A Session at The Bike Fitter!

Background Story:

I'm mostly a mountain biker and spend a lot of time out of the saddle, so I never really considered doing a bike fit before. However, 2026 is the 10-year anniversary of my road biking group, the Tuesday Turtles, and we've been spending the whole summer working through a 16-week training program, culminating in a one-day 100-mile ride in October. I've been riding with the group now for 6 years, and two years ago, I upgraded from a 2013 Cannondale Synapse 105 alloy to a 2019 Carbon Synapse Disc Ultegra, which I LOVE. Unfortunately, I've been getting tingly fingers, numb hands, neck/shoulder pain, and saddle sores as our weekly mileage has increased.

After talking to a couple other people, I made an appointment for a road bike fit with Mark Gerlando at Ride Science in Traverse City. I figured the bike mostly fit me, and I'd just need a few tweaks, but I scheduled the "Full Fit" just in case. The morning of my appointment dawned, and I loaded up my road bike for the fit, and my mountain bike for a ride after. In the appointment reminder email, I was instructed to wear my usual biking clothes, and to bring my shoes, helmet, gloves, Camelback, and anything else I usually wear for riding.

The Process: 

Mark pulled into the parking lot just minutes after I did, and he had me bring BOTH bikes in. He pulled the rear wheel off the road bike and mounted it up to the trainer/sensor, while I filled out some paperwork about my bike, goals, physical issues, etc. After he had my bike set up, he grabbed both pair of shoes I brought (one pair of SPD sandals and one pair Specialized road shoes), and immediately moved the cleats all the way to the back of the slots. This was the only thing he did that he didn't explain to me, so asked "Dr. Google", and got this:

Key Benefits of Moving Cleats Back

Better Comfort and Less "Hot Foot": Traditional placement under the ball of the foot puts pressure on the springy metatarsal joints, which can cause numbness or a burning sensation. A rearward position moves the pressure onto the solid bony heads of the metatarsals, offering more support. [1, 2]
Reduced Calf and Achilles Strain: Opinions on TrainerRoad show a consensus that rearward cleats decrease the ankle's range of motion and reduce the workload on your calf muscles and Achilles tendons. [1, 2]
Improved Stability: Moving the cleat back shortens the effective lever arm of the foot, making it easier to maintain a stable ankle angle during your pedal stroke without wasting energy. [1, 2]

Important Bike Fit Adjustments

When you shift your cleats backward, your foot moves further forward relative to the pedal axle, which effectively increases your leg extension. [1, 2]

Lower Your Saddle: As a general rule, lower your saddle slightly (about 5 mm for every 10 mm you move the cleat back) to compensate for the extra reach. [1, 2]
Adjust Saddle Setback: You may also need to nudge your saddle forward by a small amount to keep your knee and hip alignment feeling natural. [1, 2]

 Once he had that done, he had me slip the sandals on, climb up on the platform, hop on the bike, and start pedaling. In front of my bike, on the wall was a very large monitor with an instantaneous pedal power graph showing cadence, power, and where in the stroke the power levels are happening (plus a bunch of other stuff that would be appropriate for a competitive cyclist, but was more than I needed to worry about). He watched me pedal for a few minutes, while I watched the numbers and the moving graph on the screen. With my current set up and new cleat position, my power numbers ranged from low 90s to around 101, and the peak was happening before my feet hit the 3:00 position. I could really feel my saddle sores along the crease of my left leg.

 

 Lots of pedaling, hopping off, adjusting seat position and handlebar rotation, hopping back on, and more pedaling ensued. I watched as the power peak slid closer to the 3:00 position, and I could feel my shoulders and arms relaxing and my pedal stroke feeling smoother.

 Next up was the addition of the saddle pressure sensor. He had me stand up while "coasting" so he could slide it over my saddle underneath me. Then he had me sit back down and pedal some more. More pedaling and hopping, but this time, I slid over to his desk to look at the saddle pressure heatmap on his monitor. It showed that my pelvis is angled left hip forward a bit (likely from the cracked acetabulum I had), that I'm not sitting fully back on the saddle, that my pelvic center of mass was stuck in the bottom right side of the graph, and that there were really obvious red "hot spots", especially along the left side. It turns out that the Terry Butterfly/Topo/Selle Italia LDY saddles that I've had on every one of my bikes since they first came out in the late 1990s is simply no longer the right saddle for me and there are a LOT better options for my physiology. Besides being too wide and flat in the back, blocking me from using my hamstrings efficiently and pushing me forward constantly, it was too wide in the front, causing the saddle sores, too.

He went to his wall of saddles, and grabbed a few that were shorter, narrower, and more curved. More hopping and pedaling, as I watched my power numbers climb and my heat mapping improve with each saddle change. We finally settled on the Specialized Power Comp with Mimic in the 155 width. The heatmap was now almost fully green with just bits of yellow (no longer any red), my pelvis line was farther back, right where it should be, my pelvic center of mass was now moving freely to both sides of the saddle, and my power levels had jumped to the 130s. In addition, because my sit bones were fully supported (and I no longer had to keep pushing myself back), my shoulder and neck pain and tingly fingers were gone.

Finally, because he moved my cleats back, he had to lower my saddle and because my top tube is a bit too long (since I'm all legs and no torso), move it all the way forward.

Once we were all done with that, he "mapped" my bike, measuring and noting reach, stack, offset, and a bunch of other numbers so we can set my other and any new bikes the same way. Then he grabbed my mountain bike and checked the same measurements. We both had to chuckle because it was already set up within 3-5 mms of everything we had just done with the road bike. I still need to swap out saddles on that one, and we'll need to move the new saddle lower to account for the saddle stack height, but otherwise, it should be good to go.

We shook hands, I paid him (less than I expected because we didn't use the whole 2 1/2 hours), and he helped me wheel the bikes out to my car. I then cruised across town and hopped on the TART for a 20-mile test ride.

 The Verdict: 

As of right now, I'm going to call the fitting a complete success - my hands never got tingly, the saddle sores already there weren't noticeable, I never got fidgety, my neck and shoulders felt fine, and I climbed the eastern end hills easily. I'm to keep in touch with any issues as he guarantees his fits for a year, and any issues should show up this week as our program's training rides for this week are 20, 40, and 75 miles.

My Recommendation: 

If you ride bikes and have any discomfort at all, this is an amazing service! It doesn't matter if you're just a recreational rider or a competitive cyclist; I absolutely, 100%, recommend doing this. It was way more involved and enlightening than I ever expected.

The Specifics:

Owner/fitter: Mark Gerlando

Ride Science

129 E State St, Traverse City, MI 49684

Website: https://www.ridescience.com/