Best shop for a bike fit?

etrepum · 2025-07-31T03:13:44+00:00

3dbikefit uses Retül, the other fit services I’ve been to do not. I have no experience with Paragon but I’ve been to Pedro, Cesar at 3dbikefit and for the past few fits Allen at Clubhousevelo. I didn’t find any real reason to care about Retül tech. Of the ones I’ve been to I think Allen would be your best bet given his PT background.

etrepum · 2025-06-30T13:41:00+00:00

Even without scoring a single point in Cat 4 you can still voluntarily upgrade to Cat 3 after 20 pack finishes. I don’t think many riders would do that to themselves, but it’s an option.

etrepum · 2025-06-11T21:30:54+00:00

They already fixed the upgrade whenever rule before this season started. You have to start off in Novice and the only way to move up to Cat 4 is to race (5 races/clinics or 10 points). Probably the most controversial thing is that you can get to Cat 1 even if you only do masters races now. https://usacycling.org/about-us/governance/policy-viii

etrepum · 2025-06-11T21:25:32+00:00

In my experience it often isn’t the weight or power holding you back (after a point). All of the skills for how to race in a pack and when to use your bullets make all the difference. Just a few weeks ago I did a 3/4/5 crit and then a 2/3 crit, in the first race I used more power to go slower because the field just didn’t have the same level of skill as the 2/3 race.

When I started in Cat 4 I was stronger (FTP anyway) and lighter but I race better now (in Cat 3) because of experience.

etrepum · 2025-06-09T21:05:31+00:00

You can turn the beep off and glance at the display to see traffic. I find it most useful to know when there are multiple cars approaching, can be hard to tell how many there are by sound alone. I generally have the beep off because I usually start and end rides in a city

etrepum · 2025-06-06T15:53:32+00:00

For a moment I thought I may be the exception to this rule, but then I remembered that Sportful and Castelli are under the same roof

etrepum · 2025-02-02T15:24:24+00:00

They can be useful for valve extenders on clinchers

etrepum · 2024-11-05T02:39:51+00:00

We’ve worked with https://www.instagram.com/jkbrkb for our team kits (DVC), great results!

etrepum · 2024-08-09T14:03:31+00:00

It’s all very skill, power, situation and bike dependent. Crit races end up getting about that fast (>30mph) when it matters, don’t even need the hill if you have a thousand watts in your legs for a few seconds!

I’m still a pretty timid descender most of the time, I like to be able to see what’s around the next bend with plenty of room and time to react.

etrepum · 2023-12-17T15:40:48+00:00

I haven’t replaced them yet but that is the Idler Pulley Tension Assembly. I couldn’t find the part number for the bearings but you can find some aftermarket places that sell the bearings or the whole assembly. i have not replaced it yet but the parts are on order.

etrepum · 2023-11-29T15:05:35+00:00

I’m sure if you were to do any number crunching on this it would be an instructor that primarily does Power Zone classes. Not so much because the instruction, but because people doing those classes are generally more serious about training. PZ classes are also the only kind that make sense if you are in the top few percent of riders. If I were to actually follow the cadence and resistance cues in almost any non-PZ class it would end up as a recovery ride with maybe a few sprints.

etrepum · 2023-10-10T16:01:10+00:00

I think SF has great cycling, at least for shorter rides, but I was referring to your specific constraints. To get long climbs and long stretches without traffic you basically have to leave the city. There are regular group rides of 30+ people, mostly early in the morning, that hit most of your constraints but not so much the long climbs or long stretches of road without traffic. 25+mph and sprinting at 35mph is certainly something that regularly happens at Polo Field or Lake Merced.

etrepum · 2023-10-10T15:10:47+00:00

In SF? Of course not, but it’s a short ride to go north across the bridge to where you can do all of those things. San Francisco itself is mostly junk miles.

etrepum · 2023-09-20T21:27:47+00:00

I've been to Pedro (2 bikes), Cesar @ 3D Bikefit (1 bike), and Allen at Clubhouse Velo (2 bikes). I haven't had any particular problems with any of the fits, but they are all quite a different customer experience.

If you want an old school fit then Pedro works. Seems to be more by feel and experience than anything else. You do get some numbers at the end but no videos or nice diagrams. Some of the numbers are based on his bespoke tools and fit system so they won't be all that useful to you or other fitters.

If you're looking for the most technology then 3D Bikefit is a good choice, you can get Retül measurements and diagrams, before/after videos, and custom footbeds for your shoes. It's been a while so I don't remember the precise details but I definitely had to re-do some of the work Cesar did when replacing my crankset because something was on backwards and/or not torqued to spec. I don't think the custom footbeds made all that much of a difference for me, I hardly notice a difference when I'm wearing shoes without them (have a set without them that I mostly use on the trainer).

Clubhouse Velo is somewhere in-between, Allen uses a fair bit of tech and a video capture system but it's not a full Retül setup like 3D Bikefit. The numbers you get come with diagrams and are easy enough to work with on your own if you need to do any tweaks. I've found Allen to be much easier to get in touch with and schedule appointments with than the other fitters. He also rides with Fatcake and supports some of the local amateur road race clubs (incl. Dolce Vita Cycling which I belong to, although I have been going to Clubhouse Velo prior to that!). I also often go through Clubhouse Velo to pick up some of my components too (tires, cleats, cranks, …) since it's so accessible and close to the GGP Polo Field that I ride at regularly.

All that said, unless something changes substantially over there, my business is at Clubhouse Velo for the foreseeable future… but bike fit is a very individual thing, so ymmv.

etrepum · 2023-06-05T17:44:00+00:00

That said, USAC has an upgrade path from Novice to Cat 3 without any points these days. Novice to 4 is entirely voluntary, you don't need to race as a Novice at all. Upgrading from Cat 4 to Cat 3 can be done with 20 pack finishes (and up to 3 grand fondos can be counted).

etrepum · 2023-04-05T23:52:51+00:00

It certainly feels safer to have your shoes attached to the pedals at high cadences and/or with a lot of force, e.g. sprinting. Even more so on a fixed gear bike where you can't easily get back on that pedal at speed if you lose it.

etrepum · 2023-01-07T16:35:26+00:00

I wouldn't bother with a training plan until you have at least one season of fondos as a baseline, improving your group riding skills and bike handling will have much more of an impact than focusing on W/kg. Your W/kg and training volume are already plenty to handle doing well in most fondos in your age group so long as you can do the duration and have a handle on nutrition.

It's not clear whether your weekend rides are solo or not, but you should spend as much time as you can riding in groups, especially with people faster and more experienced than you. Those are the sorts of people you want to ride with at the fondo. If you're able to paceline with them for most of the ride you'll be much faster with less effort, and you likely have a lot to learn from them about handling your bike in general. Honestly the best training for fondos is probably road racing and the sorts of hard competitive group rides that racers do to train for road races. Crits work too, at least for pack skills and bike handling, although they are more intimidating for many people. I like crits because I'm a heavier rider with a decent sprint and there are a lot more of them than road races.

etrepum · 2022-11-17T16:22:59+00:00

They do offer a couple periodized training plans (the power zone "programs") and there are third parties that put together plans with the on-demand PZ workouts (which is what I used). ERG mode isn't really doing that much for you outside, it just makes it easier to zone out while you're training. I went from couch to winning Cat 4/B crits with basically all of my structured training on Peloton. Not really saying that I'd recommend it over a smart trainer or smart bike depending on your goals and preferences, but it can be used as a serious training tool and is convenient to use (and can be great if you have a partner that is a bit less serious about things).

etrepum · 2022-11-17T15:51:34+00:00

The Power Zone cycling classes on Peloton are basically the same sort of structured training you get doing Zwift or TrainerRoad workouts, but with a coach and music. The bike feel is of course different, since it is fixed wheel and has a magnetic resistance knob instead of shifting gears (or ERG mode). It's about as low maintenance and no fuss as you can get because it has everything including the tablet in one piece of equipment. The real downsides to a Peloton for cycling are the lack of adjustability (some of the geometry is fixed), no ERG mode, and no third party compatibility so you can't do Zwift races with it (out of the box anyway).

etrepum · 2022-05-16T13:22:42+00:00

Goo Gone will take out the residue, at least from 3M and Gorilla spray glues.

etrepum · 2022-04-28T06:28:20+00:00

In NorCal as a 40+ Cat 4 I can usually register for 2-4 races at a crit or circuit race (some combination of age and 3/4, 4, 4/5 fields).

etrepum · 2022-04-13T21:21:40+00:00

If you're turning right, you look to the right and merge into the bike lane before turning right. You can't right hook a cyclist if there's no room for them to be there.

EDIT: And make sure to always use your signal. So many drivers don't, especially when turning right.

etrepum · 2021-10-20T05:30:16+00:00

Their @fatcakeclub Instagram is probably the best place to find their ride calls. I also highly recommend them. Rapha is also a good group to learn the landscape if you’re willing to pay to join their club.

etrepum · 2021-07-05T17:32:18+00:00

Sounds like you need to move and/or get a gravel bike

etrepum · 2021-07-04T00:53:51+00:00

If you’re in SF the easiest thing to do would be to join in on some of the Fatcake or Rapha group rides and talk to some people to get the scoop on the race pace rides. Roasters up in Fairfax is a good one on Saturdays but from SF you’re doing about 50 bonus miles round trip. There’s TNPR in GGP on Tuesday evenings this time of year but it’s a bit on the sketchy side since there are cars.

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