Saturday location: Seven | Studio || 8:40 am – 6:15 pm
The most important bike fitting tools:
a pen, paper, spare components, and a perfect macchiato.
- Travel Notes: Arrived home early this morning. Adjusting my internal clock. Another 20-hours of sleep would do it.
- Time Marker: Short day at Seven and the Studio – less than 10-hours. Trying to catch up on three days away from a decent internet connection. Emails keep coming in.
I awoke to this image and it took me a while to figure out why it was odd. Clever British Airways; they have a video camera hooked up to this TV to show flight information from a monitor somewhere. But the camera is a bit crooked so the TV screen looks off. Seems like an odd solution but it works.
Friday location: Uxbridge, England | Airplane || 8:40 am – 2:10 pm – plane flight
- ISC Symposium Notes: Another great day of thoughtful bike fitting presentations and conversations. Here are a few highlights:
- Last night I was asked to present at the Symposium because Phil thought a presenter was not going to show. Alas, that person showed up so I’m off the hook. I was flatter to have been asked. Maybe next year.
- I’m surprised that there is no longer anything like this in the US. Cyclefit is carrying the mantel of fit study and practice that the US began. Thank you Cyclefit.
- I’m impressed with all the presenters. They were willing to acknowledge that they don’t hall the answers – and in most cases they don’t have any answers. So little data to support hypothesis but at least that were up there proposing hypothesis.
- The majority of the presenters work in the top 0.01% of population. So some of the work is not super applicable to my primary interests of having more people more happy with the way their bikes work; fit being an important aspect of this. Evaluating optimized saddle height for Olympic track sprinters is not 100% transferable to the majority of the riders with which I work.
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Thursday location: Uxbridge, England | 8:30 am – 12:05 am on Friday
- Travel Notes: Arrived hotel at 2:10 am this morning. First time I’ve been in a bed – or laid down – since 5am on Tuesday. I think that’s 41-hours upright. Three hours of sleep this morning was not quite enough for some reason.
- ICS Notes: A fantastic day and evening of working with great bike fitters and practioners. Some highlights included:
- I was asked at the last minute, literally, to cover for someone that might not show for tomorrow. I have a bunch of ideas on what I could discuss for 90 minutes. Phil told me not to prepare anything.
- There are too many companies working on next generation fit tools. I think the technology has just made some major advances. I’ve never been very interested in any of the tools that exist up until now. In the next six months I think you’ll be seeing some really interesting advances. Of course, no tool makes up for experience. My favorite tools are still my ears, hands, and eyes.
- A lot of foot pressure measuring tools coming out. All interesting and some more useful than others. Shimano’s new system is about to arrive, too.
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I’m at the International Cyclefit Symposium presented by Cyclefit – one of Seven Cycles’ retailers in the UK. This is their second year of bringing together the best fitters and technicians in the world. It is the only fit gathering of its kind; I have to go to London to talk about the bleeding edge of bike fit. That seems a bit odd to me — that I have to leave the U.S. to talk about the best ideas in fitting. But, I’m excited to spend time with Cyclefit and talk with other bike fitters about the state of the art.
When: January 24-26, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
Where: Brunel University, Uxbridge, England
Why: Work with the best fitters and newest fitting technologies in the world.
My favorite quote of the week:
“You are part of the solution or you are part of the problem. You are not part of nothing.” – Jon Iriberri. Talking about racers and how they want to have the fitter fix whatever is wrong. Racers don’t want to be bothered with doing exercises, evaluate changing their positions or pedaling styles, etc. They just want the fitter to deal with it. For some reason it doesn’t work that way.
Update: Friday’s Session
- Last night I was asked to present at the Symposium because Phil thought a presenter was not going to show. Alas, that person showed up so I’m off the hook. I was flattered to have been asked. Maybe next year.
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I was asked a number of times at the International Cyclefit Symposium about my background. Some people were surprised at my – and Seven’s – bike fitting experience. Here are a few items that came up in conversation, and that Cyclefit expressed an interest:
- 1988: Worked on a four-year intense project focused on performance wheelchair ergonomics. This was formative in my bicycle fit thinking.
- 1991: Began learning fitting from Tom Kellogg while I worked at Merlin Metalworks. At that time the idea of remote fittings took hold at Merlin.
- More than 25,000 fits at Seven Cycles; I review and sign-off on more than 95% of those fits and designs. We’re fairly certain that no individual has performed more fits than this.
- 1999: Began running fit clinics all over the world for Seven Cycles retailers and distributors.
- Developed a 1,000+ page training manual for Seven Cycles performance design and fit team. This is not just about fitting; it’s about performance, holistic fit, and bike design philosophy.
- I do about a dozen in-person, hands on bike fits each week.
- I’m not a fit tool user – lasers, goniometers, etc. My tools are ears, hands, and sometimes eyes.
Wednesday location: Airplane | Brussels, Belgium || 1:30 pm – 7:40 pm
Baggage sign in Brussels: I know I’m tired but what’s that thing on the left? A cane or a set of fire irons?
- Event: I gave a talk this evening at Seven Cycles’ Belgian distributor’s store – Filip Sport. It was a great evening. Really good turnout. Many questions from people. A lot of current Seven customers and maybe future riders.
- Interviews: I met with two magazines in Belgium today. Both will be working on projects with Seven Cycles.
- Travel Notes: Flight from LHR to BRU – Heathrow to Brussels – cancelled. Then the next flight I could get was delayed three times. So, four dellations so far. Next, flight from BRU to LHR was delayed thrice. So, a total of seven dellations on this trip so far.
- Note: My visit in Belgium was cut short because of numerous flight delays.
Post title: Cephalophore.
del·la·tion noun \di-ˈlā-shən\
Definition:
- The time-period between a flight delay and a cancellation.
- The ever increasing chance that a delayed flight will become a cancelled flight.
- The uneasy time when it’s ambiguous whether you’re in a flight delay or simply just pre-cancellation.
- The shift in perception from a simple flight delay to a uber-fun cancellation.
- A combination of delay and cancellation.
Examples:
- Oh great, another dellation; that’s three today.
Entomology: Rob V’s half-asleep travel delusions.
First known use: January 23, 2013 – in an airport terminal
Rhymes with: ef-yu
David Bowie knows what it’s like.
Sometimes a dellation is, “not just for one day.”
I visited Belgium today and had a moment to talk with road bike magazine Grinta about Seven Cycles. We’re working on a cool project with Grinta that will be out next year. Stay tuned.
Here are some words from Grinta – as translated by Google.
Rob Vandermark, founder and CEO of the American bicycle brand Seven Cycles, was this week’s guest in Belgium with his Benelux distributor Filip Sport in Hoeilaart. Seven Cycles is the reference for handmade titanium, steel and carbon bike frames and this since 1997. “We attract proponent of the custom frame building, completely custom and the wishes of the client,” says Vandermark in Boston, where Seven is established, all frames from beginning to end and finish. “We strive for perfection in design and finish of the frames. [Two] Thirds of our bikes are titanium, the residual carbon and steel. In 2012, we have not felt the crisis. Rather, it’s been a good year. Having less money, then the end user simply willing to bet his money rationally. On a custom bike for example.”
Thanks Grinta!
Wait, what?
Tuesday location: Seven | Airplane || 6:10 am – 3:20 pm
- Conversations: Having a lot of conversations lately that show how old I am. Many people seem to never have ridden a titanium bike or a steel bike. The majority of the conversations I have are with riders that grew up on aluminum and than carbon. We’ve talked a lot about this phenomena at Seven – for the past few years. And it seems to be a lot more common in the past couple months; mostly for reasons I know. And for a few reasons I don’t know.
- Business Development: Working on a large event Seven Cycles is holding in February. We’re putting together about 20 clinics over two days.
- Travel Notes: Short day today at Seven. On a plane to BRU airport in Brussels, Belgium right now. Packing: I seem to have more power adapters and cables than I have clothing.
Monday location: Seven | 7:20 am – 9:15 pm
- Time Marker: Patria L. put together another amazing group tour of Seven Cycles. Thanks to Karl B. and John L. for making the twenty-five people feel at home in the factory. We had five kids on the tour; it’s always cool when kids hang in for the entire tour. Sometimes they actually enjoy it.
- Prep for Trip: Heading out tomorrow for a week of Belgium and the U.K. Not sure how it’s all going to come together.
- Business Thinking: Had a conversation with a framebuilder – who’s name I will protect by not sharing it here. We talked about how his clientele is changing; how he went from from building for excited friends and supports to now building for demanding customers he doesn’t know and doesn’t know how to make happy. Similar conversation that I had a couple weeks ago with another builder. This builder is looking at ways of adapting his customer base rather than him adapting to his customers interests: lugs vs. T.I.G. welding; custom vs. production. It’s a difficult transition. Impossible for most.
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I’m at the International Cyclefit Symposium presented by Cyclefit – one of Seven Cycles’ retailers in the UK. This is their second year of bringing together the best fitters and technicians in the world. It is the only fit gathering of its kind; I have to go to London to talk about the bleeding edge of bike fit. That seems a bit odd to me — that I have to leave the U.S. to talk about the best ideas in fitting. But, I’m excited to spend time with Cyclefit and talk with other bike fitters about the state of the art.
Monday location: Seven | 7:20 am – 9:15 pm