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Knees and bike fit
Mar. 16th, 2004 06:16 amI woke up on Monday and discovered a big black bruise on the medial side (inside) of my kneecap. That means that either:
1) I banged it hard enough on the lateral side (outside) that it bruised on the medial side. (That would be a significant bruise, and produce swelling under the kneecap.)
2) I know I banged it on the lateral side, but I may have given it a bruiseworthy bang on the medial side also.
Conclusion: I need to work on my MTB skills so I fall off less.
When it comes to bike fit.... I went to Greensboro yesterday for a bike fit. Chris, who did the fit, really struck me as a nice guy. Increasingly, these days, people interest me, and their ways of dealing with the world and others in it.
In any case, I took both of my bikes (because the time trial bike does not hurt my knee but the road bike does). I was very impressed with the result. Chris (Mister Bike Fit) helped me get my bikes out of the car and had diagnosed what was likely causing my knee pain exactly two seconds after seeing both bikes. In the parking lot.
I was late...and got very lost... getting there, and had just gotten news that I'd done very badly on a midterm. (If I do not bring my grade up in that class, I will have to remediate the grade during my summer vacation... Ugh!) In any case, I was in a very stressed out and bad mood. But within about fifteen minutes, Chris' mellow and happy mood has rubbed off on me, and I'm chatting along, enjoying talking to him. Hmm. Emotions are contagious. My bad mood could have affected him, but no, it worked the other way. I need to know how he did that. More, I'd like to be mellow and happy like that.
By thirty minutes into the bike fit, he'd seen me on both bikes, gotten a medical history, understood my goals and riding habits, and grasped that I didn't have a big upgrade budget. By 60 minutes into the fit, he had refit both bikes so they felt comfy and had watched me ride both for several minutes (noting along the way that I ankle out on both sides when I pedal and that my right femur is slightly longer than my left.) All while chatting politely with me, raising his eyebrows and commiserating at the many body parts I've injured, discussing the Marine Corps (he was a marine), and unobtrusively watching my biomechanics as I pedaled away.
It's good to see a guy who's excellent at what he does. He found things my sports MD (an accomplished triathlete and bike fit expert) did not find.
Further chatting reveals that Chris is one of my personal heroes: He does not own a car. He rides everywhere. He's about my age and works in a bike shop because he loves it. (Not owning a car makes your life 100% more complicated and painful, but also simpler and cheaper. It's easy to ride everywhere in the summertime, but hey, in the winter when it ices over-- he grabs his bike with the studded tires on it and rides to work. On ice. Dodging cars that are trying to drive on ice, sometimes with mixed results. Impressed yet? I am. Chris says he is semiretired. Further questioning reveals that he is 37. Me, I worry about making enough to retire on, which is why I'm the same age and busting my tail in graduate school. Chris apparently doesn't worry about that, or he's got it covered. I don't ask about the details.)
At checkout time, I discover that Chris is giving me a seatpost that he's installed on one bike.
"Are you sure? I see a price tag on that seatpost."
"Yeah, it's a return, we took it off another bike. We won't be able to sell it."
"Wow, thanks!"
I suspect he's fibbing about that, and if I was a working professional he'd charge me for it, but I will not argue.
Then I discover something else: Chris mentions, as we're almost done, that he broke up with his girlfriend of six years the previous night. (Hmm. At a guess, she wanted to get married, or have a baby, and he didn't. He's about the right age for that. I do not ask.) In any case, if that had happened to me, I'd be a basket case, no matter the circumstances. Yet this guy is managing to hold it together and be polite, friendly, competent, and mellow with me.
It's easy to be impressed by someone who has multiple graduate degrees, or is a bigshot in industry. Yet when I look around me, I meet everyday people who impress me just as much as any captain of industry ever did. Chris is one of those people.
1) I banged it hard enough on the lateral side (outside) that it bruised on the medial side. (That would be a significant bruise, and produce swelling under the kneecap.)
2) I know I banged it on the lateral side, but I may have given it a bruiseworthy bang on the medial side also.
Conclusion: I need to work on my MTB skills so I fall off less.
When it comes to bike fit.... I went to Greensboro yesterday for a bike fit. Chris, who did the fit, really struck me as a nice guy. Increasingly, these days, people interest me, and their ways of dealing with the world and others in it.
In any case, I took both of my bikes (because the time trial bike does not hurt my knee but the road bike does). I was very impressed with the result. Chris (Mister Bike Fit) helped me get my bikes out of the car and had diagnosed what was likely causing my knee pain exactly two seconds after seeing both bikes. In the parking lot.
I was late...and got very lost... getting there, and had just gotten news that I'd done very badly on a midterm. (If I do not bring my grade up in that class, I will have to remediate the grade during my summer vacation... Ugh!) In any case, I was in a very stressed out and bad mood. But within about fifteen minutes, Chris' mellow and happy mood has rubbed off on me, and I'm chatting along, enjoying talking to him. Hmm. Emotions are contagious. My bad mood could have affected him, but no, it worked the other way. I need to know how he did that. More, I'd like to be mellow and happy like that.
By thirty minutes into the bike fit, he'd seen me on both bikes, gotten a medical history, understood my goals and riding habits, and grasped that I didn't have a big upgrade budget. By 60 minutes into the fit, he had refit both bikes so they felt comfy and had watched me ride both for several minutes (noting along the way that I ankle out on both sides when I pedal and that my right femur is slightly longer than my left.) All while chatting politely with me, raising his eyebrows and commiserating at the many body parts I've injured, discussing the Marine Corps (he was a marine), and unobtrusively watching my biomechanics as I pedaled away.
It's good to see a guy who's excellent at what he does. He found things my sports MD (an accomplished triathlete and bike fit expert) did not find.
Further chatting reveals that Chris is one of my personal heroes: He does not own a car. He rides everywhere. He's about my age and works in a bike shop because he loves it. (Not owning a car makes your life 100% more complicated and painful, but also simpler and cheaper. It's easy to ride everywhere in the summertime, but hey, in the winter when it ices over-- he grabs his bike with the studded tires on it and rides to work. On ice. Dodging cars that are trying to drive on ice, sometimes with mixed results. Impressed yet? I am. Chris says he is semiretired. Further questioning reveals that he is 37. Me, I worry about making enough to retire on, which is why I'm the same age and busting my tail in graduate school. Chris apparently doesn't worry about that, or he's got it covered. I don't ask about the details.)
At checkout time, I discover that Chris is giving me a seatpost that he's installed on one bike.
"Are you sure? I see a price tag on that seatpost."
"Yeah, it's a return, we took it off another bike. We won't be able to sell it."
"Wow, thanks!"
I suspect he's fibbing about that, and if I was a working professional he'd charge me for it, but I will not argue.
Then I discover something else: Chris mentions, as we're almost done, that he broke up with his girlfriend of six years the previous night. (Hmm. At a guess, she wanted to get married, or have a baby, and he didn't. He's about the right age for that. I do not ask.) In any case, if that had happened to me, I'd be a basket case, no matter the circumstances. Yet this guy is managing to hold it together and be polite, friendly, competent, and mellow with me.
It's easy to be impressed by someone who has multiple graduate degrees, or is a bigshot in industry. Yet when I look around me, I meet everyday people who impress me just as much as any captain of industry ever did. Chris is one of those people.
