The Final Fitting on my P5

Paul arrives and again apologises for being late for our fitting.  I forgive him as I can't wait to jump on the bike.  We put it on the wind trainer and begin to look at my positioning.  We have done the basic set-up on the bike and it is now time to make the final adjustments.  We start with putting my shoes on and again I am back down into the aero position similar to the other fitting.  Due to the measurements that have been taken on the previous fittings, no adjustments are required.

Paul then looks at my foot positioning.  He asks me to peddle whilst he sits on the floor.  He doesn't want my foot moving around too much as any major movement will result in loss of power.  I peddle around 8 times and then stop at the top of my stroke.  Paul then adjusts the cleat to my natural position when my foot hits the top and we do the whole process again around 5 times until he is happy with the minimal movement.  After we have completed one foot we move onto the other.

Paul then shines a laser on my leg as I am peddling that shows the line of my stroke and too see if I am going up and down and pushing through the peddle.  He shines the laser on my right leg and is happy with the position.  He shines the laser on my left leg and identifies a problem.  He asks me if I feel my left foot moving around at the bottom of the stroke.  I tell him that I have felt this during my rides on my old bike.  I thought it was a weakness in my left leg so I have been intentionally concentrating on pushing harder with my left leg.  It definitely feels different to my right leg but I never knew why.  Paul tells me to sit on the counter and he marks where both my left and right leg hang whilst I am relaxed.  He then puts a spirit level against the two and finds I am 8mm shorter in my left leg.  He grabs my shoe and goes into what he describes as his 'bits and pieces drawer' to try something.  He pulls out some foam which is around 5mm thick and cuts it into the shape of the innersole of my shoe.  He then puts both the innersole and foam in the shoe and asks me to put it on.  It is extremely tight but he just wants to see the difference.  I jump back on the bike and begin to peddle and amazingly I feel a difference.  He brings out the laser again and the difference is extraordinary.  Rather than me searching for the peddle at the bottom of my stroke resulting in a loss of power, I am now powering through the stroke with both legs and the laser is straight up and down my leg.  Paul knows that the foam in the shoe is too  uncomfortable so decides that he will instead build up the cleat outside the shoe.  Final adjustments need to be made including the tape on the bars and the brakes installed.  By Thursday the bike will be ready for me to take home.