety of frame sizes, the most common being 54 and 56 cm. But even after you find the right size frame, there are still a half-dozen adjustments that can be made to the seat, handlebars and pedals to make sure it suits your body type.

So Barnes bought his bike, customized it and took it for a ride. Then the real work began.

Barnes, a former college football player, is a natural athlete. New sports always came easily to the St. Petersburg resident, and cycling would be no different. Or so he thought.

“I ride at least five days a week,” he said, “usually 25 miles each day on the Pinellas Trail, but some days I will go longer, depending on my time.”

Barnes spent aboutUS $1,000 on his aluminum-frame Specialized Allez. The bike company, one of the largest in the United States, has a program for customers such as Barnes, designed to make them stronger, more efficient, faster riders.

Literature for the BG FIT system boasts that it is “proven to boost your power output by 10 per cent.”

For a cyclist used to riding 32 km/h at the middle of the pack on a Saturday-morning ride, the extra 3.2 km/h could put them out in front with the leaders.

The system, developed by Dr. Andy Pruitt of the Boulder (Colo.) Center for Sports Medicine, utilizes a series of precise measurements, videotaped cycling sessions and proprietary software to analyze a rider’s biomechanical profile.

If that sounds elaborate for a newcomer to the sport, think again.

“Leonard is the perfect person for something like this,” Hodges explained. “He is new to the sport, so he has no old habits to break.”

Before Hodges began his analysis, he did a detailed interview with Barnes and discussed his medical and athletic history.

“I’ve got a few old football injuries,” explained Barnes, who played wide receiver at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla. “I also had a pretty bad back injury three years ago.”

Hodges even puts his clients on a massage table and checks their flexibility.

“We can really tweak the bike based on your body type,” he said.

The basic BG FIT, which includes saddle and handlebar adjustment, takes about 15 minutes.

A more comprehensive exam, which includes a “dynamic” or pedalling analysis, takes about 45 minutes. The advanced BG FIT covers everything from the flexibility assessment to hip, knee and foot alignment. Prices range from $60 to $180.

“A lot of people don’t give much thought to how they ride,” Hodges said. “But body position makes a huge difference in both how effective and how comfortable you are.”

Which could mean the difference between a new fitness passion and another dust-catcher in the garage.

Computer-aided analysis in sport is nothing new.

Golfers have had their swings broken down by computer for years. But as far as cycling goes, the industry is still in its infancy.

Specialized’s program (and there are others) has seen results.

In 2007, the California company provided ergonomic cycling enhancement to several top professional riders (road, mountain and multi-sport) who took home five world championships.

“If it will make me a better rider, I think it’s worth a try,” Barnes said. “I have learned so much already.”