I’ve been on my “new” (well second hand – but new to me) bike for nearly a month now. I’ve fallen off once but have otherwise managed to balance and pedal and even change gears so I figured it was time to put my “big girl” trousers on and have a bike fitting and enter the realm of cleats.

I organised a bike fitting with Karl and bowled on up with my new Shimano shoes (which are super pretty) and my bike.

(I told you they were pretty!)

He measured me and apparently I have narrow hips – NEVER would have guessed that in a million years and obviously made me fall in love with Karl instantly 😉

There were rulers, swinging pedulum things and other such instruments I knew nothing about all designed to put me in the most ergonomic position and help propel me forward at great speed with “minimal effort”.

He found out in a few minutes that I have one leg longer than the other – heck I’ve had these legs for nearly 40 years and I had NO idea .. he put a wedge thing on one shoe that evened out my legs and suggested I do the same thing with my running shoes.  So I’ve made an appointment to see the sports podiatrist up the road from work next week during my lunch hour.

Karl was awesome and really patient when answering my stupid questions and he gave me loads of pointers on how I should be positioned on the bike in different situations.  Oh and he obviously went over how to clip in and out (we did that a lot because that was the part I was so weary about).  He did tell me to fall to the left if I was going to crash .. so I will try and remember that 😉

So how does the bike feel?

I don’t know yet.  The handlebars that were on the bike were too narrow for my broad shoulders (and yes I knew I had broad shoulders, unlike my newly found narrow hips), so I left the bike with Karl so he could fit wider ones.   I won’t get to try it out till Monday.  I will let you know how many times I fall off while being clipped in during one of next weeks posts.

It’s a long weekend here in Auckland – pity the weather is shite.  Can you all do a bring sunshine dance? I’d prefer not to try out my non existent cleat know how in the rain.

Till next time