As you recall, I must have been a real good girl last year, as Santa Baby brought me a brand new race bike for Christmas.
She was a beauty! I was so excited and she even came with a high speed fitting called RETUL. I was stoked.
I hauled her over to the bike shop the first opportunity I had after Christmas and as soon as I walked in the door of Race Pace, one of the technicians said, “We are going to have to exchange that bike out for you. It’s WAAAAYY to big. Looking at you, you shouldn’t be on anything bigger than about a 47cm.”
I was clutching a 54cm. Lip trembling. My Dominique Diva was a 52cm. But, but…
The technicians started pulling out other Trek’s at 47cm and 49cm, put me on a trainer and well, yeah, the 47cm fit like a glove actually.
“Who fit you for your current bike?”, the man asked. All I could do was give that doe eyed look cause see, what had happened was, see, I was broke and bought the cheapest bike I could above Dicks & ToysRUs (Introducing Dominque Diva Dawes) and see, like I just kinda went with that chart online and then put it together myself and then like only had a seat adjustment…
Bike Man - “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Been having some trouble and challenging rides, huh?”
Me - “Yeah, well I made it do what it do and TODAY is a NEW DAY, NEW BIKE.
BM – “That it is, let’s find you the right one for you.”
WOO HOO!! GO ME!
We settled on the 2013 Trek Madone 3.1 WSD – I have named her Blazing Bellezza Nera (Blazing Black Beauty).
And she is definitely a beauty and for the price point and what I want to do – blazing fast for me. It took about a week for her to come in and I immediately went over to Race Pace to get my custom RETUL fitting. RETUL is a “state-of-the-art motion 3Dcapture bike fit system” and I thought it was awesome! The gentleman who did my fitting was also a paramedic and he actually took a look at hip alignment, checked to see if one leg/arm was longer than the other and several other measurements before hooking me up to the 3D capture system as those things would have to be compensated for in order to have a proper fit.
It took almost 2 hours of spinning with the monitors on me to get all the measurements/angles down to the mm. I was served gatorade and kept pedaling, stopping, adjusting till he – and I – was satisfied.
He gave it over the bike mechanics to make sure everything was tightened down and aligned and I took her home.
Blazing Bellezza and me! I have only had her out on the rode once since I brought her home. TIP – read the manual before hand so you know how to change the gears before you are on a road with traffic or a hill. It helps…just sayin.
Compared to Diva Dawes, Bellezza is LIGHTER – significantly. Faster. The saddle fits like a glove and the pressure I used to feel is gone. My girl parts are thankful. I was able to climb in a mid range gear whereas on my old bike I HAD to get into the lowest gear or I was going to stroke out …or fall over. So far, I’m in love. I still have lots of work to do – a new bike does not make me an instant podium candidate – but she sure is gonna be helpful in getting closer to some PR’s. I want to take her out on the BWI/B&A Trail where I won’t run into so much traffic to see what I can really do on her. Time will tell.
I highly recommend that you get a complete and extensive bike fit. Even if you don’t get a new bike, take the one you have and get measured and fitted. It will make the world of difference.
Stay tuned for this year’s adventure of the Traveling Diva and Blazing Bellezza Nera.
