In the middle of February I got the news I’d been waiting for: my new bike had arrived. I felt as excited as a five-year-old at Christmas, apart from those times when I was mildly terrified (drop handlebars, different gears, looks smart) and thoughts of “this is going to be fun” mingled with “what on earth have I done?” Still, I’d paid a deposit and I’m from Lancashire so I went to BW Cycling on 14th February to have the bike properly set up.
I am slightly obsessed with having my bike set up
properly: I’m not tall (you may have noticed), I’m planning to ride a long way
(you might have heard) and I’m not young (zip it!). The bike is beautiful: sleek,
smooth and rolls with a lovely quiet “tick, tick” sound.
Oli put the bike on a turbo-trainer. I got on it - just (the turbo-trainer lifts it a couple of inches off the ground so it was a bit of a stretch), and Oli stuck white dots on my ankle, hip and knee, then I pedalled while he videoed me. This was not as strange as it sounds: the dots acted as reference points. We looked at the video and he joined the dots, measuring the angles between ankle and hip, shoulder and knee, etc. Then he said something that no-one has ever said to me before: “You’ve got long legs,” adding,”relatively speaking” before lowering the saddle a bit. Ah well, it was good while it lasted. He continued tweaking the set-up of the bike: saddle moved forward, stem changed for a smaller one, then showed me how to change gear. This is all rather complicated and abstract without a road and I think (hope!) it will soon become natural.
Oli put the bike on a turbo-trainer. I got on it - just (the turbo-trainer lifts it a couple of inches off the ground so it was a bit of a stretch), and Oli stuck white dots on my ankle, hip and knee, then I pedalled while he videoed me. This was not as strange as it sounds: the dots acted as reference points. We looked at the video and he joined the dots, measuring the angles between ankle and hip, shoulder and knee, etc. Then he said something that no-one has ever said to me before: “You’ve got long legs,” adding,”relatively speaking” before lowering the saddle a bit. Ah well, it was good while it lasted. He continued tweaking the set-up of the bike: saddle moved forward, stem changed for a smaller one, then showed me how to change gear. This is all rather complicated and abstract without a road and I think (hope!) it will soon become natural.
BW have been great: Andy and Oli have been interested in
me and what I want to achieve. They’ve taken into account my experience, age
and physical fitness without ever being patronising and everyone else has been
friendly. I’m confident that the bike is going to do the job.
I went back a few days later to have mudguards fitted (to
the bike, not to me) and Oli has lent me his turbo-trainer. I am honoured: he
has been National Cross-country Cycling Champion five times and has represented
Britain three times at the Olympics. It inspired me and when I got home I set
it up the turbo in the carport, put on some loud music and started pedalling. The
front wheel seemed to be at an angle, so I got off and adjusted that. I tried
the “drinking while pedalling” technique (needs practice). I couldn’t hear the
music properly so I went inside and turned up the volume. A few minutes later,
the bike started to make a squeaky noise. I stopped pedalling and checked but
couldn’t see anything wrong. I started
again and realised I’d left the door open a bit too much on a chilly day but I
reckoned I could just about reach it if I leaned over. So I leaned and …………………………..
It’s not very promising if I can’t even stay upright on a
bike that isn’t moving.
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