In January I made a decision that it was time for a new road bike. We had been training heavily indoors at Optimum Performance in Leominster, for the upcoming 2009 season, and with all the hard work indoors, I thought I would treat myself to a new bike. The challenge with purchasing a new bike is which bike to choose, and I wanted the best possible fit. I shopped around online and at several local shops, but the fit is what worried me the most. A friend mentioned he had just been at a shop in Concord, ATA Cycles, and had never seen such an intricate high end operation for a bike shop.\r
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I made an appointment with Husam, for an evaluation of my current bike geometry and body geometry to first get my numbers to see which bikes would properly fit. Husam has a philosophy that “bikes should not be fit to riders, but rather riders should be fit to bikes” in other words choosing a bike is all about matching the correct bike geometry to your body first, then building the bike around the correct frame. Three hours after I arrived we had the correct body specifications and geometry specifications that would optimally fit. (see other posts for the fit procedure).\r
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My goal in purchasing the new bike was to ultimately improve my Functional Threshold Power (FTP), and here are the numbers to prove that proper bike fit can have a huge impact on power output. \r
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At Optimum Performance we test Functional Power Threshold every 6 weeks to keep track of our fitness improvements. We do this test on a Tac-X trainer performing a 20 minute all out time trial and taking the average power for 20 minutes.\r
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Date Bike Comments\r
1-5-2009 Trek Madone Fit measurements at ATA Cycle\r
1-7-2009 Trek Madone 306 watts FTP test at Optimum Performance\r
1-14-2009 Look 595 Picked up new bike from ATA Cycle\r
2-25-2009 Look 595 340 watts FTP test at Optimum Performance\r
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In analyzing the numbers there is an incredible 34 watt improvement or an overall 11.1% Functional Threshold Power increase in my power output. \r
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The numbers speak for themselves, bike fit is critical to performance and Husam seems to be the master at squeaking out every last watt. ATA is a great shop, with excellent customer service, and they can deliver the numbers to prove it!\r
Pros: Great Shop, Ultimate Bike Fit, Unmatched Customer Service
Cons: High End Shop
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