372 - Bike Fit Secrets from a World-Class Expert — Ride Faster, Ride Smoother with Chris Soden
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Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast!
On this episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon and Chris Soden of Strategic Fitting, one of the world’s leading experts in bike fitting discuss the importance of customized coaching and bike fitting. Chris shares his background, emphasizing the evolution of bike fitting from basic measurements to advanced systems. He highlights the significance of saddle fit, tire pressure, and equipment choices, advocating for adjustable components and proper positioning. Chris also stresses the importance of preemptive bike fits to avoid issues during training. They discuss the benefits of road bikes for triathletes and the need for proper equipment to enhance performance and comfort. Chris offers remote consultations and aims to provide personalized solutions for athletes.
If you have any questions about the Purple Patch program, feel free to reach out at info@purplepatchfitness.com.
Episode Timecodes:
00-:57 Promo
1:27-3:16 Intro
3:45-8:57 Chris Bio
9:00-19:03 Bike Fitting
19:05-25:13 Choosing the Right Bike
25:15-29:19 ROI on the Bike
20:25-35:46 Road Bike vs. Tri Bike
35:50-40:15 Comfort and Contact Points
40:20-42:50 Race Day Set Up
42:55-end When to Get a Fit
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Transcription
Matt Dixon 00:00
As you can imagine, I have a lot of conversations with different athletes, and something that I hear all the time is that athletes are frustrated something feel doesn't feel quite right with their coaching, but they end up staying because they feel guilty about leaving. Quite often. They've been in a relationship for a long time, but let me be clear, you deserve to be 100% satisfied with your coaching, if your training isn't truly customized to your life, if it's not a situation where you're getting the communication that you need, or perhaps you're not a priority amongst all of the other more competitive athletes that that coach might serve. And then perhaps it's time for a change. At purple patch, we offer complimentary needs assessment to talk through your goals, your training and whether one to one coaching or our tri squad program might be a better fit for you. It's no pressure whatsoever. All it is is an honest conversation about how you can get the coaching that you deserve. Feel free to reach out to us. Info@purplepatchfitness.com I'm Matt Dixon, and welcome to the purple patch podcast. The mission of purple patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential. Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere integrate sport into life.
Matt Dixon 01:27
Matt and welcome to the purple patch podcast as ever your host Matt Dixon, and today we are digging in and Chris, we're digging into a little area of performance that is often forgotten about or maybe underserved. And we are going to dig into bike fit, but much more than bike fit, everything around the bike, and I'm joined today. In fact, I get to welcome back to the show. Chris Soden of strategic fit, welcome, thank you. Yeah, pleasure to be here. Nice to I was gonna say nice to see you again, although we've seen a lot each other over the last last couple of days and and over the last months, but here you are. You are enmeshed in the fabric of the purple patch Performance Center. Here. Got my purple patch blazer. It fits. It fits nicely tailored. I want to it's always premium. But everything you do, but we, we're going to dig in. We want to revisit bike fit. And when we started framing this show, we we talked a lot as a team around how can we help we get the best, actionable education and knowledge out of your head, into the into the hearts, into the minds of the listener. And I said, I just want to ask Chris a whole bunch of questions. Yeah. Basically the top questions, bam, bam, bam, almost Quick Fire, which we know as we're discussion, we're not quick fire, but we're going to dig in and hopefully set the mindset, set the principles of everything around really, not just what you do to help athletes perform better on the bicycle and, by definition, on the run, off of the bicycle for the triathletes. But go beyond fitting, get to aerodynamics, get to equipment, even dive into some aspects of tire pressure, other things like that, so that people can actually enjoy their bicycle. Yeah, it's all connected. It's all connected. So without further ado, if you if you want to fasten your seat belt, are you ready for it? I'm good. All right. This is the meat and potatoes.
Matt Dixon 03:23
let's get going. Chris Soden, so Chris, I always like to start with this question, and and it's been quite some months effects, maybe more than a year, since you're on the show last and so, so I want to go back to the start so that we don't have to force listeners to go back to listen to your other episodes, which were terrific with us. But, I like to do this with every guest. Shared a little bit about your background. Where did you grow up? And yeah, that story,
Chris Soden 03:50
yeah, I went up and down the East Coast. My dad was he worked for DuPont, so we traveled quite a bit when I was a kid. So, but I would say, I would tell most people I'm from New Jersey or Delaware, so East Coast Boy, that's why myself and Pat Romano get along so well. There you go. So yeah, grew up there, came out to Colorado in about 1995 and that was basically a big, a big change in terms of where I was living and with family and stuff. But yeah, I'm an East Coast boy. That's why I started riding bikes and and went to Rutgers and
Matt Dixon 04:28
went to a I'm gonna get to bikes, because obviously it's the theme of the day. But growing up, what? What were your sports? Growing up?
Chris Soden 04:35
Yeah, sportsman I was, yeah, I played everything except football. My father wouldn't allow me to play American football, so I played soccer. I was a goalie. I was a striker. Quite a bit. I was my main sport was baseball. So I was a baseball pitcher and and I played basketball as well, mostly to stay in shape for baseball. I think baseball was really where my passion was. I. That was what I chased up through, up through high school. I was probably a very, very good high school pitcher. I was a decent college pitcher, and then my arm decided to stop cooperating, and that's really what, what allowed me to then find cycling, because running for me had always been kind of punishment within the sports like you're not doing this right. Go run and wind sprints. And I think I struggled to find something out of that. And I had some friends that had started riding, and so I went to my local bike shop and I bought a bike, and they sold me the wrong bike, and it wasn't because they were mean. They just didn't know what to do with all this and and the rest is history. I it's one of those few moments in life where the first pedal stroke that I took, and it wasn't my first time on a bike, but it was my first time on a real bike, I said, Wow, I'll do this forever. And I don't know many other things that I've been able to say that about.
Matt Dixon 05:53
Yeah, there's, I mean, there's very few things in life where we we fall in love, and then 1015, 20 years later, you're still in love with it as well. Yeah, their interest Was it, was it road cycling?
Chris Soden 06:04
Yeah, it was a, it was a Fuji ace, a steel road bike with sun tour equipment. And what's funny is, at my size, I'm a bigger guy. I'm six, five, like 245, and so I just proceeded, and it wasn't a great bike, it was an entry level bike, but I proceeded to start breaking everything. So it pushed me, and did very well, that You excelled? Sure, yeah, I got to know bike shop very quickly. And it it was one of those things where it kind of forced me to delve into the mechanical side, and that created, kind of almost another love of working on bikes, working on machines. I came to quickly appreciate how, how amazing the bicycle
Matt Dixon 06:41
is. And was that? Was that the catalyst? Tell me the entry of how you get, how you ultimately got into bike fitting.
Chris Soden 06:49
Yeah. So I graduated, graduated Rutgers. I had gotten very involved in politics. I'd worked in politics for a couple of years, and yeah, and one of the campaigns that ended, and this local bike shop that I went to all the time, on one day where I was having to pick up a spoke or something that I broke said, Hey, what are you doing now? Our mechanic just gave us notice. And I said, Oh, that's funny. My campaign just ended, and the rest is history. That was 30 plus years
Matt Dixon 07:13
ago, from from politics to fitting
07:17
Yes, yes, quite the journey.
Matt Dixon 07:20
Well, I've got my notes here because I want to make sure that I still keep us on track and go from here. What I first wrote down was the unity and mission that we have at purple patch. And for yourself, which, which I would say is athlete first and under that really making sure that an athlete across all levels, from elite all the way to people that are just getting into the sport, are empowered to love their their sport, also continue loving their sport, and with a mission to that, try and take something that can be incredibly complex and simplify it. For us, it's training in all of the supporting habits, integrating into into sport and life. Yours is everything around the bicycle, and that's much of what the questions that I want to go through today can really try and help be, help be empowering to people that are listening and watching the show, obviously. But before we get into it, the bike industry, it is an incredible you know, I started riding bicycles in probably I grew up riding bicycles when I was young as a little kid, just recreationally. But where I really found it was my post swimming career, and I was in in graduate school, doing my masters. So it was in the mountains of South Carolina, is where I really sort of fell in love with riding the bike. And from then in sort of mid to late 90s through till now, it is an industry that it just gone through so many evolutions. Is, has emerges and evolves at a rapid rate, and and there's a lot of contradiction, confusion and more in it. So I'd love, I'd love some of your perspective, what you seen in the industry, particularly around fitting. Fitting was always something that was an absolute afterthought. When I started, it was just, oh, yeah, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And torture is now. So what are you giving? Me give us just a couple of minutes of how you've seen, if I say the umbrella word of bike fitting, how's that evolved? Yeah,
Chris Soden 09:17
I think, I think to your point when, when you hang around long enough, you kind of see the whole arc. And I think I've seen the progression. When I started at bike shops, bike fitting was as simple as, can you stand over the bike? Can you lift it up? Do you have clearance? You know, hold the bike while somebody pedals backwards to get saddle height. I think what happened with higher end bikes, and especially with custom bikes, there became this influx of bike shops that wanted to sell higher end product, and the perception was that if we have to sell this product, we need expertise to do so and so, in a funny way, bike fitting kind of became the hot topic. A lot of people did it specialized doubled down. They had a whole program for doing bike fitting. And. Yeah. And I think a lot of shops started to dabble in it. They bought retool systems, they bought motion capture systems, whatever, whatever the brand was. And in a funny way, they, I think it was a kind of a stamp of validation, like, oh, we do that, yeah, we have that equipment over there. But the reality was, I think what I saw in practice was they would just basically say, Well, we have that, and if you want to spend x amount of dollars on it, but you know what, we have Fred, and Fred rides a lot, and, you know, we can have Fred just put you on the trainer, you know, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, kind of eyeball you and, you know, he rides a lot. And because, I think fundamentally, what I've learned is that bike fitting doesn't necessarily Jive within the realm of the traditional bike shop. Because if I come along and say, Hey, this bike is perfect, except I'd love it if it had a shorter crank, or I'd love it have a different width handlebar, the bike manager is coming over
Matt Dixon 10:50
and saying, hey, it's just a hassle. What are you doing? You're creating hassle.
Chris Soden 10:53
And like, I was about to sell this bike, and now you come in and you say, these changes. And so I think in a funny way, it's kind of run the whole arc. There were, everybody was involved in bike fitting. Everybody wanted to get involved with bike fitting. It was done at the myriad of levels of very high end to very rudimentary and everything in between. Now I kind of laugh. I feel, I feel a bit like the butcher. I feel a bit like everybody has kind of gone away. And there's not as many shops doing it. And I think the ones that are doing it generally do a pretty good job. Think there's still some, there's still some. Hey, let's just put you on a trainer. But ultimately, like, I'm getting more and more referrals from other bike shops. They just don't want to deal with it. They don't want to buy the equipment. They bought the equipment. Nobody uses it. So I think we're in a fun a fun spot. And I think bike fitters as a general rule, specifically when they're detached from a store, we just have a different perspective on the industry. We're trying to do what's right by the athlete. We're not making judgments about whether this crank is ideal or not. We're just trying to help the athlete put them in a good spot where they can succeed.
Matt Dixon 11:58
also have freedom, because you're not tied to a particular shop brand. And so for you, you don't have to say, Okay, we really want to try and sell XYZ, because that's what we carry. Yeah. And so there's, there's less ulterior motive that's driving you so far as you can actually go genuinely athlete,
Chris Soden 12:15
yeah, I had a funny moment in my career where I was, I was basically asked to come in and do some fit work within this, I won't name the brand, but within this brand and and, you know, it was great, except, like, you could only sell their stuff. And I was like, Well, what happens if we want to use different tri saddle? We can't do that. Well, then very quickly, I was like, well, then we're not doing bike fitting. Yeah. We're doing, you know, captured captured audience sales, where we've dumbed it down to using things that you sit on and as a predictor for saddles. And, you know, the bike industry, I often joke. I've done this for a long period of time. I've dealt with a myriad of shops. I've done everything from own, my own shop, own, my own fit studio, done everything in between. The bike industry is lightning. It likes the path of least resistance. It likes it to be quick, simple. It's the fries with us. Fries with that. And I just think that so many athletes desire and want a deeper conversation
Matt Dixon 13:14
when, when we frame this, I want to get into the questions and the meat and potatoes of the meat and potatoes, but, but I want to frame that the lens finally and hopefully, I've got my list right, but when I think about you, and I think it's important for the the audience to really cement this in who you are and what your role is, because we've talked a lot about fitting, but really, you do many things to help athletes. You know? I can just think of the athletes that actually we've had in the center for the last couple of days. And there is, let me list them off, and then you, you tell me what I've missed here. But there's, there's sort of in it fitting to optimize, obviously, power, speed, everything else this fitting to actually solve challenges. So people that are very uncomfortable got hot spots underneath, etc, etc. There's aerodynamic work. So looking to try and get as slippery as you can to get the biggest speed returns, you consult a lot on equipment choices. We talked about different width, handlebars, cranks, etc. So someone is buying a bike, making sure they're buying a bike that is genuinely like a glove, that they can fall in love with, not just esthetically, but actually usability. You go through the end to end bike fit process, and that's it. Comes back to the agnostic approach. You have great relationships in industry. You can go and source any bike. You can, as many of my athletes have experienced, deliver the bike, fit the bike, wherever the person is, in fact, all over the world, all over the world with her. You got foot bits and things like that. Said that there's a multitude, is it? What am I missing? There are some of the stuff that, yeah,
Chris Soden 14:47
I think mostly, you know, you've, you've covered a lot of it. I think a big part of it is like, look, let's just make great decisions. Let's make very good choices. And let's understand that the choice is furious. Certain individual might be very different than sometimes the athlete who referred them in, I'll get that call sometimes, like, hey, what you sold so and so this handlebar set up? How come you sold me the other one? Well, you're different. You have different, different needs, and the bikes are different. And I think there's a there's a beauty in that, and there's and sometimes it is a little bit. Maybe, if there's a strain, it's that. It is a little bit more of a discussion. It's not a simple stamp. It's not everybody gets the same thing, yeah, which, to me is, is a bit of you know, whether it's crank arm length, everybody in the bike industry loves these simple answers. Oh, everybody's doing this. Everybody's doing that. Everybody should be on a shorter crank. No, everybody shouldn't. But there's are instances where it makes sense,
Matt Dixon 15:42
even your consultations that you do remotely, I don't think I've ever known used to a consultation where someone just buys a block of time and you say, See you later. There's always a process there. Yeah.
Chris Soden 15:52
And I've learned, I mean, I've done probably over 300 of those in my career, and it's really a recent thing. It came out of all the craziness of covid, where it was a bit of a necessity. I think what I learned in that whether I'm working with a client from Dubai or China or or Georgia or Seattle, there just is a lot of, I wouldn't even say it's bad information. I think it's just kind of formulaic. Everybody just gets on the same path of everything is the same, and really, to deep dive into what an individual needs and to help them in that space is super, super fun, and I've enjoyed it. I've learned in that, and it's one of the first things I say to whatever athlete I'm working with, look, the outcome is the most important thing. So whether that takes us four sessions or two sessions, or if you just want to sit and talk for an hour about what wheels to buy, I'm good with all of it. I'm not going to, you know, hey, our time is up. Yeah, you've paid and you have to go the outcome to me, if we don't achieve that, it's kind of a fail. And I think what's been surprising in that space has been a, the amount I've been able to do, and B, how much you're able to help people.
Matt Dixon 16:59
Well, it's funny. It's, you know, when you part of my job as a coach is, I see it has been a filter, so a filter of information to try and use out some of the blizzard of nonsense out there, or the blizzard of bullshit, as I call it. And I rely on a lot of people who are experts in field. And one of the big thing is, number one, they really know what they're talking about. Number two and and I always think of you when I say this. So are they not going to bullshit you? Are they not going to try and sell you something you don't need? Are they dedicated on getting the right ultimate solution for you? Whether that's not the easy path, and whatever it is, I remember you talking to me about a lot of the brands that are direct to consumer. It's like great if you want that brand. Many of them are not bad bikes, but they have something like a 30% return rate, incredibly high because it's you're buying something that doesn't quite fit. So let's go through the process with you. First, invest in it up front, make sure it's the right width of handlebar, crank and everything else that is going to fit you. It's the right bike for you, so that when you hit purchase, you've got something that you go and it's like the best investment, yeah, and you can't get that from a shop, but shop, many shops, it's
Chris Soden 18:06
no truth. And I think my perspective of having been lucky enough in my career to sell a lot of bikes in that way, where it's frame up builds, it's choose every part, it's customized frames across the myriad when you have that moment where that athlete gets on the bike, and I had an athlete turn to me the other day, and I just didn't know this was possible, yeah, I just assumed that riding a bike meant lots of hurt, lots of pain. We've had at the center, you know, stories of of, you know, people bleeding and trauma and pain and kind of like, Oh, I just thought that was part of it, and I think it's a bit of what happens when the knowledge gets a little bit too general, and we don't do a great job in that space. And a lot of the interest
Matt Dixon 18:49
for that there is, there is truth that when people come to my bike class, there is a lot of blood, there is a lot of trauma. Is very
18:54
painful. I hear the yelling, brutal, yeah,
Matt Dixon 18:57
for sure. Well, what first question I want to ask? And I almost feel bad, uh, asking some of these questions, because a little bit like people say, Give me, give me the magic work. I'm going to ask you those types of questions, okay? And I'm going to ask you to be succinct, quickfire and everything. And the first one we just talked about a little bit, but is choosing the right bike. So how should someone go about that when they're let's take a triathlete that's that's the most complex bike, because it's a bit more of a complex position you're getting into. What's the right path to get the right bike? What's some of the stuff that people can think about when they're they're choosing a super bike or a more entry level bike? What some of the things that important to think about? I think
Chris Soden 19:38
the most important thing is you have to be honest with the path or track that you're on. Ideally for me, I love it when an athlete picks a bike that satiates their needs now, but is forward thinking to where they want to go with the bike. If you do that well, you don't have to buy your second bike quickly. So I think a little bit more investment upfront and. Um, you know, I tell people all the time when you, when you choose the sport of triathlon, you have chosen to climb a mountain, whether it's Everest or whatever, you can't borrow your buddy's tent and, you know, buy crampons on sale. It and not that you have to go crazy and get everything gold plated. But there's a, there's a big, healthy interim there. A lot of it is, what does your coach. If you're working with a coach, what's what do they need? Power meters, data that can help you succeed? I think you want to buy a bike that has usable equipment that is meant for the task. It's to be fair. It's why we don't see a ton of entry level triathlon bikes, because we know they're going to be used at a level. An entry level bike is for somebody who's sussing out whether they like this. A triathlon bike is usually for somebody who signed up for an event. For an event. The adjustability of the bike, ideally, is paramount, because you are going to change as an athlete. You're going to adapt having the ability to change the position. It's why bike fit isn't just this one thing. Here's your perfect bike fit. It never changes. I would equate it more to like a Cairo or PT, or your body changes, and we're there to help you during that process. Ideally, in a perfect world, if I could say one thing to the purple patch community, it's you are a piece of clay. You're continually being molded. You're getting better. You're learning things about your body. You're learning things that and a lot of times it's the muscle between the ears. It gets in the way. Oh, I can't ride that position. It's too aggressive. Sure you can. When you actually understand the numbers, you start to realize that it's not really an aggressive position. It's just a different orientation that you're not looking you're not used to looking at. And I think that's where you and I and it's so fun to help people in those spaces. But for a new bike at the end of the day, to me, that's kind of the perfect sweet spot when you're dealing with upper end bikes. If it's somebody coming back to the market, you know right now, you'd be crazy not to buy something that has electric shifting a power meter. And again, most of the front ends have adjustment in them. Some of the elite bikes don't, and that can be a very big danger, because a lot of those bikes, it they look amazing, but whether our athlete can ride them is different.
Matt Dixon 22:05
And so that's I wanted to ask you about that specifically. And you just talked about that some of the as they call it, the cockpit, the front end, and the super bikes. So many people end up buying bikes based on on their cult hero or what they see, and they think that must be the best, you know that. So Lionel Sanders rides that in his own fantastic Chelsea Doro rides, that must be the bike to buy. And they and then they run into a cul de sac of a lack of adjustability. Can you talk about for me, there are two things. Number one, the complexity of them. So being able to actually unpack the bike and take it to race side impact, that's a huge thing. Many people would just say it becomes such cognitive load and so many so often things breaks. Number two, as your body evolves, as your riding ability evolves, you you know, if you have a unadjustable front end, you are stuck, and that's a very expensive mistake. So can you? Can you talk about that a little bit?
Chris Soden 22:59
Yeah, definitely something, whether it's integrated front ends on road bikes or some of these newer high end elite triathlon positions. And I think it feeds into this perception people want to get excited by those things, whether they can actually ride them or not. Probably the first precursor was Canyon. Canyon, some of their elite top end triathlon bikes in the beginning. You know, I used to say to people, like, I dial them in on the fit bike and say, This is the position, and the person would go, Oh, my God, I can't ride that. It's like, well, you can't ride that now, but that's important in terms of a buying decision. Maybe you could ride that bike in two years, or in a year or but for right now, it's probably not ideal. And so that canyon, as good as you might think it is, is not the bike for you. And I think sometimes that's a hard argument. People settle on a brand. They fall in love with a particular brand, but integrated cockpits and integrated front ends, for me, the perfect progression is you have something that has room for adjustability. We work to get that adjusted. You're now saying, Boy, I love my workouts. I can do all the workouts. I feel really good. Now we want to polish the stem, you know, polish the stone. Okay, then let's jump to but we have data, because what you need is data. I got, I got an offline email from one of those companies, and he said, Hey, Chris, I just got to tell you, like, we're getting so many age groupers that are reaching out for this product. They can't handle the arm but the arm pad with like they don't understand that this arm pad with is designed for the elite of the elite people. And a lot of times this doesn't get conveyed. But like, what pros won't tell a ton of people is like they are making choices to not go down the road of comfort, yeah, for speed. So they are not necessarily super happy on their bike. They're borderline miserable in that attempt to find that maximum amount of extraction of speed and aerodynamics, I don't think that's where most age groupers are.
Matt Dixon 24:47
They also don't spend most of their life on computers and and, you know, with rotating down with posture, but that's a that's a discussion for another for sure. What? What about ROI on athletes? Got a ton of athletes right? Our priming for World Championships, we'll be looking for the the edge of speed, if you want to call it that. What are some of the things out of everything that they could invest if someone wants to take their that their current setup, what are the things that do give athletes ROI I'm thinking regular helmet versus aero helmet wheels. There's the, you know, the chain sets with ceramic bearings, everything else. What are some of the things that maybe are a good ROI for many athletes, and what are some of the things that that maybe might provide incremental but probably not going to move the performance needles?
Chris Soden 25:34
Yeah? Thoughts on that. Yeah. I was thinking a lot about this. And I was, I was thinking of it as if coming up to your big race is like, kind of preparing a wonderful dinner. We don't want to change the meal, we don't want to change the protein, we don't want to change the wine but we may want to get nicer wine glasses. We may want to get fancier plates. The idea is to not disrupt, I can't tell you how many times in that Chase, right? Somebody decides, oh, now I'm finally going to put that custom front end on. It's like, Wait a minute. None of your training has been done that way. You're not used to it. Yes, the position is the same, but it'll feel different. It'll handle different in the wind. So I'm a big advocate of what can we do that makes sense? Drive train efficiency. Okay, if you don't have the money to spend on the ceramics, be the wax chains, the oversized bearings, the oversized pulleys, at least make sure it's clean. Yeah, I can't tell you that one is clean. Yeah. I can't tell it like there is in these, all of these spaces, a tremendous amount of low hanging fruit that people can extract with very little dollars. So for me, that's a that's a big part of it. But I always look to drive train efficiency, skin suit, right? Huge difference. One of the bigger wattage differences the arrow helmet, absolutely, but it only comes at the end of having made sure that your fit is kind of optimized for that helmet use and that the posture of the helmet is correctly set up. Even an athlete we had in the center this morning, the difference between riding the helmet the right way and riding it the way that everybody rides them is huge. And he didn't have to buy one more thing. It's just a postural difference. And you see it in data, you see the CDA value get better because some because now the helmet is positioned in a way that it was designed to be, too. So there's a lot in that space. I think sometimes wheels my preference almost always is maybe a little bit more predicated on the event that's being done. If it's a really flat course, maybe experimenting with a disc, but trying to give yourself enough time that you have the time to integrate it into your setup that the chain is going to mesh with the new cassette that's going to be on that disc. As we all know, like athletes are there were great at kind of, you know, shooting themselves in the foot and reloading.
Matt Dixon 27:41
It's so funny, because it's, I mean, everything you said there is effectively almost the same with the broader, high level stuff. That right from the purple patch pros, we had a sign of nail the basics. I remember at training camp sending them all back in to not do a bike ride because their bikes were dirty. That's a really bad practice. And so the guy, the guy that actually had the cleanest bite, was the amateur that was with us. And so we we let him go on a ride, and we wouldn't let the others go on a ride. And that one way to piss off pro athletes, let them train but, but getting the fundamentals in place, and I think this was actually the backbone, in a way, of our success over so many years, is these are the fundamentals that are critical, intentional recovery, fueling after workouts, proper hydration, integrating strength around all of the stuff that listeners have heard. But if we can master that, the craft of riding and Terrain Management, if we can crop, master those elements in 90% of the way there in bike, it's the same. It's like Master getting the right bike for you, getting in the position, getting the right posture, gave me really clean stuff, then you can maybe think about stuff, but don't distract away. There's no point putting a disconne if when you're shifting gears, it's all over the place because it didn't interact with your
Chris Soden 28:52
setup. Yeah, I was, I was having a spirited discussion with somebody who was insistent on wanting to buy a really cool rear water bottle holder, even though it got in the way of the saddle being positioned correctly. And I was trying to impress upon them the fact that, if we break it all down, your saddle height, being at the right height is far more important than the bottle placement behind the bike. But there you
Matt Dixon 29:19
go. What? What about road bike versus tri bike? And you know, we have some newer entry level riders. I don't get the question, the first bike that many people get into the into the sport, brand new, I'm going to do a triathlon. Everybody rushes out and says, I got to get a triathlon bike. I'd love your perspective. I have my perspective. I love your perspective on road bike versus tri bike. Is there value in having both number one, and then, if someone is making a decision between road bike with TT bars on or or triathlon bike, how do you navigate that?
Chris Soden 29:52
Yeah, it's, it's one of my favorite topics. And I think it's, it's probably also a little bit, mostly, it's very individual. Um. Um, because it, it probably starts with how this person is coming into the sport. Are they, are they having to buy a bike because they're a runner who just wants to do triathlon? Or are they really somebody who is going to enjoy riding? I think what, what I try to get people to understand is, and for the listener who doesn't have video, I apologize, I'll try to talk through it. But basically, what? A lot of times there's a misunderstanding of body angles and joint angles. But essentially, if I was to break it down very, very simply on a road bike, let's just assume your back and and thighs represent roughly a 45 degree angle. Yeah, just for simplicity, that's our road bike, a tri bike is really rotating the athlete forward in space. The seat comes forward. The whole front end gets forward. When we rotate the athlete, we
Matt Dixon 30:51
have to make, yeah, you're not closing that angle exactly, and
Chris Soden 30:55
we have to make room for the upper arms to so that's why, people, I can't ride that aggressive position. You can. In fact, you have to, because you're rotating in space, and so we have to accommodate that. The challenge is with road bikes. When we take a road bike and then we put aero bars on it, we do the very thing that is the hardest. We close the hip angle off the most, which generally also will put the most perineal pressure on the front part of the saddle. So I love it when it's Hey, I'm not sure I'm going to do this. The other piece of advice I would give people is, you don't necessarily I think there's a perception out there, and there's products that support this. I had a client recently who did this, Hey, I'm not sure I'm going to really get into this. So I'm going to buy an aero road bike that has a built in aero setup. In theory, you would think, Wow, that's a great idea, but it's actually not a great road bike, because aero road bikes are heavy. They ride a little bit a little more, kind of like a bag of hammers. And if you decide that you don't want to continue with triathlon, you have a road bike that maybe you don't love. I'm a big proponent of light, and I just helped one of the purple patch athletes here in the center. Here in the center get into a tarmac. And we're doing a very basic bike that doesn't have the integrated front end. Because one of the things we have to consider is that handlebar has to be aluminum, so we can actually bolt an arrow bar to it. A lot of these higher end bikes, if they come with carbon bars, you can't do that. So I would rather somebody buy a great road bike. Let's adapt it to a good position. See if you like this. Generally, a half Iron Man tends to be kind of the breaking point. You can do most things under a half and be fine above a half, and it just starts to become a little bit
Matt Dixon 32:34
too punitive. Yeah. And my perspective as a coach, one of the things you see there, and there's obviously the broad continuum of background, of riding, of rider expertise, but you see an, unfortunately over large minority, and that was important, minority of athletes that genuinely don't know how to interact with their bike. Yeah, and they're now on their triathlon bike, their TT bike, which is a less intuitive right bike to ride when you're thinking about cornering, navigating wind, transitioning in and out of the saddle, etc, and they're trying to learn in a pretty harsh environment, let's call it that. And and yet, they've sort of invested a lot of money in this bike that's supposed to be wonderful, but they they struggle to love the bike. And I just happened to be at Iron Man Ottawa, or a few weeks ago, dead flat course for the most part. And I looked and in the 10 miles in going past on a stretch of freeway, at least 40% of the riders, as they were coming out, were sitting on their bull horns, not in TT position. There is nothing around them. They just riding their bikes. And so my sort of feeling, if someone is getting into the sport is, you know what you'd be better off, learning to love to ride a bike, learning to master riding a bike, riding the bike in a road, position, learning gear interactions in a more intuitive way, learning how to transition corner. And then as you as you build competency and you build love and you want to do it, then add a row a time trial bike. And I know that's an investment. So not everyone can do that 100% but if you can do that, that's that's a great pathway. I've got several athletes now that are that are doing triathlons, and you're right. Like, typically up to about half Iron Man, but they're doing them on road bikes. Pretty good athletes, yeah, but, but they're really masters. Taylor, nibble, and then boom, off she went. Suddenly,
Chris Soden 34:31
did she? Did she ride a trip? Like, yeah, I think your analogy is fantastic. It's almost like kind of learning to drive into McLaren,
Matt Dixon 34:37
yeah, it's hard. It's really, really hard. What about contact points? I want to talk about this because this is so important. Everybody thinks about knee angle and shoulders and everything else in my very, very my dirty wisdom as a coach, just because you see it, but I am. A bite for expert. And you know that I'm not a bike for mechanic. I ask you to do everything for me. And if it's not you, it's Brad from Calistoga, can you just fix things for me and just remove it? The purple patch coaches make fun of me. It's not it's not my passion, it's not my love, and it's certainly not my expertise. And I could grow and become much better at it, and I should, but, but as a coach, one of the things that has always struck me, to me, absolutely central to an athlete's success is saddle, and it can really butcher everything and and I mean that both metaphorically, in position and fit and aerodynamics, as well as actually physically. Or it can be the gateway of Happy, happy, joy, joy. Can you talk about why that is so important? Some of the things for the listeners to know?
Chris Soden 35:47
Yeah, I and I concur, and oftentimes I think, if it's the thing that I often say to the athletes I work with, look, saddles can be one of the most frustrating things to work on. It can be one of the most challenging from spending money, but it is 100% the vital thing that has to get locked down your saddle sets the tone for everything else that happens upstream and downstream. So if you're not a sitting on the saddle correctly, if you're not comfortable on the saddle, if the saddle can't create good posture, everything else is just a compromise, and you're going to be kind of chasing your tail during that whole journey. The reason, especially for triathletes, because you're grounded on such a smaller area of the pelvis, and so pelvic stability is everything. And when you can't ride, well, I would dove tell it and say too that we also have to remember that probably a good 40 to 50% of issues with saddles are simply because of saddle height being wrong, like my protocol almost always is. Look, let's give this saddle a fighting chance. Let's put it in a position where at least you have the chance to ride it correctly. There are, there are some bad saddles, but like generally, most saddles, as we look at them, they're not they're only going to change in so many different ways. But if a saddle is 20 mil too high, it's up into you, and it's going to create all sorts of issues. One of the things that's fascinating about the new tech that I'm using, and I think it's a bit of a game changer, saddle pressure mapping enables me to see the propensity for so many athletes to sit off to the side, to have pelvic instability, to have, you know, if you look at a saddle and you look at a pelvis, and you line those two things up, in a perfect world, everything is straight. The minute you rotate something, you go, Oh, that's going to be a hot spot. Yeah, that's not going to be comfortable. Gosh, that knee extension is going to be different on one side, boy, that low left back is really going to be more strained. I can't tell you what a game changer that's been for me using this new system, because I'm able to see much deeper into the importance of saddle. I think before it was just like finding a good saddle, hey, on a scale of one to 10, it's got to be a seven or an eight like, that's, that's, it has to be that. But there's also an ability to use technology to see where somebody is centered on the saddle, how somebody is working through where is the max pressure? What side is it on? Are they? Are they nursing something that's there? A recent thing is how many people are sitting three centimeters off to one side, and then their head, they're neutral.
Matt Dixon 38:22
So I saw that in action today, yesterday, actually, and I couldn't believe it, within what my athlete that I'm coaching Ryan, where he sat on and you showed the pressure mapping, and he was like, yep, that's where it hurts. And then you can actually see his his course correction that he was doing, where he's absolutely leaning off and sitting off to the side. And so he's actually pretty incredible. The unlock there. And then the other thing is the quantifiable change that you can see when you shift. And I think with him, you shifted, that you actually changed the saddle.
Chris Soden 38:56
Yeah, because even, but I gave it a shot, right? I wanted to make sure that, hey, at the right at the right height. And it's a brand, you know, to be fair, it's probably one of the biggest brands that, when you read the story of the saddle and what it's able to do the adjustability of it, we'll probably talk about this a little later. But there's a lot of this kind of happening in the industry. It reads amazing, like, how could you not like this? And yet, the reality is, like, it's not great. And I think that's one of the tricky spots that athletes have to navigate, is there's an ability to really touch all those key points that the athlete is asking, I feel like my saddle is too wide. So if I give you something that's adjustable, boy, there's the cure. Not necessarily. It's still a deeper, still, a deeper thing. And, you know, his thing, like, again, was like, I didn't know this is possible.
Matt Dixon 39:44
Yeah, that's it. I've got two more questions for you. This one's pretty quick, but I'd I, I can't help but ask this one, because it's it. This is something that has actually evolved because of the evolution in bike tires. So there's, um. Um, there's now obviously tubeless, and you go from there, and used to be so ups or versus tubeless, and and then also width of tire, everything like that. So tire pressure, people always ask that. And so how can you give people a little bit of empowerment on what, how much tire, how much pressure they should put in their tires for racing and maybe just go into conditions
Chris Soden 40:23
or as well, yeah, definitely, definitely a different world now than than what we all started with. And it takes, it takes time. Suddenly, you know, even myself, I'm running a 32 seat tire at 75 psi back in the day, a 23 seat higher. I might have at 115 or 120 maybe higher on a big event or a big climb. What we're realizing is that, and I think we now have data and technology to be able to show this, higher tire pressures don't equate too faster. And in fact, oftentimes it's the opposite. When a tire gets so rigid and it loses all of its pliability, it actually starts to skip over the road, and every time it skips, it creates friction, and that friction slows us. So again, mentally, we like the idea of like, Oh, that's really good. But if we kind of think about other things, like, we buzz along the highway at 85 or 90 or 90 miles an hour, you know, in car tires that are at 48 PSI, 45 psi, granted wider and a lot more rubber, but the general consensus is that if you tried to ride those at 100 psi, you couldn't stay on the road, and it certainly wouldn't be enjoyable, and you'd be blowing out all the struts and everything on the car. The thing that is important is there is context. And the multiple pieces are the width of the tire, the interior diameter of the rim, and how those things kind of go together. There's two excellent websites. There's Silka has a great tire pressure gage map, which is excellent, and SRAM and zip have one as well. There'll be some little nuance between them. I usually try to have my athletes work through both and find what they find more appealing. But generally the rule is, you know, clients are still probably putting too
Matt Dixon 42:00
much pressure in their tires, and is it should? Should athletes, whatever the correct ties is, let's make up at 70 psi, give or take. Is it still the case that you should put a little bit more pressure in the rear tire because that's where the weight is? Or do
Chris Soden 42:14
you have them both? Even I would keep I would tend to keep them both, even if you did that, it would be only in a road bike context, because the reality is in better triathlon positions, probably even
Matt Dixon 42:23
Okay. And how about the old? I'm bringing out all of the old I love, you know, like, how about in rainy conditions? You want to have a little bit less, little bit less, for sure, little bit less. That's about 10. Psi, yeah, I would say
42:34
about eight. You know, 7878, psi,
Matt Dixon 42:36
five to 10. And I'm gonna go with So, yeah, it's great. What about here's my final question is, when's it right for an athlete to get a fit, if someone wants to work with you, if someone wants to do consume, some consulting with you, someone wants to get fit, when's the right time for
Chris Soden 42:53
that? Yeah, I think this has been, this has been an evolution point for me, and I think, as I've talked with other people in in the center here. I think anytime an athlete is about to embark on a training program, a training load, an event, I think I would, I would rather see that person sooner, because if I see them when the house is on fire and they're having a saddle sore, or they're having a leg length issue, or, you know, something else is well, now we have to manage that. And I think there's, I think there is something to be said, particularly in in your community, in the purple patch community that we work within, we know these athletes are going to do the work and and I equate it to almost like, Hey, I'm about to embark on this big trip, you know, I'm going to get a physical, or I'm about to drive across the country. What would you do? You take your car and to get it looked at so that a hose doesn't blow. And I think bike fit can act as a bit of a hey, let's make sure everything is good, rather than you getting six months in hitting the throttle, everything's falling apart. And now, yes, we're going to come in and fix that desperation. Yeah, and, and, and, to be fair, and I know this because we you and I live this with our athletes, it can be frustrating. Yeah, all the athlete wants to do is train. All I want to do is get better. I don't want to I don't want to be down for two weeks. I don't want to be out. I don't want to manage this. I don't want to have to go to another appointment. And so I think if we can preemptively do a little bit of that, so I'm more bullish on like, I think there's always a good time. The thing that I'm trying to change in my own business and my own fitting protocol is like, I've I've purposely made my fitting appointments less expensive to make them more approachable to people, but yet added more technology, cooler cooler features, in an attempt to try to make it feel to them more like going to see their Cairo or their PT, all of us know it's a continual check in. You don't just go when your back is bad and then your back is fine and everything is fixed. I think the our athletes are evolving. They're changing and bike fit. Can I mean, how many times this week did I find something either how an athlete was sitting off, I found a sound. All that was three centimeters off to one side. So if we find those things sooner, then we don't have that
Matt Dixon 45:07
erosion. I would add one more perspective as well, because I think that there is common behavior, understandable behavior, of I go and buy my bike now I'm going to get it fit. And one of the things I've learned and is the first thing that I say to any one of my athletes another time to get a fit for me as the coach is when you're going to make a change. So if you're going to buy a new piece of equipment and then have a conversation, equipment's really expensive, and they get that means it can be expensive mistakes. Get the right thing for you, not the right thing for Lionel or for Lucy or anyone else. Second thing is, if, particularly, if you're going to go and make a bike purchase it, I mean, you can source, build purchase bikes for for people all the way through the process. But more than that, you can give people the right direction as well, and say, hey, when you go into your bike shop, this is, these are three bikes that are great, that will fit you. And this is probably the width of so that you're then not, I've bought it. Look at it. It's pretty can you fit it too? Yeah,
Chris Soden 46:08
it's a core value of mine to I imagine a client may come in to me and say, Hey, Chris, I ride 54 centimeter bikes. I want them to leave saying, Actually, here's a saddle height range that works really well for me. Here's a saddle to bar drop that I know I do well in. Here's a handlebar width that I've tested, and I know works well. That's an elevated consumer, that's an elevated athlete, and that is somebody very different than I like chicken. Yeah, right. I don't know. I like this kind of chicken with this kind of sauce prepared this way on a grill at this like and to me, that's important, and I don't think that that is being served well. And to me, that's more fun for me to have in that space to if I can, if I can, help people, it's great.
Matt Dixon 46:59
Well, Chris, people can find you at the purple patch website and bike fitting, but you work with people all over the world, both in person but but also remotely and consultant as a help. And I want to thank you for your time. I know this is the first of several shows that we're going to do over the coming months, but it's a great kickoff to to our continued partnership. I would say looking
Chris Soden 47:23
forward to it, and I'm excited. I feel like I'm doing some of my best work within these walls. So that's good.
Matt Dixon 47:28
Well, if you're listening, if you're ever thinking about coming to San Francisco, if you come get a session with Chris, get it sorted, come and take a bike class with me. Do strength with me, and have a sweat test coach, Brad, go through, spend the day at the center. It's a lot of fun. You just need to reach out, but, uh, but Chris around the subjects of the big umbrella or bike thing. Thanks so much for your time today. That was a lot of fun. Thank you guys. Thanks so much for joining and thank you for listening. I hope that you enjoyed the new format. You can never miss an episode by simply subscribing. Head to the purple patch channel of YouTube, and you will find it there and you could subscribe. Of course, I'd like to ask you if you will subscribe. Also Share It With Your Friends, and it's really helpful if you leave a nice, positive review in the comments. Now, any questions that you have let me know, feel free to add a comment, and I will try my best to respond and support you on your performance journey. And in fact, as we commence this video podcast experience, if you have any feedback at all, as mentioned earlier in the show, we would love your help in helping us to improve. Simply email us at info@purplepatchfitness.com, or leave it in the comments of the show at the purple patch page, and we will get you dialed in. We'd love constructive feedback. We are in a growth mindset, as we like to call it, and so feel free to share with your friends. But as I said, Let's build this together. Let's make it something special. It's really fun. We're really trying hard to make it a special experience, and we want to welcome you into the purple patch community with that. I hope you have a great week. Stay healthy, have fun, keep smiling, doing whatever you do, take care.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
bike fit, aerodynamics, equipment choices, saddle height, tire pressure, triathlon bike, road bike, bike fitting, athlete performance, bike industry, saddle pressure mapping, training program, bike adjustability, bike shop, athlete satisfaction