Introducing myself (Callum Hughes, bike fitter and bicycle enthusiast) on our Facebook live the other week (which was fun but tricky to squeeze everything in in 10 minutes). A lot is always left unsaid when a topic is so vast, and believe me, I could talk about bikes all day! But I hope it was a helpful intro into what I’m about, and we are planning a few more videos and blogs on specific topics in the coming weeks and months.

So here’s a run down of who I am, and what I do.

I am a bike fitter, which if you don’t know, means I work with you to adjust your bike to make it perfect for what you need it for. Be that comfort, injury prevention, or speed!

With the bike fitting system, Retül, we analyse your mobility prior to seeing you cycle on your bike. This way we can understand how your body moves without the bicycle, understanding any compromises or compensations is key to accommodating them on the bike. You’d be surprised how many times people tell me they have no injuries, then when we start to test mobility say, oh yes this knee hurts whenever I do this, or oh yeah, I do always get back pain when I do that (and industry secret, you don’t have to just put up with pain).

Below is an illustration of which muscles you use from the waist down when cycling in the correct biomechanical position.

Our focus is always accommodating the current range of movement of your injury/restriction, the more comfortable you are on your bike, the harder you can push and the faster you will go. We can work on increasing range of movement over a period as well as increasing the strength in range.

Then we assess how you are cycling on your bike; our system shows you what your current position is in relation to our injury prevention zones. Working through our protocol to ensure you are cycling within your current range and in our injury prevention zones, as much as possible. All adjustments are made to the bike during the appointment We always advise that the adaptation process is usually 4-6 rides. This is to help the central nervous system become efficient in the new position.

Injuries often happen during impact sports. If you are using a bike to help return to fitness, make sure it isn’t causing an issue elsewhere.

If you think we could help you or if you have any questions, then please get in touch.