BMC

I'm excited to announce that Pro Cycle & Triathlon will be dealing BMC bicycles. I have been a huge fan for years and I've wanted to carry it in the past. BMC is known for cutting edge technology and is manufactured is Switzerland.

Try not to get too excited with the video below.

We have our location!

Well here it is, our wonderful location.

This morning we nailed down the details and the building is ours. When we dreamed of this shop we knew we needed a spectacular location. This location was mentioned to us and once we checked it out we knew it was the winner. We had checked out a few other buildings in town and shopped around quite a bit. We have been going through the process since October and now its a done deal/ We are excited to have this building and excited to get the shop moving more and more foreword.

Pro Cycle & Triathlon is located at 510 Fairhope Avenue at the corner of Fairhope Ave and Brown St. We wanted to be close to downtown Fairhope but not so close that client parking would be an issue.

The location is PERFECT for group rides. Its convenient but more important is that its safe. We have a few more things to the building that I will mention in the near future to make it a great cycling hub.

Our build out will start very soon. We have had a few contractors come through and give us quotes and ideas. We have our floor plans nailed down so its just a matter time until the dream comes true.

BikeFit Pro day 2

Yesterday was day 2 of BikeFit Pro school. I was able to take pictures this time around since I wasn't the test subject. The picture below is a PowerPoint presentation on my fitting from the previous day.We spent the morning analyzing my fit from yesterday and discussing triathlon fit. We discussed the reasons for the way we fit triathletes and how to do it perfect.

We had a few local triathletes come in to be fit. We went through the full process with interviewing all the way to foot/knee/pedal alignment. The test subjects were shocked by the results.

Like most cyclist and triathletes they had the usual pains and aches in the beginning. There is absolutely no reason to feel and pain on a bicycle. People think this is normal and accept it.

Pictured above is our test subject without any foot/knee/pedal alignment. Now above is the test subject with proper cleat placement cleat wedges and proper insoles. He feels more solid and fluid in his pedal stroke. We didn't just convince him that its right either, hes a chiropractor himself and he saw the light and felt the difference. It was fun to resolve his issues.

Above is Katie. She has had some serious alignment issues in the past. Years of injury and surgeries have knocked here hips and feet out of whack. She has even tried out many different shoes and insoles from many different brands in the past. We assessed her feet and legs and figured out how to wedge her feet.

Just to give some background on Katies fit situation. Katie has been fit by 4 different specialist in the past including me. Now that I was armed with the education and knowledge on pedal interface we were to try fixing her. Me and the class were able to apply it to Katie and we set her up on the bike.

Katie got to riding and was speechless. She was shocked and didn't have words for us. She felt phenomenal. She was beyond excited. Her feet felt solid on the pedals and her feet wouldn't go numb. We tossed out he current foot beds and put some new foot beds in.

After we finished with our hands-on fittings we had a final meeting and discussed what we do and asked and answered questions.

So far, this is the best bicycle fitting school I have attended. I have a few more fit schools on my schedule. Paul Swift, Katrina Vogel and the rest of the BikeFit Pro crew do a fine job. I left completely satisfied. I cant wait to apply these new fit methods.

BikeFit Pro day 1

So last night Katie and I made the drive to Covington, LA to attend the BikeFit Pro school. This school travels the world so I was thrilled when I found that it happening so close to home.

This school is taught by Paul Swift and Katrina Vogel. Those in the cycling world might recognize the names since Paul Swift is an 8 time national champion on the velodrome and Katrina Vogel writes articles for Velonews and has PT PhD's etc.

Paul was the first to develop the cleat wedge for cycling. You can find his products in every serious bicycle fitting business. Just to name a few folks using his product: the Mapei Sports Center, Dr. Andy Pruit, grand tour winners and 40 riders in the years Tour de France. Cleat wedges are needed for most people, the running industry makes tons of shoes for people that address this issue but the cycling shoe industry does not. I never used cleat wedges on myself or past clients but I will be doing it for now on. I was told that these products could cause great harm if not used properly, that's one of the main reasons I came to Paul Swift, he developed the cleats wedges and is the leading expert.

Like most fit schools I've been to, we spent the morning going over the basics of fit. BikeFit Pros speciality is shoe/pedal interface. Shoe/pedal interface is the most important aspect of bike fitting. Making this adjustment can effect everything from your foot up to your mid-back.





Today I was the test subject or lab rat. I brought my one of my bikes over and got set up. We went through the interview process and did the pre-fit. Overall I was close, I don't fit myself because fitting yourself to your own bike is kind of like cutting your own hair. Even Paul Swift has an assistant fit him.

I've been having some knee issues and always had a hot spot on the outside of my right foot. We sat me down and measured my foot angles. Sure enough I had a steeper angle on my right foot. We make the calculations and properly wedged my cleats. We used the laser to align my feet and knees, much better than methods I've used in the past. We added 3 of the 1 degree wedges to both of my shoes.

I got back on my bike and the results were shocking. Immediately I felt a huge difference. I felt all of the pressure spread across my foot, I had been compensating for this over the years but now everything made sense.

Overall today was a solid addition to the foundation I already had with professional bike fitting. I'm pretty thrilled to have the proper education to work with cleat wedges and I'm looking foreward to showing people how great they can be.

Tomorrow we will go through a ton of hands-on fittings with random cyclist and finish our BikeFit Pro education.

We are your FOCUS dealer!

We just got confirmation that Pro Cycle & Triathlon will be representing Germany's Focus Bicycles. Its exciting news for all.

Though Focus is new and somewhat unknown to the North American market they are quite big in Europe. One thing that caught my attention is that all of their production takes place in Cloppenburg, Germany which is known for is manufacturing quality and precision world wide. If you keep up with professional cycling you might have noticed Team Milram riding Focus and now Team Katusha, Jelly Belly and Vanderkitten women's team.

Focus brand really caught my eye when I stopped by their booth at Interbike last year and they were one of my first choices when we started planning the shop. I'm glad that Focus decided to jump on board with us.

I'll keep you filled in as more things unfold. For now check them out at http://www.focus-bikes.com/

Making the connections

We are steadily getting our ducks in a row. We have now started contacting the vendors and reps we want to deal with.
Its fun to call the reps I have dealt with over the years and tell them the news. Overall I have gotten a very positive response, one rep even wants to stay in Fairhope and help us paint and set up shop.
We have had a good idea on what lines we want to represent so obviously we have made contact and patiently waiting for confirmation. I have even had some surprises from brands I wasn't expecting to show interest. I cant name names yet but as I find out I will be updating the blog.

Where was Joseph working while transitioning?

During my transition I was working 2 jobs. I worked at Lyons Share Art & Custom Frame Gallery and I was doing bike repairs.




Working in a fine art gallery/custom frame shop was a cool experience. The small staff is awesome and made everyday at work an enjoyable one, can't beat that. I never thought I would find myself working in a frame shop but I enjoyed the experience. I learned a lot and met a ton of interesting people.

Lyons Share is located in the heart of downtown Fairhope, this helped me decide to locate Pro Cycle & Triathlon close to downtown Fairhope. Fairhope has a community atmosphere that I have rarely seen in the country, its the perfect area for our shop and we are excited to be there.

My other job I ended up doing was repairing bikes. As I was making my transition I had a ton of people ask if I would still work on their bikes. That accidentally started my living room bike repair operation.

I never intended on this service getting big, at one point I counted 17 bikes in my house. I was doing everything from flat repairs to complete bike builds. I stayed quite busy picking up and dropping off bikes. Luckily I will have a proper area to do bike service soon once we get the shop rolling.

Our quest for the perfect location

It looks like we will have our location nailed down in the next week or so. We have looked at a few options. We have done endless hours of number crunching and working with some experts (Jason... local legend/hero/guy who knows the local real estate market). This afternoon we will be looking thorugh the buildings with some contractors figuring out what needs to be done. I will say that all of the locations are within throwing distance of downtown Fairhope and great starting places for rides.

We are on Twitter

If you are looking for more frequent updates then its a good idea to follow us on Twitter.

Check us out! http://twitter.com/procycletri

Shop dog

Meet Cipollini (Chip). Every respectable business needs a dog on staff, we are no exception. Katie ran across him at a pet adoption last week and couldn't resist. He will perform many important task at the shop like greeting clients, looking handsome and just being a friendly guy. The salary negotiations were intense but he agreed to a lifelong contract and payment in bones and raw hides. Come on by and meet Chipollini!