My New Specialised Tarmac

Yes.. we have the patter of new tyres in the household. Today, I collected my new Specialised Tarmac SL4 Expert Mid Compact (there's a mouthful) from the Bike Shed cycle shop in Exeter.

I had to take a day off work to do this as I'd promised myself, for my next bike purchase, to have a Specialized Bike Fit and these are not done on a weekend. While I had decided to go for the basic £100 3 step 2D experience and not the £200 5 step pro video 3D fit .. after all, I'm not planning on entering the Tour de France any time soon .. this bike fit, or "Body Geometry Fit" as Specialised call it, was amazing. Let me take you through the 3 steps to cycling comfort ad performance perfection ..

Tarmac setup for the bike fit

Step 1: PRE-FIT INTERVIEW AND FLEXIBILITY ASSESSMENT
Here, my Body Geometry Fit specialist talked with me about my riding experience and goals, and evaluated my strength and flexibility .. or lack of them! Apparently 30 years of flying a desk had done nothing for my body's flexibility, but it's good to know ones limitations. I was scored against 3 areas:
(1) Hamstring Range. Here I scored 4/10, not a good score even when I was at school, so as expected I slipped into the Red zone on my assessment chart.
(2) Hamstring Isolated. This is where each leg is independently scored having been stretched to its limit of painless movement. Being very much right handed, there was no surprise that my left less well and at the end of the exercise, my chart read, L 42/90 (Red) : R 55/90 (Yellow) .. is it too late to take up yoga?
(3) Hip Flexion. Not sure what this was, but think I may have been fighting back as I was being manoeuvred in this position or else I should be booking my hip replacement surgery soon! Yes, I was in the red zone again.

Step 2: PRODUCT SELECTION
During my assessment, my fitter had me sit on a pleistocene pad and stand on a heat sensitive board. From these he confirmed my saddle was OK for my boney behind but that I needed more arch support in my cycling shoes .. ka-ching! £20 for a new insole, but it did feel better.

Step 3: RIDE ANALYSIS
Here, I pedalled like a possessed thing as my fitter visually assessed my position on the bike and adjusted seat, shoe cleats and handle bars accordingly in order to determine my best and most efficient ride position. This is where we made the greatest gains. My seat hight was raised by at least 2 cm, both cleats were adjusted so that the float (lateral movement) was centralised and the handle bar stem was shortened by at least 1 cm .. I can't tell you how much of an improvement this has made since replicating these changes on my Roubaix.

So, I feel this has certainly, so far anyway, been money well spent.

Ready for our first ride

Back home, as I was already all kitted up, we went our for our first ride together to see the Axe Valley highlights .. the harbour cafe for lunch, Soanes Cycles to check in on Sid and the team and then the Broom Wagon coffee shop for a strong black Americano .. what a perfect end to a perfect day of cycling treats!