Tag: Bike Fitting

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Show #663 – February 25, 2025

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Guests: John Surico; Paul Swift

My guests today are NYC’s Professor John Surico and the bike fitter’s bike fitter, Paul Swift.

John is one of my favorite repeat guests as those of you who are regular listeners know.   When I want to know what is happening in the Big Apple about sustainability, bike crashes, open streets, and anything else that has to do with urban life, Professor John Surico is my guy.  His substack blog “Streetbeat” is one of my favorite reads each month.

And go figure, this conversation was recorded exactly one day before the President put the kabosh on congestion pricing in NYC.

John and I had spoken last May about the project and how it was on again and off again and how he was looking forward to what it might do for NYC. The cameras went online in January and the immediate effects were pretty amazing.

Early in January, the long-awaited program to help ease traffic in NYC went into effect.  The cameras went on and lo and behold – traffic eased, Broadway saw a 20% increase in ticket sales, and crashes were down a whopping 30% – and that was in just two winter months.

But along with many other programs, the president decided he didn’t like congestion pricing and in the stroke of his marker, had the cameras turned off.  The legal wrangling that is going on is yet to be decided, but the day I spoke with John, things were looking pretty rosy.

Follow his substack journal, Streetbeat.  It publishes at the beginning of every month and is always an interesting and wide-ranging look at the urban world.

My second guest is Paul Swift – the bike fitter’s fitter and developer of many cycling related products that facilitate a better experience on the bike – whether on the ground or in the gym. 

Paul’s philosophy stems from observation, as well it should in my opinion.  He recognizes that sizing is not fitting, and that it takes many years and thousands of fits to see what you are actually looking at and before making the changes necessary to accomplish a comfortable and efficient position with great results.

Paul Swift has been developing his fitting techniques for decades.  He also sees things IN those fits that have led to a plethora of products from the wedges fitters might use under your cycling cleats to his line of saddles.

As he mentioned, you can find him on social media @askthefitter.  Check out his line of saddles at 90K.com or go to his website thecyclepoint.com and watch how he does what he does.

 

September 25_Transcript

 

 

 

 

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Show #447 – April 6, 2019

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Guests: Joe Lindsey; Larry Pizzi, Happy Freedman

Three guests – three topics.

First, it’s a controversy! Everyone loves a good he said – she said; only in this case it’s WaveCel vs. MIPS helmet technology.

On March, 19th Matt Phillips published the following headline in Bicycling Magazine “Bontrager Says Its New Helmets Can Prevent Concussions 99 out of 100 times.”

And, it didn’t take long for those who developed the MIPS technology to refute Bontrager’s claims, citing an inability to replicate the testing.

Reading the article reminds me so much of just how the bike industry makes its claims – one company reports its sales in dollars while another reports in units. And, the same is true in this article. Case in point?
The article states: The company says that a helmet with Wavecel will prevent a concussion 99 out of 100 times. A standard foam helmet, for comparison, can only prevent a concussion 42 percent of the time. See what I mean?

So… rather than trying to sort it out myself, I turned to freelance journalist Joe Lindsey. Joe breaks down the controversy and puts some thoughtful ideas into what you might do if your head DOES hit the ground in his April 2nd article for Outside Online titled: Trek’s WaveCel Helmet Technology Is Causing Controversy”

Joe ALWAYS does his homework and that is true in this case. He’s my first guest.

Then, we head out to L.A. to speak with Larry Pizzi, the president of Accell North America. The last time we spoke with him back in 2013, he was with iZIP, an electric bike brand; and today, while iZip is STILL a brand in the stable, Larry oversees several other eBike brands.

Today, we talk about how eBikes are faring in the world of cycling – their growth, who is riding them, and how regulations around the use of eBikes is being developed and implemented.

Finally, it’s a discussion with one of the #1 bike fitters in the country, if not on the planet. Soft spoken and serious, Happy Freedman has decades of experience coupled with the use of the Leon Root, MD Motion Analysis Lab a state-of-the-art testing facility at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NY City.

Yet, with all the fancy-schmancy equipment at his disposal, Happy has a straightforward and relatively simple way of making the adjustments needed – and they aren’t what you

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Show # – January 1, 2011

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Guest: Diane Lees – The Outspoken Cyclist Herself

Today as we say “goodbye” to 2010 and “hello” to 2011, The Outspoken Cyclist takes an opportunity to get better acquainted with our host, Diane Lees. Diane has been interviewing personalities from all corners of the cycling universe for some time now, and it occurred to me that we should find out more about what she brings to these interviews.

Although she’s an artist and writer, Diane isn’t your typical artist or writer; and although she’s a bicycle dealer, Hubbub Custom Bicycles isn’t your average bike shop. Give a listen, and learn about this unique and creative individual on today’s Outspoken Cyclist.