RETUL-ing My Fit: A Session With Central Taiwan's Most Detailed Fit Studio

As many of my regular readers know, I have been dogged by occasional knee problems since February 2011, while on a loaner bike before my current frame arrived.

The process of dealing with this issue has been a painful one.

It is not simply a matter of soreness flaring up, but it is also a matter of life quality. Before the knee trouble I had worked and trained myself into a state of fitness that resulted in some rides that still amaze me.

I had gained speed and endurance enough to expand my day-rides to include much of western Taiwan. I felt like there was no place on the map I couldn't ride in a day or two. The thrill was in choosing harder, more challenging routes to cover... and be home by supper.

Since that time, it has been an endless cycle of rebuilding and regaining lost ground. For every recovery and rebuild that seems to be sticking, there is a eventual fall back to zero.

Doctors would shrug and prescribe rest or to ride no more than 30km because it was such long distance.

Problems like these are tricky and it can often be like owning an old Volkswagen. The problem can be one of a dozen things, so it is usual to start with the cheapest solution and work upward.

For me, I started with a new bike that was custom made to fit, and it works very well, rides very well, fits very well, and I had alleviated the issue for several months of hard riding, but the pain eventually returned.

I began to suspect that either my fit had changed for some reason or another, or I was suffering through a serious imbalance. Whatever it was, it was vexingly elusive.

That is why I finally decided to see a fit specialist.

I have known of the Retul fitting system and I have been following Winston Tam's work at his Friday Fitness fit studio in Taipei. It was an intriguing idea, but the price tag was a little steep for me at this time, so it would be impossible to justify to the wife.

As I sat in the bus last weekend nursing my knee, another rider who had done the Retul fitting with Winston in Taipei, passed on the info that there was now a Retul technician in Taichung who was charging quite a bit less for a double-sided evaluation and fit.

I got the ok from home and was booked for an appointment within a couple days.



What is Retul?

Here is how their website describes their fitting system:

Retül bike fit technology incorporates three main data points in fit theory:

1. Bike Fits Must be Dynamic

• Using motion capture technology, Retül records the rider's positions in motion, therefore creating the most realistic picture of the rider's actual pedal strokes and body positions when out on the road and trails.

2. Measurements Must be Accurate

• Measurements made by traditional tools are subject to human error and therefore can be devastatingly inaccurate. 
• Slight inaccuracies can drastically change the rider's feel after a ride.
• The Retül system is accurate to within less than a millimeter, creating true objective data which can be utilized by the fitter for the perfect biomechanical fit.

3. Biomechanics are Best Assessed in Three-Dimensional Space

• Fit data collected in a traditional two-dimensional plane (i.e. video-based systems) is fairly limited because the fitter can only look at one view at a time, and those views stand as independent reference points.
• In order to make the best fit recommendations, the fitter must realize that the front and side views are actually interdependent reference points.
• In other words, the front and side views must be viewed simultaneously in three dimensions in order to see how all the applicable movements of the body are working together.
• Retül uses a 3D motion sensor to simultaneously gather data on multiple angles of the rider.

In Taichung the Retul technician is Cienne Wang at Little Tree Fit Studio (小樹自轉車). The studio is just off of Xitun Rd. about a half a block from Fuya Rd. (福雅路) near several of the bike stores at the base of the climb to the top of Dadu Shan.

As I entered the studio I could see several pieces of Retul equipment situated around the room, including their iconic fitting rig.

Mr. Wang and I chatted for a little while and then got down to the fitting. We first discussed my riding style and some routine particulars, and then I underwent a physical evaluation to determine my strength, flexibility, muscle balance, leg length, and foot position.

It was finally time to attach the sensors and root out any anomalies I might have in my fit.




The full Retul fit tests both sides of a rider's body to more accurately assess a rider's asymmetric needs. Most of my numbers were fine. Some of my numbers were a little off. A couple others numbers were anomalies.

Many of the adjustments followed my intuition, but I never felt confident enough to follow through. Hard data made it far more assuring to make adjustments rather than basing any change on gut instinct with the danger of making things worse.

We then moved my position forward and a bit more stretched out. This felt a little strange on the trainer, but once I hit the pavement it all made a bit more sense.

We spent over two hours adjusting and refining my fit.

I was provided with a report derived from the data that I can use for any future bike. Retul also has a database of bike frames they can match to a particular rider.



It will still be a matter of time before my muscles readjust to the new position and I can transfer more of the load more evenly around my legs to repair some of my imbalance.

I highly recommend every rider should have a detailed fitting done at least once, if simply for the data or to improve your performance. If you are a rider with knee or back pain, the solution is even more pressing.

My session at Little Tree, which included a follow up fitting and further readjustment, was not cheap. It cost me NT7500 for the dual sided evaluation. A single sided fit runs NT4500. When you see the tiny adjustments being made it might seem an awful lot of money for a few millimeters. The price IS cheap when you consider an error of a few millimeters amplified over hundreds of thousands of revolutions and tens of thousands of kilometers. The price is minuscule when considering the hours of lost fitness, health, joy, and overall quality of life.

Mr. Wang was an excellent fit tech. He speaks English quite well and as a dedicated father of a little girl, he and I had a lot to talk about. It was easy to relax and get into the fitting.

I will keep everyone informed in regard to my progress, and I hope to encourage more riders to not wait as long as I did before getting a detailed fit. Life it too short to waste it recuperating.

If you are looking for one of the most detailed fit systems on the planet, Little Tree has what you are looking for. This is Taichung's best equipped fit studio for cyclists.

Special thanks to Cienne Wang for his attention to detail. Excellent!




Information:

Taiwan Retul Fitters

Little Tree Fit Studio:
台中市西屯區西屯路三段宏安巷1-3號, Taichung, Taiwan 4070976 568 890By Appointment Only

Friday Fitness:
Lane 13, Yǒngkāng Street, No. 16-4 Daan District Taipei City, 106
Tel: 886.929.623.311 (Taiwan 台灣) 

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European Cyclists' Federation Director Questions Taiwan's Commitment to Cycling

A reader spotted this ad in Florida

In a report from Taiwan Focus, Kevin Mayne, the director of a major European cycling advocacy group leveled some needed criticism of Taiwan's commitment to incorporating cycling into the transportation grid despite Taiwan's recent claims of being a "bicycle kingdom" and a "cycling paradise". 

According to the report:

"Taipei, March 20 (CNA) Taiwan needs to lower its speed limits and allocate more space for cyclists if it hopes to achieve its aim of transforming into a "cycling island," a foreign expert said Wednesday."

Mayne's observations and recommendations came amid the opening of the 2013 Taipei Cycle bicycle expo in Nangang.

Mayne's stinging criticism underscores what many cyclists in Taiwan have understood for a long time. The solutions are there, but the political will is not.

Mayne, whose federation consists of national cycling organizations throughout Europe, said speed limits in Taiwan are too high for cars and scooters to coexist with cyclists.
Cities friendly toward cyclists usually have speed limits of below 30 kilometers per hour, he said, citing German and Dutch cities as examples. 

He said lowering speed limits is also a "cheap" solution to building Taiwan into a cycling paradise, as nothing needs to be built. "What you need is political will and enforcement," he added. 

Mayne also advised cities in Taiwan to allocate more space for cyclists and to take bolder steps to improve the environment for them, citing New York, Paris, London and Vienna as examples of cities that are currently doing so and upon which Taiwan could model itself.
He said the bike-sharing system in Paris, for example, offered 15,000 bikes when it was first launched, while Taipei's bike-sharing system, Youbike, currently offers only 1500. 

Mayne's observations are welcome words to cycling advocates as he knowingly, or not, shines a light on the fact that much of Taiwan's trouble in realizing its own ad copy comes from the fact that cycling and cycling infrastructure is often deployed by opportunistic politicians to score cheap points or direct public funds into politically advantageous locations. There is no wide-spread commitment to cycling beyond tourism. Much of what has been built is simply for show with little concern for function.

The rebuttal from Giant's King Liu may serve to best exemplify what is wrong with Taiwan's cycling infrastructure.

Meanwhile, King Liu, chairman of Taiwan's bicycle titan Giant, pointed out that the government invested NT$3 billion (US$100.85 million) to build 2,088 km of dedicated bike lanes around the country between 1999 and 2011. 

The government plans to invest a further NT$1.2 billion to build more bike lanes in the next four years, he went on. 

Giant cooperated with the Taipei city government in 2009 to launch the Youbike, which is now used by over 20,000 people every day, a number that is expected to increase when the program is expanded this year, he added.

The focus is always on the abstraction of numbers and never on how these projects will benefit the society and the community. Liu does not detail how those lanes are expected to be used.

In practice, many/most of those kilometers exist on the fringe of the cities and are allocated for leisure cycling, and thus they do little to reduce carbon emissions or reduce the use of motorized traffic. Most of those lanes are completely divorced from the transportation grid that connects home and work. Cars. busses and scooters are not being replaced by bicycles in Taiwan.

In many ways Liu highlights why Taiwan's priorities are not in-line with Mayne's vision of urban cycling. The goal is not really to promote bicycle infrastructure, but rather to dole out tax dollars to townships and sell more Giant bikes (the more expensive ones the better).

As a nation with access to domestic bicycle production, the glad handing over kilometers and tax dollars spent should be replaced by a sense of shame and missed opportunity.... unless you are in the business of constructing all those kilometers of bike lanes.

Is this Taichung's Hardest Climb?: Route 100 to Jiu Tong Shan (酒桶山)

After a week of commuting between Taichung and Yuanlin by bike in an effort to punish myself back into cycling shape, I felt I should do something on the weekend to test the legs.

The weather seemed typical of this time of year, with sunny mornings and rain in the afternoons and a stiff wind from the south. For me, there is nothing as demoralizing as a flat road and a headwind. It feels a lot like climbing, but without the accomplishment of actually making a summit. With this in mind I decided to keep the distance down and keep things local with one of Taichung's toughest climbs.


 
The Route 136 is often regarded as the local litmus test for a rider's climbing chops, but there are a few other local routes that rival the Route 136 in both difficulty and reward.

I was joined by Dom, who destroyed me on our last outing together as I was just starting my training regimen, but this time we were more evenly paired.

The plan was to take the Route 136 out past the famous Bat Hole and then fight our way up the Route 100 to Jiu Tong Shan, where we might have a coffee before returning through Chung-ho and Hsin She on the Route 95.

These are all very great roads, so it is nice to string them together in a single ride through the foothills above Taichung.


The morning started out according to plan. We were looking to use the ride out to where the hills begin in Taiping as a bit of a warm-up before a friendly coffee before the riding really started to get stiff.

Over coffee we were accosted by a very loud and enthusiastic man who seemed to believe both Dom and I were partially deaf and in need of his plumbing services. He bellowed every sentence in clear English so that the entire 7-11 could hear him. Some of the other customers giggled with embarrassment at the awkwardness of the situation.

The chap introduced himself as "Youkey.... YOUKEY!!!! YOU-KEY!!!!!!" as he dangled a couple bottles of rice wine by the necks. That was all the information we needed to know.

After playing dead until he lost interest and went away we continued enjoying a pre-climb coffee. Our new friend returned with a neatly torn piece of cigarette carton, upon which he wrote--no--composed the following:

"Hello, my English name is Youkey
Your-Key
So let me open your heart window.
I am (drunk?...illegible)."

With that he commented on how much he liked the stubble on my face because it was like his.... and then he turned around and rejoined his friends across the street for a picnic of cheap alcoholic liquids.

As a Foreigner in Taiwan, I am often approached by strangers who hope to satisfy their curiosity or assumptions regarding foreigners and their "likeness". Most of the time these encounters are just awkwardly benign, but sometimes they can be a bit frightening. Being a Foreigner can make you a magnet to drunks or the insane who pick you out as something "different" like a shiny object, and they can't resist a closer look.



With enough caffeine to fuel a ride up the hill, we took off along the lower climbs of the Route 136.

There were several riders out on their heavy mountain bikes looking for a shot at the Route 136. Many of the mountain bikes are equipped with triple cranks and enough granny gear to hoist anyone over the 136. It was great to see so many riders out for the morning.




We soon split off from the 136 and started up the Route 100. I was expecting to feel worse than I did, but the legs kept coming back to me. Just after a few short climbs we crossed the bridge to the road up to Jiu Tong Shan.


The first ramp is a real spitter that jumps up from the riverbed and reminds the legs of the delicate nature of managing energy for a climb.

The scenery is more of that lush green that we are used to in Taiwan.


Dom spun his way up the paved track that was just wide enough for a car and a half.



The ride up consists of ramp after ramp of sustained climbing. In the heat and humidity it can feel like your chest is about to overheat and explode.




The road carries you up to a little wooden pavilion that makes a great spot to rest the legs. The spot sits above a valley that carries the echoing sound of screaming legs all the way back to Taiping. 

There is a fork in the road and they can both lead to the coffee shops at the top of the mountain. Either way is hard, but I seem to believe the way we did not take has to be easier. The left fork also leads to a road that goes to Chung-ho Village. 

Upon leaving the pavilion we mashed gears all the way up to another fork in the road where we stopped to contemplate our options with a few other riders. 



From that vantage point we could look out over Taichung City all the way to Changhua, Dajia and the coast. It was incredibly clear, but the promise of rain was beginning to fill the darkening sky behind us. 



The right fork looked more like a wall. To the great pleasure of everyone below, I took a run at it and threw myself into the climb. I made great progress before my cleat popped out and killed my momentum. I probably could have made it another 20 meters before giving up. The easier points on the climb hovered around 30% grade. There was no hope of staying on the bike for the duration. It seemed like it would never stopped. 


We hiked the rest of the way to where the road evened out. In the back of my mind I thought about the return along the same road. 

The top of the climb boasts a couple coffee shops to pick up a celebratory refreshment and a chance to view the greater Taichung area as a beautiful cityscape rather than the blight of urban chaos we are so used to seeing from the city. Coffee was a sobering NT$140. I guess they figure you'll be willing to pay anything for a refreshment after getting to the top.


Returning down to the main road was just as difficult as going up. It is easy for gravity to take over and pull the bike beyond the limit of the best braking systems. People who think disc brakes are overkill on a road bike have never ridden Taiwan. 



The way down to Chung-ho is a bit bumpy as the concrete is not very smooth. At one point I had to slow down just to see straight with the vibrations rattling my eyeballs loose. 



The whole ride was a great exercise in climbing and technical descending. 



After the climb up to Jiu Tong Shan, the switchbacks up to Hsin She seemed easy. We passed a group of seniors on a vigorous ride before fighting the wind back into town. 

  The descent from Hsin She was slowed by a cement truck, and then I was buzzed by a guy on a scooter who was trying to impress his girlfriend with how close he could come to me without hitting me. I later discovered that he was not interested in impressing her with his English. 

The entire ride was only about 60km, but the work out felt like almost double that. 

It was nice to have a good, fulfilling ride in the books by lunch time before the clouds and rain moved in. 

A great ride to practice climbing. 

Product Review: Tacx Lumos Lights and Continental Force

Tacx Lumos Bike Lights:



Like most people I work regular hours for a living and that means I have to do most of my serious training at night.

Taiwan can be a frustrating and dangerous place to ride during the day, and at night you have to be even more careful. Good lighting and visibility is essential to surviving each ride unscathed.

For the past several years I had been using a Cat Eye bar top mounted light with strobe and solid beams pairs with a couple of blinkeys on the back.

The worst thing about the Cat Eye was that several times during a ride, I would have to slow down and re adjust the strap to keep it from dangling or dropping off the bar completely. No matter how tight I would fasten the damned light, a little rough pavement or bump on a bridge, would send it illuminating my shoes.

I went into T-Mosaic and saw the Tacx bar end mounted lights and was intrigued. I finally broke down and bought them. After a few nights out with them, I think I like them pretty okay.

They are bright. They are solidly mounted to the bar ends and run on AA batteries. Each side shines front and rear with a blinker if you ever remember to use it. These are all good points.

I don't like the lack of a strobe. It is easy for me to imagine a vehicle misjudging my distance if they aren't sure way type of vehicle I am. I remember one foggy night I was driving through Sun Valley, Idaho. The road was covered in a dusting of snow and the highway covered in fog. I saw a bunch of lights up ahead and wondered what all those cars were doing up there. I suddenly realized that I was about to ram the back end of a semi trailer. The point is: Lights can be deceiving in the dark. A strobe is a good clue that you are a bike.

I am also trying to get used to having something beyond my normal bar ends. A couple times I have turned off the lights by resting my hands on the very ends of the bars.

The last quibble is that the AA batteries rattle when you hit any type of bump and it makes the ride a bit noisy.

My left light has quit working after maybe three night rides. It will turn on if I remove the light and jiggle the contacts, but that only lasts for a moment.

Overall, this COULD BE is a very good product for night owls. I still see lots of room for improvement. Better engineering would be a start. Remounting the button to the outside might be better. Adding a strobe function would make this product a easy choice if it can be robust enough to handle real world riding.

It feels like a beta product, but it is not ready for the consumer.

Update:

About 6 weeks ago I brought these lights back to my LBS. The owner was kind enough to send them in to have the engineers look at the problems. Nobody has heard back from Tacx. I was issued a new set on the LBS owner's dime.

When they break... I will be looking elsewhere.


Continental Force Tire:



I am still, and have been for a long time, a huge fan of the Continental 4000 GP tire. It is an excellent performance tire for racing and fast training.

Sadly, when my tire died, I had to face the fact that Taiwan is always in short supply of my trusty 4000 GP. The superior 25c model is even more scarce.

I needed a tire and went with the Continental Force. I chose the force for its performance profile, and for the fact that it is 24c. I thought this would be a good replacement when paired with the 23c 4000 GP on the front.

The tire feels very firm. At first it made my bike feel like one of those old alloy Cannondale biked of the 90s. After a while the tire felt very smooth and a very good roller with plenty of tack on the road.

I have not had it long enough to rate the wear, but so far, this is a very nice performance tire. Very racy.

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Cycling Tour of Taiwan Video

Here is a great little video of a couple of guys on a Round-Taiwan tour. They seem to have picked a pretty good route and taken the time to capture it on video. The sped-up effect is one of my personal favorites.

The Big Lie: Sun Moon Lake Cycling and Other Links

If you repeat a lie...

Taiwan Today had a recent article detailing the Merida cycling event at Sun Moon Lake. I made the observation that this event seemed suspiciously linked to a CNN-GO article and the Taiwan Tourism Bureau's desire to promote it. The Taiwan Today article actually and suspiciously mirrors and even quotes the CNN article's most erroneous statements, which I devoured in an earlier post HERE.

Sun Moon Lake, a natural alpine lake located in central Taiwan’s Nantou County, is surrounded by high forest mountains with stunning landscapes. The lake—named because its eastern part is round like the sun and its western part is narrow and long like a crescent moon—has been voted year after year by local and foreign visitors, including those from mainland China, as one of Taiwan’s must-see tourist spots.

Statistics from the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area Administration show that the number of visitors skyrocketed from 2.6 million in 2009 to 6.3 million in 2010, after the launch of a cable car service Dec. 28, 2009. The service became an instant hit as it offers a bird’s-eye view of the lake’s beauty in a relaxing 1.87-kilometer ride between the lake and the nearby Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village.

In 2011, the number of visitors declined slightly to 5.3 million. But the administrative office is confident that its efforts over the past few years in building a round-the-lake bikeway will soon spark another tourism boom, as hundreds and thousands of bicycle enthusiasts from around the world come flocking to the lake to indulge their passion for bicycling and soak in the beautiful local scenery.

The TT Article begins to look more like an attempt by Tourism Bureau underlings to toady up to their superiors.

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Also:

Bike Radar has an interesting piece that briefly mentions Taiwan. Sadly, the writer buys into the tired old Cold War tropes perpetuated by competing groups of Chinese nationalists in the CCP and the Kuomintang (KMT).

On a clear day you can see Taiwan from the coast. China and Taiwan are inextricably linked and their differences not so old as to be forgotten. Xiamen has a huge sign facing across the water that says ‘Two countries, one system’, essentially a declaration of friendship. Taiwan also has a sign, visible from Xiamen with binoculars, which says ‘Two countries, two systems’. Direct flights between the two places only began in the last two years, and there are many big military bases in the hills around Xiamen. Despite that, China and Taiwan are trade partners on a massive scale.

This is notion is purely the invention of the writer's own China fantasy. From Xiamen you might be able to see the island of Jinmen (Kinmen), which is under the administration of the Republic of China; the official name of the state governing Taiwan. Still, it is NOT Taiwan. This is a oft repeated misconception employed to create the illusion of closer geographic proximity and, in the hopes of Chinese nationalists, possibly closer political proximity. This same strategy was used by Japan's colonial government on Taiwan, which published maps of Taiwan to include Mt. Fuji and the Home Islands resting just on the northern horizon.

Moreover, the idea that Taiwan and China are "inexorably linked" is a simple construct that stands as firm as the claim that Taiwan is inexorably linked to Japan, The United States, The Netherlands, the Balkans, the Azores or any other location. It all depends on subjectivities and how you wish to politicize them.  

The repetition of these flimsy ideas are maddening. I wish it would stop.

And:

• Mark Caltonhill has written a wonderfully detailed piece on cycling the Rift Valley. If you are considering biking Taiwan's lovely East Coast, give this a read.

• Here are Dom's pictures from our trip across the Northern Cross Island Highway. 

• Paul Sharpe has just started putting his pictures and write-up on his trip around Taiwan a couple months back. Wonderful photos. Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... with more to come. If you are considering biking around Taiwan, check this out.